Parents' Guide to Bowmasters

While there's a fun physics game at work here, it's undermined by redundancy and by being aggressively greedy. In Bowmasters, you use your finger to determine the angle and the amount of force you need to shoot an arrow, toss a brick, or fling a javelin at someone standing far away. Do it right, and you'll nail them, maybe even kill them. There's even a cool variety of characters -- including a briefcase-throwing Investor and a streaming gamer who flings her gamepad -- though don't be surprised if the lawyers for Groot, Mario, or Rick from Rick & Morty get the more blatant rip-offs removed. But while this can be fun and challenging, especially since every character has their own weapon, it's kind of just the same game over and over. The persistent greed is also a bummer. Not only are there frequent ads along the bottom of the screen, but there are also ads between each match, though you can always pay to turn off the ads. It's also needlessly bloody. While the game has a cool cartoony look about it, all the spewing blood and splattering skin seems unnecessarily gratuitous. All of which is why Bowmasters starts off strong, but eventually loses steam.