Robin Hood: Archer of the Woods

Robin Hood: Archer of the Woods – Don’t laugh at men in tights!

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Robin Hood. Some say that he was an just a regular outlaw which through legend and whispers became the fantasy rebel that we know and love for being a thorn in the side of King John and of course the Sheriff of Nottingham. Others say he and his merry band of men were a force to be reckoned with. In either case one thing is for certain though, his archery skills were not to be meddled with and if you were to find yourself in Sherwood Forest during his reign, and you happened to have some gold in your pocket, you wouldn’t leave the woods with the gold or possibly at all!

So how does Robin Hood: Archer of the Woods stack up to the countless tales and shows we’ve grown up with? Well, it’s pretty good!

The game basically consists of a static archer (Robin Hood) who’s in a lookout post to the left of the screen. What you must do is use your skills and judgement to prevent wave after wave of soldiers and oddball mythical creatures from smashing down the townsfolk’s homes. Armed with your trusty bow and limitless number of arrows, you must gauge the power and angle to hit the advancing targets.

Some soldiers are killed with one hit to anywhere in the body, others take more than one shot to the body or a clean headshot. After every few waves of soldiers you will find yourself up against a boss in the form of an ogre, flying flame-breathing cow and wooden hog, to name just a few. These tougher bosses take more hits to bring down and have a more powerful attack – so all in all, pose quite a risk to your homes.

The game basically keeps going until the last house falls. You get small amount of points for body shots, more points for head shots and these are improved yet again by combo kills and unbroken chain kills. To improve your chances of survival and a higher score, there are crates of various power-ups, ranging from atomic bomb arrows to multi-arrows and magnetic arrows. To pick these crates up, you must hit them before they disappear with an arrow.

Ultimately, the game is quite cartoonish in its appearance, but not quite in the Disney way. It’s entertaining, quite engaging and hugely addictive. The controls are easy to use simply press the screen, draw back the bow (by dragging the finger to the left) and move up or down to pick the angle before releasing and watching the arrow fly.

Positives

Simplistic and entertaining

Good humour

Nice graphics

Negatives

Frustrating at points (as you can easily scroll around the screen rather than shoot)

Pretty repetitive

No option to continue or rebuild houses

80%