History VideoGame / BowMaster

* SecretArt: Each character class in ''Winter Storm'' has an arrow type that is exclusive to that class: the Hunter can lay spike that are manually triggered by the player, the Destructor fires a bouncing bomb that deals area damage on each hit, while the Mage shoots a ChainLightning arrow that deals its full damage to numerous enemies with a fairly long arc range.

* HealingShiv / ReviveKillsZombie: The healing arrows. you shoot somebody and it heals the same way other arrows deal damage, meaning that shooting somebody int he head with one will increase its ability. Also undead creatures are week to healing.

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: The result of using explosive arrows.

* RightMakesMight: The enemy units on your side seem stronger than those who are still part of the evil army.

* FriendlyFireproof: Averted ''hard''. This is not because of the enemies being tricky or allies being dumb, but because [[RealityEnsues you're firing into a mix of allies and enemies most of the time, making it harder to avoid hitting friendly units.]] On the plus side, aside from civilians, you don't get any real penalty from accidentally killing friendly units aside from losing them. ''Winter Storm'' at least [[AntiFrustrationFeatures allowed arrows to pass through allies at close range]]; the previous games were not so generous, meaning that you pretty much needed to be standing on high ground far away from your army if you didn't want to end up shooting them in the back of the head.

The third, [[https://www.kongregate.com/games/lostvector/bowmaster-winter-storm BowMaster: Winter Storm]]'' was released nearly a decade after the first two, in 2014. The large time off resulted in an improvement to every aspect of the game, from graphics, to the addition of three abilities usable by the player character, to the addition of a rough plot.

''Bowmaster'' is a series of free Flash games by Lost Vectors, a single developer. The first two games are simplistic in nature and are basically a series of areas where you play as the eponymous bow master. The third, ''Winter Storm'', is more complicated in that it follows a rough plot and expands on the abilities usable by the hero, of which there are now three. The games are simple, but unique and, in a few ways, more complex due to the way that arrows interact with each other and enemies.
''Winter Storm'' can be found [[http://www.lostvectors.com/winterstorm/ here]].
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!!! Trope Arrows:

* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Averted in that the Evil Army has more variation in its unit types (five different types of dragon, for starters), but played straight in that the units you can send are model swaps of the enemy units, down to the spells).
* DemBones: skeletons are the basic mooks of the enemy.

* GiantSpider: the Spider Queen is bigger than the buildings you take refuge in, and continuously makes new spiders.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: any allied unit near you will not get hit by a harming arrow, but will still be healed by a healing arrow. This means you can stay near your troops without risking friendly fire.

* AwesomeButImpractical: Shot modifications can end up being this. They not only cost large amounts of mana, but they end forcing the arrow in question into a longer cooldown, which might range from "worth it" to "crippling" depending on the arrow in question.

* FriendlyFireproof: Averted in ''Winter Storm'', you will hate its guts. This is not because of the enemies being tricky or allies being dumb, but because [[RealityEnsues you're firing into a mix of allies and enemies most of the time, making it harder to avoid hitting friendly units.]] On the plus side, aside from civilians, you don't get any real penalty from accidentally killing friendly units aside from losing them. See AntiFrustrationFeatures above for the straight version.

* HyperDestructiveBouncingBall: The Destructor's special arrow is a bomb that bounces off units causing an explosion each time until the final, even bigger explosion.

* OneManArmy: The hero. He doesn't even need any army to take down all of his enemies, he could just use his bow. This is defied in winter storm, as unless you get lucky, there are going to be some objectves that either require or heavily push for the help of the army.

* CartoonBomb: Catapults can be upgraded to throw these, which explode after a while into mushroom clouds.

* HarmlessFreezing: enemies can be frozen solid with no issues if they have the time to thaw. Generally they won't have that time.
* HealingShiv / ReviveKillsZombie: the healing arrows. you shoot somebody and it heals the same way other arrows deal damage, meaning that shooting somebody int he head with one will increase its ability. Also undead creatures are week to healing.

* LiterallyShatteredLives: an enemy can be [[HarmlessFreezing frozen solid]], but you have to either use a bomb or kill them before they will shatter apart in the ice.

* MetalSime: The Earth Golem, surprisingly enough. [[HumanShield Tall as half the screen]], [[MarathonBoss huge amount of life]], [[BossInMookClothing has a devastating]] (almost) AlwaysAccurateAttack, [[OhCrap often show up in pairs]]... but they give thousands of gold and experience, and a maxed-out sextuple rapid shot with an electric arrow will fell even two of them in seconds.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: There are ninja. You can buy one for your army. The ingame info on the friendly ninja even says "[[LampshadeHanging He's awesome]]".

''Winter Storm'', the latest release, can be found [[http://www.lostvectors.com/winterstorm/ here]].

* AttackItsWeakpoint: Every enemy has a weakpoint that males it take more damage. Some are obvious (PrettyLittleHeadshots...), others are so small you're better off killing them bit by bit.

* CosmeticallyDifferentArmies: Averted, in that the Evil Army has more variation in its unit types (five different types of dragon, for starters), but played straight in that the units you can send are model swaps of the enemy units, down to the spells).

** Other no-mana mundane arrows count, such as pierce, because they still have effects, said pierce hitting multiple enemies in one shot or not being deflected by anything, but they don't cost any mana to activate.

* S
* {{Trick Arrow}}s: What makes the game more interesting. Everything ranging from bombs to flak to thunder clouds will be compressed into an arrow and shot at the enemy. Half the fun is using them all.
** In the third game, there's an ''actual'' TrickArrow (a boxing glove-shaped one no less).

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Easiest with auto-aim, but there are rewards for doing this. A good example of an easy one is getting your arrow deflected and hitting another enemy in the head with the deflected arrow. there are many others, and part of the fun is pulling them off. There are also unrewarded cases that just feel awesome, such as shooting a boulder out of the air.

* ShieldBearingMook: In ''Winter Storm'', there are skeletons and soldiers who have large shields. They deflect projectiles aside from "piercing" arrows.

* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Each bowmaster game is better than the last. The first one was a rather basic game, prequel was improved on the formula had more you could do during a game, and ''Winter Storm'' finally got the artwork, army management, and arrow types and selection done right. All of them are fun, but winter storm is by far the fastest, most polished, and most balanced game.

* MasterOfNone: In ''Winter Storm'', the omniblast has this as its main reason for only being a utility. It uses a blast of each element, and any opposite element hitting another will nullify it.

* TrickArrows: What makes the game more interesting. Everything ranging from bombs to flak to thunder clouds will be compressed into an arrow and shot at the enemy. Half the fun is using them all.