If you’ve ever been bowling, you’re probably seen your fair share of weird animations that play every time you roll a ball. Bowling alley videos have an unmistakable low-budget aesthetic that’s surreal and just a bit unsettling. Who hasn’t wanted to smash a TV after throwing a gutter ball and getting mocked by creepy, sentient pins?
Well, now you can live out that very specific revenge fantasy thanks to Sparedevil. Quietly released on Steam last week, Sparedevil is a an arcade-style first-person shooter that puts players in the center of a bowling alley animation. It’s a bizarre concept, but one that transcends its gimmick thanks to satisfying shooting (or bowling, rather) and quick rounds that feel especially built for Steam Deck. It’s not the most sophisticated game, but I can’t put it down.
If you’re familiar with Devil Daggers, then you should know exactly what to expect here. Sparedevil builds on that shooter’s minimalist formula by throwing players in an arena full of enemies and seeing how long they can survive while racking up a high score. Its $12 price tag reflects its limited scope, as it’s meant to be a quick blast of arcade fun that only requires a few minutes of commitment per round. It’s a perfect portable game to have on deck at all times.
While that’s a familiar setup, Sparedevil elevates it with a well-implemented bowling system. Instead of using a gun, players toss a bowling ball that can be charged up for extra power. The most basic enemies that spawn onto the field are pins in a traditional triangle formation. If players knock them all down in a strike, they gain a laser charge that can quickly vaporize fiercer enemies. It all works surprisingly well, which is perhaps more a testament to how fundamentally enjoyable bowling is. Hucking a ball and scattering pins, with a loud clatter to emphasize the impact, just triggers some innate satisfaction.
Developer Sludge Pipe Games doesn’t just go all-in on bowling with its fine-tuned shooting; it has a blast bringing the lo-fi weirdness of an alley TV screen to life. All enemies are crude 3D models, from pins with smug faces to angry dynamite sticks that pogo around the arena. Some of are seriously creepy, like a supersized pin with a clown face that spits up smaller pins (it can only be defeated by tossing a ball into its mouth). When the action heats up and the arena fills with enemies, it’s a hectic circus powered by nightmare fuel.
Yes, it’s all a little one-note. Sparedevil is shallow by design, with easy to learn shooting that has only a few nuances thanks to some aerial movement techniques. There are only a handful of enemies with consistent patterns. The arena, a round room seemingly floating above hell, never changes. And yet, that’s all I really need from it. It’s all simple and fast enough that I’m always down to play another quick round and see if I can set a new high score on its (currently very meager) online leaderboards. The key to success is to never stop bowling, chaining together shots as quickly as possible to keep my score multiplier high. Its the kind of frenetic action I crave from time to time, all wrapped up in a truly ludicrous concept.
If you need a new Steam Deck game that you can reliably break out anytime to fill some short gaps, Sparedevil is worth a curiosity purchase. Its bizarre art should be enough to draw you in, but there’s a good chance you’ll wind up sticking around longer than you think once you feel the adrenaline rush that comes every time you land a strike on a roaming pack of pins. Take that, you 3D creeps.
Sparedevil is available now on Steam.
