A charming pixel game with Mortal Kombat-inspired violence, Bowmasters is all about mastering your aim. Angle your bow, set your power, and shoot your opponents with bows, hammers, javelins, chainsaws, and more.

Bowmasters Description

If you’ve ever played Worms, you’ll be right at home in Bowmasters. In Bowmasters, you control a single archer who’s placed on a hilly battlefield. You and an opponent take turns aiming your bows at each other. Drag a cursor to set your angle, adjust your power to give your shot the right arc, and let your arrows rip. Each arrow will deal damage to your opponent's health bar based on where the arrow lands. Headshots will massively increase your damage, enabling you to win in fewer shots. Make your opponent run out of health to perform a stylish finisher and win the round!

Bowmasters features an interesting indie art style that combines colorful pixel graphics and over the top blood and violence. Each successful hit sends blood and body parts flying, with headshots often revealing your opponents’ skulls. Don’t worry – even if you’re visibly injured with parts of your face on the floor, you’ll be able to aim and shoot fine until your health runs out. The violence seems very much inspired by Mortal Kombat games, all the way down to an announcer who says “finish him” and “fatality” as you perform your kill sequence. It’s cartooney and nonsensical enough that the game is probably fine for most kids, but you might want to check out these sequences yourself before you decide whether the game is right for your family.

While Bowmasters might seem like it’s a game all about bows, it’s not uncommon to see no bows at all while you play the game. Each character has their own signature weapon that has its own properties. Thor throws hammers that erupt with lightning when they land, Terrance throws chainsaws, Mancat throws catarangs that explode, and so on and so forth. The different properties on these weapons reward different types of throws. Weapons that explode after they land benefit from rolling towards your opponent, while things like javelins need to be precisely aimed at your opponent's head. This means that each character has a bit of a learning curve and enables you to experience the game differently.

Characters can be unlocked via in-game currency. If you don’t intend to spend any money on Bowmasters, you’ll have to do a good bit of grinding and watch a ton of ads in order to unlock all of the characters you want. The ads can get incredibly annoying, fast. If you think you’re a fan of Bowmasters, do yourself a favor and purchase the (fairly inexpensive) package that turns off ads forever early on in your journey to save yourself from hours of annoying advertisements.

As far as gameplay itself goes, Bowmasters overstays its welcome a little bit. It’s a fun game at first, and it’s challenging enough to stay engaging while you learn the ins and outs of your chosen character. Once you’ve got a few victories under your belt, however, the game becomes a test that you already know the answers for. It’s pretty easy to memorize the correct shooting patterns for each character after a few minutes of play. This means that you just dial in the correct angle and power level, shoot your shot, and wait for your turn to come around again. Your victory will be guaranteed, and you’ll never have to make major deviations from your plan.

Bowmasters has a handful of game modes other than “shoot the opponent,” but they all use the same basic aim system. It’s a fun game for a while, and turning off ads is quite inexpensive, so it’s definitely worth checking out if the concept appeals to you. Don’t expect to spend more than a few hours on the game, however, as you’ll probably get bored with the simple gameplay.

The best way to get good at Bowmasters is to spend some time playing the game. The game’s aiming system is fun to mess around with, especially when you’re in the trial and error phase. Pay attention to where your shots go and try to remember where you’re aiming and with how much power. When it’s your turn again, adjust your angle and power based on where your last shot landed. With a bit of time, you’ll become an expert at your chosen character.

One other quick tip: don’t be afraid to experiment with different characters and weapons. The characters in Bowmasters are NOT all equal. Instead, they all have different aiming styles and strengths. Mess with the characters you have access to until you find one that compliments your preferences and use their weapon to destroy your opponents!

Are you a Bowmasters master? Who’s your favorite character? What characters and weapons do you think are the strongest? Let us know in the comments below!