Motiv Jackal Legacy vs Forge Flare Bowling Ball Review

I want to spend some time doing the inevitable comparison of the Motiv Jackal Legacy and Forge Flare. Both have the same Coercion™ MXC Solid Reactive cover. The Jackal continues with the Predator V2 core while the Forge continues with the Detonator core. I think both of these cores are quite good. The Forge Flare really felt very strong when we tested it. My perspective is that it’s the strongest ball Motiv has ever released that still had strong backend. After testing the Jackal Legacy, I can say I still feel that the Forge Flare is a touch stronger. If anything, the Flare even feels a bit sharper and more asym like than the smoother Jackal Legacy. The Forge Flare tumbles with a little more forward roll off the end of the pattern. I would argue the cover is partly responsible but alas, the cover and finish are identical. With the Jackal Legacy I felt like I had more room to play with it. In other words, as I start left and keep moving right, I didn’t have to move as far right as the Forge Flare to get the Legacy to the pocket. But I could get just about as deep as the Flare and still carry. So to me, the Legacy is strong but more importantly, more versatile than the Forge Flare. The shapes are different but honestly it’s a little confounded that the sym Flare behaves a bit more asym than the smoother Legacy. Theoretically you can put both of these balls in the strong defined category but if you had both, right now, I might slot the flare as strong defined and Legacy as strong control. That on paper is going to confuse some. The Predator core is not the most assymetric core out there so that may explain some of the reason why the drilled assymetry of both balls could be comparable but the shape of the Detonator causes a bit more forward roll. It is not more obvious than when I throw them 2 handed. The Legacy was very difficult for me to get to the pocket simply because of how strong it is and how aggressive the transition felt so I had to force the issue by trying to roll it very forward with less axis rotation. That made it look even more forward. However, with the Jackal Legacy, I could throw it pretty much “normally” and get it to the pocket. I could easily see the Legacy as my strong defined ball for both 1-hand and 2-hand whereas the Forge Flare is probably not one I would keep in my 2-hand bag.

Alright, that’s what we have. Hopefully this gives you a better idea how these compare in case you want one or the other or both.