A fun game that tests your knowledge of math at the speed of flying arrows!

Arrow Fest is one of those games within a new genre that capitalizes on lazy Unity Engine models running on generic, blank, texture-less scenarios. These types of graphics normally make me cringe but, in this instance, for some reason, I’m not too bothered. I’m not sure whether that has to do with the moderately pleasant color palette or the somewhat decent backdrops that the game sometimes throws at the player.

I still would have wished that the guys at Rollic Games were more enthusiastic about fleshing out the character models a bit more, but the visuals have some redeeming qualities. 

Arrow Fest’s gameplay is compelling and quite challenging. You start your adventure with one arrow and, as they increase in count, you must guide them through the walls with the correct multipliers and operations to pierce as many enemies as they encounter in their path. 

As you advance, you’ll be able to participate in a variety of other challenges. One of them consists of collecting as many coins as possible while traversing curvy corridors at high speed, likewise choosing multipliers, addends, subtrahends, and divisors in the interim. 

Occasionally, you’ll also encounter a group of green stickmen guarding a treasure chest that you must chase. These are not particularly hard to take down at first but the distance between math problems will get narrower and your reaction times will be put to the test as you progress.

To make matters worse, some of these problems are contained in moving walls that could catch you off-guard. You must try to evade them if they reduce your arrow count or try to trespass them if they increase it (though you already knew that, of course!)

The path also gets curvier and curvier, oftentimes hindering your line of sight. The difficulty curve (no pun intended) gets steep, but there have been no drastic difficulty spikes during my playthrough. Nonetheless, there were moments when I thought the math problems were just impossible to discern in such little time and that there were elements of pure luck at play.

In my whole playthrough, I was only able to reach the final “boss” twice or three times but, to a great extent, it was through my own fault since I forgot to upgrade my arrow level (which you can do with the coins you earn from watching the ads and collecting them as you play).

About those ads, this game made the smart move of giving you an incentive to watch them by granting reward multipliers. Most games would shove those ads down your throat upon losing a level or even upon completing it regardless of the outcome. But you may argue that you’d need those coins anyways if you wished to have more successful runs (which is kinda true) but this is not readily apparent. Honestly, I’ve seen way worse monetization tactics in this space.

Remember how I lamented that the character models were subpar? Well, it actually gets a bit better when you meet the final bosses. Not only are the bosses a lot better-looking, but you’ll also meet the archer himself, who also has a very flashy design. 

Alas, once I reached the boss rooms, I was unsure about what I was supposed to do. Then it dawned on me that, once my arrows were spent, I had to actually exit the area and do another run to collect more “ammo”. However, the game didn’t spell this out for me at first, so how was I supposed to know? 

Anyways, I then had to activate some cannons by spending coins and the ammo I accrued, which would trigger shots towards the giants to deplete their health. 

I must admit that, when I first encounter these giants, I was pleasantly surprised, but I found the combat mechanic a bit gimmicky and bland. It didn’t require as much skill as the main levels and it was mostly reduced to stepping onto some indicators on the floor at your lease. 

Verdict

Arrow Fest was one of those great games that were sandwiched between underwhelming moments. I was a bit unimpressed at the beginning. Then, the game smacked me in the face with very unexpected and exciting surprises, only to slightly let me down some minutes later. Notwithstanding, I’d still encourage you to try it out yourself!

You can leave me your thoughts about this review (or this game) in the comments!