Wii Sports world record holder for bowling is 85 years old

You better stay off John Bates's lawn because when it comes to gaming, he can really kick your ass... in WiiSports, at least. The 85-year-old retired school principal has been recognized as the best Wii bowling player in the world.

Bates has officially been honored with a Guinness World Record for the greatest number of perfect games in the bowling mini-gamein Wii Sports. In the span of about 18 months, he scored the flaw-free 300 points a total of 2,850 times.

The senior citizen gamer says he is ambidextrous and can play with both hands. So we can only imagine he switched hands every other game to stay limber. 2,850 is a lot of games, and that doesn't even count the number of times he may have missed just one pin.

Bates says he first started playing Wii Bowling at a friend's house in 2008. He must have been a natural because it was shortly thereafter that his six-month-long record-setting run began. He also belongs to a real-life bowling league.

We'd guess he could also take the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to have a video game related Guinness World Record, but that's not one of Guinness's records.

[Source:AP via ABC]

Jan 24, 2011

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