Welcome Time Waster!
I’m back from my brief hiatus to bring you more goodies from the internet. Last week I had to step out due to trouble with kidney stones, which by the way, are now on the top of my list of most painful experiences. I’d like to thank John for taking over the Time Waster while I was away. The game I present to my fellow time wasters this week is One Arrow.
One Arrow is a side-scrolling shooter that places the player in an environment where they will have to fight off waves of monsters. What makes One Arrow different from other games of this type is that players only have one arrow. This means that after firing a shot, players will have to run over and collect their fired arrow.
The reason behind the player only having one arrow is that this game was an entry in Lundum Dare 28, which had the theme of ‘You only get one.’ For those who have never heard of Lundum Dare, it’s a gaming competition where developers are given 72 hours to create a game based off of a certain theme.
Controls in One Arrow are simple; A, S, D and W move the character and the bow is fired with the mouse. Collecting the arrow after it has been shot is as easy as touching it. Players can also jump with the Spacebar and can double jump with a second tap of the Spacebar while in the air.
The main goal of One Arrow is to kill all the monsters in a wave. Each wave has a time limit and players will die if the wave isn’t completed before time runs out. Also, players can’t be killed by monsters’ attack. Instead, monster will knock the player down for a short period of time. Beating a wave a quick as possible will award players more points. Players can compete online with other players for high scores.
Unfortunately, there are only two monsters in One Arrow. One of the monsters flies around the map and is easily dispatched. The second monster is one that doesn’t move, but it can create a forcefield around it that makes it immune to attacks. These monsters can only be killed after they drop their shield to fire a blast at the player.
One Arrow also only features a single level. This isn’t unusual for a Lundum Dare entry, but I’ve seen other titles from the competition that contain multiple levels and a bit more options and variety in gameplay.
Graphics in One Arrow are fairly simplistic, but not at all bad. The simple graphics still have a strong and unique look to them that could benefit a more developed title.
Audio in One Arrow is a little lacking. There is no type of music in the game and the only consistent sound is whistling wind in the background. While the wind is better than nothing, it becomes tiresome to listen to after a short time.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with One Arrow, but it was a little lacking and had me putting the game down fairly quickly. Even taking into account that the game was a Lundum Dare entry, I still feel like more could have been done with it. I will give the game credit for the unique idea of only having a single arrow to fight with, but only having two monsters to fight was a downer. The graphics in the game a good even though they are simple, but the audio definitely needs some work.
One Arrow shots its way to 3.5 GiN Gems out of 5!
