Review Insights · App Store
PBA® Bowling Challenge
Concrete Software, Inc. · 130,657 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
130,657 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 43 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
27 negative reviews mention this · 63% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads. Was one of my favorite mobile games for the longest time, just got on an now its an ad after every single game… thanks for selling out! Literally was my favorite solely because I didn’t have to worry about pop ups or ads." - Lityliam21
2
"every"
15 negative reviews mention this · 35% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads. Was one of my favorite mobile games for the longest time, just got on an now its an ad after every single game… thanks for selling out! Literally was my favorite solely because I didn’t have to worry about pop ups or ads." - Lityliam21
3
"play"
13 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI and the Oil Patterns. Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the o…" - Plentyofjacks66
4
"games"
9 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads. Was one of my favorite mobile games for the longest time, just got on an now its an ad after every single game… thanks for selling out! Literally was my favorite solely because I didn’t have to worry about pop ups or ads." - Lityliam21
5
"long"
9 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads. Was one of my favorite mobile games for the longest time, just got on an now its an ad after every single game… thanks for selling out! Literally was my favorite solely because I didn’t have to worry about pop ups or ads." - Lityliam21
6
"bowling"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI and the Oil Patterns. Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the o…" - Plentyofjacks66
7
"money"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI and the Oil Patterns. Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the o…" - Plentyofjacks66
8
"balls"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI and the Oil Patterns. Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the o…" - Plentyofjacks66
9
"played"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI and the Oil Patterns. Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the o…" - Plentyofjacks66
10
"every game"
6 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Ads…. Been playing forever. The game now has too many ads. The ads take a minute to get rid off and happen after every game. It takes a minute to finish a game. It is now 50% game 50% ads. Ridiculous." - team7822
11
"ball"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI and the Oil Patterns. Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the o…" - Plentyofjacks66
12
"years"
5 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "AI and the Oil Patterns. Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the o…" - Plentyofjacks66
📋 All 43 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
AI and the Oil Patterns
Any event games especially the daily, are worthless to play more. Each and everytime in any of the events by the time you get to either the third, second to the last game, or the last game of each event, the AI becomes unbeatable, and the oil patterns get so slick your not able to control any of the three bowling balls that are offered in any event. But the AI using the worse ball still able to throw 11 or 12 strikes in those games. Get rid of the oil patterns if you're not going to make these event fair. You're making enough advertising money on this, and profit off this, because you haven't had an overhaul of any kind to this game, since you added those Elite events. That was what 8 or 9 years ago. There should be actual compliance audits each year on these software companies and their app games. But since there's no actual regulations to oversee the abuse in gameplay, and a limitations on how many ads can be seen based on game play, or time played to not have to view ads(that are 30 to 60min minimum), every minute(how long one game last).
Awful Oil Pattern
The Shark Oil Pattern sucks
Good, but….
Ads make this game unplayable
ads
the game is almost unplayable with the amount of unskippable/playable ads you have to run through
Too many ads
Greedy CEOs pump ads into everything. Purchases only get rid of ads for 30 days. They want to suck every last bit of fun out of the game with the amount of ads they put.
Awful ads and cheap misleading in game currency generation
I can play two games then I gotta wait an hour before I can play two more is dumb
Out of touch and money hungry developers.
I guess these developers have no reading comprehension skills. People want to pay a one time fee to remove the adds. Paying to remove them for 30 days is money hungry and deceptive. There are plenty of other bowling games with shorter adds or an option to remove them with a one time.
Once was fun
Down hill quick. Commercials have taken over this site. Too long between games. Big disappointment. Bill
Not enough interest to play.
Not enough interest to play.
AI is way too hard sometimes
You’d better not have an open frame, because you have no chance to win, period. Forget it. Might as well forfeit. In the later rounds of tournaments, you’d better bowl 300 or damn close to it, or you will lose. Eleven strikes and one 10-pin leave equals 279, which means you will probably lose in later rounds because the AI will bowl 300 or will be on pace for 300 and finish in the 280s or 290s. Frustrating to the max.
Insane amount of adds
Played this game years ago and it wouldn’t allow me to load my old game data. After every match is a forced add it’s just way too much for absolutely no reward.
Money hungry
Horrible. Constant ads, energy system so you can’t play for long before you need to buy more energy and ultimately spend money just to play. Horrible app
Tired
Tired of the SUPER LONG casino ads. Game used to be great with the ads that ran 30 seconds at most. These three minutes gambling ads are annoying.
Overwhelming Ads
This game would be fun, however the number of ads between matches is insane. Some ads are videos that are 1-2 minutes long, and it completely takes away from the fun of the game. For this reason, I would absolutely NOT recommend.
Love the game but the ads
Love the game but the ads are killing it for me
Ads after EVERY multiplayer game!
Who said anything about bugs? Did you even read my complaint?! Again, all of the ads between Multiplayer matches are just Too Much! Let us enjoy the competition without ruining it with lengthy ads which really screw up any rhythm or flow from one game to the next. You have ads everywhere in this app - maybe give us a break in Multiplayer at least?
Developer Response:
Hello,We're working to look into and fix bugs in the game.
Complaint:
This game has always been ridiculous with the number of ads, not to mention the length of each ad. I spend more time watching ads than I do Bowling. The latest greedy move by Concrete is to make us watch ads between EVERY single Multiplayer game! It is hard to get into any kind of flow against another human opponent for a handful of games. Now, most of the time when I get back from that stupid ad, my opponent has grown tired of waiting and has left Multiplayer. There is just no way to get into the rhythm of multiplayer now with all of these ads. The developer needs to find a different way to get their money without disappointing their long-time and loyal customers. :<
Developer Response:
Hello,We're working to look into and fix bugs in the game.
Complaint:
This game has always been ridiculous with the number of ads, not to mention the length of each ad. I spend more time watching ads than I do Bowling. The latest greedy move by Concrete is to make us watch ads between EVERY single Multiplayer game! It is hard to get into any kind of flow against another human opponent for a handful of games. Now, most of the time when I get back from that stupid ad, my opponent has grown tired of waiting and has left Multiplayer. There is just no way to get into the rhythm of multiplayer now with all of these ads. The developer needs to find a different way to get their money without disappointing their long-time and loyal customers. :<
Ads…
Been playing forever. The game now has too many ads. The ads take a minute to get rid off and happen after every game. It takes a minute to finish a game. It is now 50% game 50% ads. Ridiculous.
TOO MANY ADS
Way too many ads , after every game is annoying much rather play a different one with less click ads
Fun game. Too many ads.
I like this game a lot. Have played it off and on fr at least 7 years. And the early stages were fun. The farther you get, the harder it gets to beat your computer opponents, who sometimes bowl near perfect games.
That’s ok. I wanted a challenge close to real life.
HOWEVER (and this is big): The amount of ads and length of ads, make this game almost unplayable. You can bowl a full game (all 10 frames) in just a couple minutes. Then you have to sit through a bunch of ridiculous ads. That literally last as long as the round you just played. This messes up the rhythm of the game. And makes you want to just uninstall this game and never play again…
That’s ok. I wanted a challenge close to real life.
HOWEVER (and this is big): The amount of ads and length of ads, make this game almost unplayable. You can bowl a full game (all 10 frames) in just a couple minutes. Then you have to sit through a bunch of ridiculous ads. That literally last as long as the round you just played. This messes up the rhythm of the game. And makes you want to just uninstall this game and never play again…
Won’t let me play
I can spin daily, then when I try to play an event, it closes. Had a 1000+ streak going and that is gone because of not being able to play.
Ads
What’s with the ads after every game ?? I used to play every day .. I stopped because of the ads .. I won’t play with ads after every game
Garbage
Horrible app, don’t play it.
Ad after every round, ruins fun
No option to remove ads, monetized heavily otherwise.
Should remove the ads during play; make money from your paid unlocks; or remove the paid unlocks … and give the players valuable resources for every ad watched. Pins and tickets for sitting through disgusting ads every 15-20 throws.
5 star game if they weren’t so greedy. 1 star game because of excessive greed. Make money, sure, but respect the player, we are real humans.
Should remove the ads during play; make money from your paid unlocks; or remove the paid unlocks … and give the players valuable resources for every ad watched. Pins and tickets for sitting through disgusting ads every 15-20 throws.
5 star game if they weren’t so greedy. 1 star game because of excessive greed. Make money, sure, but respect the player, we are real humans.
Not Happy
My cloud storage was supposed to be backed up. I lost access to it for a couple days and now I am back at level 1 and lost more than half the bowling balls I paid for! I can’t seem to get them back. Bunch of money wasted!
Antiquated
The game engine needs to be updated.
Ads are too aggressive
I understand needing ads to generate revenue, but the ads here are too frequent and long. Uninstalled.
Ads
Was one of my favorite mobile games for the longest time, just got on an now its an ad after every single game… thanks for selling out! Literally was my favorite solely because I didn’t have to worry about pop ups or ads.
It’s ok but laggy
I was doing multiplayer and it kept freezing
Loss of built up credits.
I want to know why all of my built up credits disappeared?
Great game but lost account
I had so much fun playing this game spent a few dollars. Didn’t play for a month or 2 got back on it and my account was gone. i used facebook to sign in and it reset everything.
Badger
I know in real life the badger oil pattern is known for its extreme difficulty. But it’s just not even fun….
Issues
I love this game and have played it for years. The last week, all the games does is crash. I can’t play it.
ADS
very disappointing soooo many ads after last 2 updates not enjoying as much anymore again more updates more adds have too find another game
Fun game…
Been on this game for quite awhile now. Always had fun with it. But it is nothing but ads now. Soon enough there will be an ad after every shot.
Stop with the ads!!!!!!!!
Please stop with the ads after every game. They are prohibitive to the experience. So annoying. Was never like this before. STOP THEM NOW!!!
It’s not intuitive.
Well, I tried again. I don’t even know how to get the ball to go.
Ranking system
I just downloaded this game two days ago and I’m getting matched up with people that have top tier balls. A new player like myself shouldn’t get matched with players that bowl 300 every game because their balls are maxed out and I’m still sitting here with the basic ball.
Mid game at best
I have played this game for a long while and really enjoyed however once I got to the Elias cup the game became unplayable with it costing 1200 energy to play one round of the seven when my max energy capacity is 1700 is ridiculous. I bought the pete weber ball where you gain 50 energy per strike but that is just not enough also the more power you have on the ball the harder it is to strike. I have a max power ball and NEVER get strikes with it despite being 100k tickets. Finally the amount of ads are crazy I have seen other reviews where you bring up how you can get them removed but nobody wants to spend money on a virtual bowling game.
Gold pins zero every time I enter app.
Since June25, gold pins accumulate while still in app, but zero out when reentry to app. Was addicted to this game, until the last changes. Why waste my time with Events when you can’t accumulate gold pins. Tix that and this app is a 5 star app.
Need left/right hand option
I’m left handed and every ball curves like a right hand throw - frustrated
Game is now rigged
Played this game seriously many years ago and bowled many 300 games, I went to redownload it and lost all my purchases. So I repurchased some good balls and this game is definitely not the same. Too many splits and spares now.
Pins
Yall rigged the bowling pin and you don’t want people to all strike
Missing bowling balls
The game is still great, but I’m missing bowling balls that I purchased. One of which is still on my top 2 balls, now I can’t use it because it’s locked somehow.
ADS RUIN CONTINUITY
Ease up on ads till after tournament, your choice of running ads is ridiculous, cmon. We all know the balls available. Now we know every app you want us to try.
Do it after tournament, can you do that?
Do it after tournament, can you do that?
Sentiment summary
92%
Positive (4-5★)
5%
Neutral (3★)
3%
Negative (1-2★)