Fowlst Review: This Dodgy Shooter Will Completely Suck You In

Fowlst is a addictive new iOS game that's half shooter, half dodger and 100 percent arcade goodness. Check out our full review of the game, here.

When it comes to mobile games, I tend to prefer strategy, puzzle or civilization builders and avoid the easy-to-learn, hard-to-master arcade genre. Nonetheless, Fowlst is one of those gems that make me break with my preferences. After spending a bingy couple of hours inside the game, I have to say, if you are looking for an addictive and entertaining time-killer, this game is worth checking out.

Fowlst is similar to many games I’ve played before but combines elements in some different ways that make it unique. The closest way I have to describe it is a kind of dodger shooter blend.

In Fowlst, you take on the character of a tiny white owl trapped in hell. As soon as the game begins, you are dropped into a dark space where your controls consist of tapping left or right that allows your fowl little friend to jump up and over in the correlating direction. Essentially, you are bouncing around in the middle of the dark space. After a couple seconds, your main adversaries, some scary looking red demon dudes who shoot lasers at you, appear. At this point, your goal is to try to bounce into the demons to kill them, but watch out! Those little devils can shoot lasers out of their heads and behinds, taking away one of your five health points.

If you manage to kill a devil, he explodes and a bag of cash is left floating in the air which you must retrieve within a few seconds before it disappears. As you progress through the levels, the demons will have other resources they’ll drop as well like extra hearts, freeze spells and other perks.

While the demonic legion is more than enough to keep your little avian warrior busy, as you progress to new areas, the challenges change and become more difficult to navigate. In some levels, parts of the walls are on fire. In others, a blade comes down in the middle of the room and you have to avoid hitting it while trying to take out your opponents. In other spaces, the room is half filled with water and if you fall into it, you move a lot slower until you can make your way out again.

As you continue to play and gather cash, you’ll soon be able to unlock upgrades like extra health, egg bombs (these are literally bombs that shoot out of your owl’s butt), rockets and loot magnets.

The controls, obstacles, and other parts of the game’s structure work so well together that you’ll find yourself easily able to waste away a lot of time reaching for higher and higher levels in the game. For those who are fans of endless runners, hoppers, shooters and other arcade-style games, this one is a real treat. The game is priced at $ 2.79 on the iOS App Store, and for the fun and ad-free experience, I would say it’s definitely worth the price.