OK I imagine Purple Hammer aficionados may not worry too much but those wanting to throw Storm and wanting that shape have been more or less out of luck. The pitch black is still around but it’s not quite the Purple Hammer. The Level comes along and given what we saw in our tests, it immediately made me think we need to look at these next to each other. Then why not also show the IQ Tour 78U alongside being the other “urethane” in the Storm lineup.

Straight away let’s address the similarities. All balls have the same finish for testing and therefore all start early. The most obvious thing is it doesn’t matter which ball, if you start too square in the dry, none of these 3 hold line at least on this medium/light fresh walled house shot. So getting that out of the way, let’s talk Level vs Purple Hammer. The simplest way to describe the difference is the Purple is a touch cleaner and a touch more angular. Pretty simple really. So pretty close in lines. For me, I had to move in a bit with the Purple as it had a bit more defined shape and covered more boards. For me, it’s almost like the Level is a solid version of the purple hammer. A little more control if you will so if you want a little less downlane angle, the Level is an option. These nuances matter sometimes for carry like for me I don’t have the rev rate to open up urethane a bunch and still carry so if I can’t hold pocket, I need a different ball. Now on to the 78U and again, you see the controlled shape but a lot more arcy overall. Very little backend motion. It’s very even throughout the lane. Easy to find the pocket but have to straddle closer to the wall of friction and if I get it there too soon, it’s brooklyn. If I move in just a smidge it hits with lots of deflection. Yet I still loved the pocket control. Just wouldn’t make sense in a high scoring environment.

I’ll say the experience was pretty similar regardless of style bowler. Tyler and I saw almost identical behavior between the Storm Level and Purple Hammer. Level is a touch earlier and smoother. The IQ Tour 78U is clearly less ball which moves you closer to the friction wall but you can’t be on top of it. Bryan was more or less on the same line with the Level and Purple. But same thing. Due to the slightly added length, the Purple was high flush in slight pulls in. The Level just goes a bit high. The 78U is more tricky for Bryan because he’s already close to the friction but the 78U doesn’t have much in the way of backend. So it’s soft and then when he moves right into the friction, it overhooked because it started at his feet. There wasn’t much of a sweet spot, more of a sweet board.

Big picture, I think the Storm Level feels like a solid version of the Purple Hammer. In the same vein. So if Storm makes a Pearl Level, now what?? Curious but I think the Level is a very interesting addition, something a little different than the me too balls.