Bowmasters

What could possibly a psychotic French mime, a tipsy Santa Clause, a Canadian lumberjack, and an unemployed magician in a white-n-pink suit have in common? An unstoppable thirst for the bloodshed of course!

Since Angry Birds took the world’s mobile gaming community by storm, a great number of game developers tried to repeat their success.

Bowmaster, although obviously inspired by the Finnish bestseller, attempts to rethink the slingshot-game genre and I gotta admit there’s something catchy about how they do it.

Visuals

Mortifyingly cruel violence had never been cuter - you can have my word on it. We have a squadron of picturesque and memorable characters in the game. We have blood splatters and “mutilation animation”. We have changing locations with animated backgrounds. And there’s a load of thinly veiled pop-culture references.

The enthusiasm for grim violence that the characters show during the game is just endearing. The same goes for the weaponry they apply. I wonder what force could stop you from giggling/facepalming at the thought of a pyromaniac fireman, who throws Molotovs as projectiles at his enemies.

All in all the game looks like Angry Birds under a heavy influence of Monty Python’s sketches. It’s bizarre, bloodthirsty, and quirky fun, with smooth graphics and physics.

The core of the Bowmaster

Fortunately, it’s not just another lousy Angry Birds clone. As I said earlier, the creators tried to rethink the aging slingshot-genre and I guess they managed to find a couple of unique gimmicks.

First of all – you can’t see your opponent when aiming. That means you gotta be extremely careful while adjusting the trajectory, angle, and force of the shot. And that is a delightful idea. While playing you unwittingly improve your visual memory, abstract thinking, and intuition! Not that bad for a time-killer app.

The two things that really enchanted me during my first blood-soaked session with the Bowmaster were:

• An adorable agony of a wounded foe.
• The Mortal Kombat references!

Every time your opponent gets to the zero HP mark and starts wobbling, you hear a bossy voice encouraging you to finish him. In case you manage to sling a javelin (a magic card, Thor’s hammer, etc.) directly at your adversary at this moment, there will be a grotesquely cruel “fatality” with his body exploding. In addition to unlimited fun, you’ll earn some extra gold coins.
Speaking of coins. They allow you to unlock new characters one by one – 50 of them in total - without any real money investments. Which is quite generous.

You have at your disposal the following game modes:

• Play against the CPU – prove your superiority to artificial intelligence.
• Defeat your friend – play on the single device turn-by-turn.
• Bird Hunt – makes your finger agile.
• Apple shooting.

Sadly the online PVP is still under construction which is heartbreaking.

Controls

Mechanics of the game aren’t any different from those of Angry Birds, except you cannot see your target all the time. It’s really smooth and easy to master. As a sweet bonus, you can activate a special attack – tap on the screen while your weapon is still in motion and see what’ll happen.

The Sentence

As for the rest, I genuinely enjoyed Bowmaster and it definitely stays on my tablet. Until I take an arrow in the knee.