Who needs a Nintendo Wii when you’ve got an iPhone? The Social Gaming Network, which released a Wii-like golfing game for the iPhone two weeks ago, has now followed up with a bowling game. As with iGolf (which has already been downloaded more than 900,000 times), iBowl uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect a player’s swing. You can twist your wrist to give the ball spin or direct it to the pins.
SGN is better known for its games on social networks like Facebook and MySpace. iBowl is free and you can challenge your friends to games. But there does not seem to be much of a social component besides that. Not that it needs one. Becoming the Wii of the iPhone is probably a big enough opportunity in its own right. But it would be cool if you could somehow challenge your friends Facebook or other platforms to play the same game, much like Mytopia does with casual games. Although, it probably wouldn’t be the same without the accelerometer.
That’s what’s so great about the iPhone as a gaming platform. It is not just a handheld computer that you can run games on, it’s the physical controller as well.