300

Wii Sports bowling has been one of the main family activities while I'm here at my parents' home. Unlike most other video games, my dad likes to play and can usually keep up with us kids. I suspect that's the main reason why he's all for playing it.

I'm fairly good at this particular game, but as with real bowling, my performance is subject to being off just a little here or just a little there. I was in a pretty good groove today. I'd won two of two games, with the latter concluding with eight straight strikes in a 268 game. Of course, when a new game started, that streak was essentially meaningless.

Yet there I was throwing strike after strike and feeling like I'd found the right rhythm. If I'd been doing this in real life, the tension definitely would have been increasing as I approached a perfect score of 300. As a virtual bowler I didn't have nearly as many pressures. All I needed to do was move my Mii's position to the same spot where I'd been putting it and maintaining the same throwing motion I'd been making. Easy enough.

About halfway through I just took it frame by frame, but the heat was undeniably on when it was apparent that rolling a 300 game was within reach. On my eleventh ball the ten pin wobbled and was slow to fall. For a second or two I could feel the disappointment start to seep in, but the pin fell, which left me with just one more strike to throw. I probably threw that last one harder than necessary--I felt a twinge--but all the pins went down.

Game playing with the family can be competitive, so I've been very pleased at achieving this feat, which can only be tied, never broken, by my dad or brothers. At least in video game bowling I am and will be the kingpin.