After nearly two years of waiting, Sun Studios have finally released Armed With Wings 3 and it's AWESOME! In this platform action adventure game, evil has no chance as you take the Blackmist form of a young hero named Leo and his Eagle, to puzzle and fight your way through various worlds, eliminating henchmen and completing boss battles to overcome the evil that threatens to annihilate your village.
Almost as soon as the game begins, it becomes clear why Sun Studios took time to release the latest installment. It seems the developers took on board the feedback received from Armed With Wings and Armed With Wings 2, as you soon realize that this game is not only a little simpler to play in terms of controls, but there is also so much more depth. In Story Mode, you'll be instantly struck by the phenomenal soundtrack and striking silhouette graphics which while similar to the previous games, now include the subtle use of color to differentiate between worlds. There's also a Survival Mode where you can fight endless battles and post your score to a leaderboard, and bonus content includes concept art, cinematics and access to music that's unlocked during the game.
The Eagle was absent from the sequel, but returns for this latest title, giving you two characters to control. As Leo, use your [arrow] keys to move and jump, and [WASD] keys to perform actions. The [A] key is your fighting with fists control while the [S] key will have you pulling some extraordinary sword fighting moves. [D] activates your special ability and [W] switches between characters. As Leo's Eagle, the [arrow] keys are also for navigation while the [A] key grasps items, such as keys and pulley handles, and the [S] key secures the Eagle in position to assist Leo in performing other actions while [W] calls the bird back after completing a task. By moving and interacting with each other, Leo and his Eagle will have to navigate through a variety of worlds, solve puzzles, collect orbs to replenish life status, find treasures, and of course undertake many battles along the way.
Analysis: Armed With Wings 3 is comprised of a series of chapters, which are a number of worlds to be traversed, with a tutorial incorporated into the gameplay. The platforming varies in each, as difficulty increases gradually, and Leo learns to navigate in new ways through interacting with his Eagle and each environment. As the game progresses, more and more puzzles are introduced and must be solved before Leo can reach the portal that awaits at the end of each level. The beauty of having the Eagle is the ability to scout ahead and check out what's in store for Leo. The Eagle will also be required to go ahead and access tiny passages, grasp pulley-handles or find keys to aid Leo's journey. Initially, switching between the two characters can be a little disorienting, but it doesn't take long to adjust to.
The story in Armed With Wings is complex and involves interacting with other characters such as The Blacksmith and Leo's Mother. Between each level, Leo must consult with both the Blacksmith and his Mother to access upgrades in both abilities and weaponry. The game is stunning in so many ways and it's actually quite difficult to pinpoint any flaws. One would be the sluggishness of the controls, but that's likely due to the high level of animation in the characters. The other would be the unavoidable visits to the Blacksmith and Leo's Mother, as there is some unnecessary and repetitive navigating to undertake each time. But these flaws are almost entirely blitzed by the sheer brilliance of the game.
The developers at Sun Studios have obviously invested so much time and work into this, their latest creation and it truly shows. They've taken the beauty of the last two games and if anything they've improved on it. They've also improved the controls, which while a little sluggish, are actually quite easy to learn and use. What also stands apart from the previous two games is the introduction of puzzles and the platform element of the game actually has a purpose. The first few levels indicate a deceptively simple game, which even Leo himself remarks upon early on. You may find yourself feeling as over-confident as he does. But the game quickly gets tricky, and you'll be needing to rely on your platforming skills as much as Leo relies on his bird. If you're a novice level platformer like me, you'll still progress quite easily through the game and there's so much about the gameplay experience that you'll want to persist.
There's still a lot that I feel has been left unsaid about this gorgeous game, but why spoil the fun? This is a game that holds a lot to be explored and discovered. And anyway I haven't quite made it to the finale yet. So if you're familiar with the Armed With Wings games, you'll definitely appreciate the extraordinary lengths Sun Studios have gone to in creating this game. If this is your first Armed With Wings experience, you're in for a real treat. I have to go now. I've got to get back to this game...!
Yay, I thought this game was over with the bad guy, many thanks ;)
:D Finally here! Is this the last of the series?
I'm stuck. I've beaten two bosses and am a couple levels into the next level but I'm at a place I can't figure out how to get past. I enter a room after being swept up to the ledge by an updraft. In the room is a handle, my bird can pull down on the handle and open the gate below, but by the time I leave the room and get to the gate it's closed again. I can't send my bird there on it's own either, I have to enter the room with my bird, no idea what I'm supposed to do on this one.
Username:
When the eagle pulls down the pulley, press 'S' which secures the bird in place, meaning it will wait while Leo does the rest
Awesome wonderful beautiful game , but it definitely has some mondo glitches in it. I hope the designers can take care of them to make the game EVEN BETTER!
did i see an ad for an adult website with a woman with an xbox controller, shame shame shame
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Does this game have a Level Select? If it doesn't, it needed one so we could go back through levels to get the stuff we missed.
Ahh, I'm si'm stuck after the tuck! I've got the god fists and sword but I'm stuck a few levels in after the bit with all the ropes. I fell through the floor and killed the skulls, but now I can't jump up after the broken bridge :(
Sorry for messing in such a cheerful theme, but for me this one was a disappointment.
The storyline went wrong - they shouldn't have killed Vandheer-chan.
And I didn't feel like fighting in this game. It's a kind of a hybrid of AwW and RedMoon - and it took worse things from both.
Anyway, I played it. And I'll be waiting for the next chapter.
Maybe it will be about Vandheers Ascend? Mhmmm...
Spoiler tags added : ) - Chiktionary
Really stylish but very glitchy. I got stuck in the ground a few times, the pause menu never actually seemed to pause the enemies, and my health regeneration only went up to the 100 mark even when I'd doubled my health bar (and sometimes when starting a level, it would put my health at 100 rather than 200, so I'd have to die to fill it up entirely).
WarMonger:
Umm, would you mind putting that plot revelation in a spoiler tag? I don't know who that character even is yet, and now I know
they will die.
Not cool.
Don't think this needs a spoiler tag, but just in case...
The second to last boss fight was pretty ridic. Once I got down to the fight I had no problem, but I died a dozen times because I got knocked off the edge of the platform, or happened to get his life halfway down and didn't make it onto the platform before it rose too high. I wouldn't even call that a boss fight.
Is there anywhere we can get this soundtrack?
Well, I can't beat it on my own. My platforming skills are... bad. I played through the first two games of the series, but I can't get through the latest two. Could anyone give me a spoiler or link to get all of the story?
I love the story in these games, and I would really like to know what happens.
Are you actually rewarded for fighting more with your fists than with your sword? The game is a beauty to look at, but I found the combat to strictly favour rapid slashes with your sword.
The charge up booster penalizes you for the time it takes to launch the attack - I didn't notice any difference in just setting up a fast, weak combo. The spin special also makes it really easy to finish the game since when you're doing the spin, you become invulnerable, and all the bosses supers just phase through you. Fighting the end bosses, I wanted to make it look flashy by alternating between melee and sword, but the delay opens you up for counters, so you end up sticking with cheese attacks.
Still fun.
Third game and they still haven't given us the option to turn off the sound. Very annoying.
Billy Nitro:
You're probably already aware that you can access the music that you unlocked during the game in the bonus content section of the main menu. As far as purchasing, perhaps the developers at Sun Studios might know. :)
I have to agree about the sound. It is so easy to put in a mute function. It's a game killer for me when I am playing at work.
Only one complaint so far, and that is that you have to be in a certain spot for the second boss's lighning attack, but there's no charge time to prepare yourself. Other than that, excellent game.
Its entertaining for me until I got to that stage after you gotten the third sword and fist style. Went through a quite a tedious part to clear the puzzle to get to the other side and when I died I have to restart the whole friggin routine all over again. That pretty much killed the fun. If only they had some sort of checkpoint after clearing the puzzles. They are fine but a real bore for me to do them more than once.
The typos are distressing ("fantasic"). I'd hoped they'd fixed that.
Actually I just went back and played some of AwW 2, and the writing/typos is a lot better in 3 than it was in 2. Still, it'd be good to polish it up a little more.
The jumping physics also looks better, at least I haven't died sliding off platforms as often in this one. -- Anyway, for all my nitpicking these games are compelling. Very very stylish.
Seems like a cool story, but the gameplay was such that I stopped trying to beat it. The game is pretty unforgiving when it comes to jumping and landing on small platforms, and bouncing off your eagle can send you in unexpected directions. There's no penalty for dying, so you can just keep trying, but on some of the more involved levels, dying towards the end will send you all the way back to the beginning. It's really annoying.
Encountered a couple glitches (got my character stuck; walls turned invisible).
Fundamentally this is a simple platformer made difficult by bad collision detection, with a button-mashing combat system built on. If it weren't for the rather interesting and nicely illustrated story, it would be pretty disappointing.
Yeah, I've been stuck in "falling off the screen" glitches like four times now and I am done with that.
Possibly one of the most epic final battles to ever grace a flash game, period. Yet....if you designers guys at Sun Studios are reading these, please, PLEASE fix these glitches!
help im stuck at lvl4
i can't find the key
Has anyone
managed to kill Vandheer in the first 30 second encounter?
Just curious. I've come close and I'm not sure if it's possible.:)
I would guess one of two things could happen if you could somehow manage beat Vandheer in 30s, 1. It would cut to the scene with Vandheer beating Leo regardless or 2. The game would crash and/or become buggy.
Man what a fantastic game and a very forgiving checkpoint zone too (except of course on Chapter 4) The unlockable combos and hidden abilities really keep the game from growing stale too fast. We will all want a 4th one now, hahaha! Next time give even more history and background into the world of Blackmist too!
This series is definitely growing on me. The gameplay is good, the art is inspired, and the writing is terrible, but in a funny way, not a bad way. Although I would totally take the villain protagonist of the second one over the generic village-saving-hero-type from this one.
This is simply beautiful. I played the whole series and I think it's really getting better and better. I think the characters are very nice, the animation is cool and the story is simply awesome... I want to know more about the world of Blackmist and hope there will be a part 4 soon. Also I enjoyed the soundtrack very much. Together with the beautiful design of the World it's creating a great atmosphere. The controlls are also a huge (even the best) improvement of the whole series. I don't know what a US-keyboard looks like, but i'm from germany and the keys were miles apart in part 1 and 2, so i wasn't able to use all the moves that were offered. I'm happy that its WASD now xD. It's still sometimes hard to controll Leo tough... the hardest parts were the jump-over-the-gap-odysses, as Leo sometimes just wouldn't land on the places I told him to. Sometimes I got too tired of reading the same dialogue again, after some death-sessions (or hitting [space] a hundret times).
And I was searching for a mute- or pause-button again... but maybe I was just too blind to find it.
Anyway this game is one of the best I've seen for quite some time, and I will play it again in hope to gain more of the items you can collect. TBC PLEASE
Any1 here know how to get the soundtrack in the level where you are introduced to archers?
Im not much of a platformer so i dont think i have the abstract thinking to learn how
For those who are interested in the soundtrack, Adam Alonso, who is the composer, has been in touch regarding his music for Armed With Wings 3:
I'm glad you and others like the soundtrack! I had a discussion with the developer on whether I should sell the soundtrack a few months ago. I decided against it, and giving this soundtrack out for free! I'll be putting this readily available on my website www.adamalonso.com once I'm currently done updating/remodeling it.
In the meantime, I've included a link for the soundtrack for your enjoyment.
Love hearing comments about the music! Hope you enjoy it.
Click here for a zip file of the entire soundtrack.
You can also check the game developer's website here for the music.
Thanks for so generously sharing your work Adam! :-)
Alist 1
I figured it out
You have to use the teleport special ability and teleport up a few times then over
lol the game was great but i think i killed the boss way to easily 0.e
2Geoffrey:
Where can i find teleport special
how do you get past the up draft level you cant go back down
cut the string next to the boulder with your sword, but make sure you run away quick, or it'll hurt you. Boulder will roll into the gap and cut off the updraft.
Is it just me, or is that Eivana...? Damn, she looks modeled better than she was in Red Moon... And to think she's got a son now?! (Who's the dad, BTW? AwW himself?)
does anyone know how to get the teleport skill? cause its hard to reach
I didn't notice any glitches until the final battle where I was plagued by the inability to simply change directions...
@SiriusBlack:
I have, he falls to his knees, gets back up, then the cutscene starts.
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