A frustrating puzzle platform game

Bowling Over It is a puzzle platform game where the player controls a bowling ball through a surreal game world in search of bowling pins to knock over. The puzzles are physics-based, and the player must time their movements to roll and land where they need to be.

This game is one of the latest in a trend of frustratingly difficult physics-based puzzle games that includes games like Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy and Golfing Over It With Alva Majo, both of which are cited as an inspiration for this game by the developer.

Guide a bowling ball to the top

The premise of Bowling Over It is that the player is controlling a bowling ball that they must help reach the peak of the game world. In order to do this, the ball must roll and jump its way through a series of platforms and odd shapes, trying to avoid falling as they do.

Unforgiving difficulty

If the ball does fall, it can potentially fall all the way back to the bottom, and the player will have to start over. However, it is possible for the ball to land on platforms that are not quite as far down. There are also additional challenges, such as negotiated areas where gravity is changed and finding pins to knock over.

A challenging but unoriginal game

Bowling Over It uses a tried-and-tested formula for its puzzles but doesn’t do anything original on top of the games cited as its inspiration. On top of that, many players have complained that the puzzles are too difficult in an unfair way, with a poor balance between difficulty and potential solutions being struck.