I never really got bowling until I reached the legal age to consume alcohol, so the new Sims 4 Stuff Pack, Bowling Night Stuff, wasn’t exactly up my alley (I’m sorry). When I dug into it, however, I found a few things I absolutely loved.
Bowling Night Stuff is a Stuff Pack that gives you a little over a dozen bowling themed assets. There’s new options in Create A Sim, and also a bowling alley you can add to Residential or Commercial lots. It’s the Build and Buy options that really shine, though, especially the furniture.
As a pretentious and precocious child I fell in love with movies from the 60s and the furniture found therein. When I grew up, I discovered that not only was my interest in Mid-Century Modern furniture not unique, but that I would never be able to own any because it’s all horrendously expensive. This new Sims 4 Stuff Pack lets me live out my dreams of hairpin legs and round-edged rectangles. I kid you not, when I found all the new Build and Buy options, I spent an hour making this bowling alley.
Everything except the stairs in this picture is from Bowling Night Stuff. I’m obsessed.
The furniture is not quite period accurate, but the tacky, over the top retroness not only looks amazing in my bowling alley (which I creatively named Bowling!), but meshes well with the other Stuff Packs and Expansion Packs I own. The Vintage Glamour Stuff Pack and the City Life Expansion pair particularly well with Bowling Night Stuff. I couldn’t help but wonder how awesome those coffee tables and couches would look in my sim’s apartment in San Muyshuno.
As for the actual bowling, it’s a nice excuse to get your sims out of the house, which is pretty much how I feel about it in real life. The animations are nice — especially the victory dances that sims do when they bowl a strike — but it’s not especially different from taking your sims out to the gym or to karaoke. In fact, it feels a little bit less interactive that either of those activities. You click the alley and watch them bowl. It was a good chance to grab a glass of water, at least.
Still, if you are even mildly interested in making a tacky bowling alley, Bowling Night Stuff comes with all the necessary bells and whistles. You can even set the lanes to “moonlight bowling” mode:
If you’re really interested in having you sims bowl, you were probably going to get this anyway. I can’t help but think you might be a little disappointed on that front if that’s the goal. If you’re really jazzed to watch your sims cycle through a few different bowling themed animations, go for it! However, the furniture, wallpaper and general clutter isn’t so bowling-centric that it won’t mesh well with your other packs. I can’t wholeheartedly recommend Bowling Night Stuff, but goddamn do I ever love the bowling alley I made.
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