I remember watching a TV programme featuring someone doing trick shots with some billiard balls on a billiard table. Some of the shots were pretty intricate, making the white ball hit the sides of the table at different angles before finally hitting another ball into a pocket. It’s all pretty amazing and makes for great TV.

I suppose that an iPhone game developer can import this idea wholesale and make it into a game, but the guys over at Outlaw Games Ltd decided to do things a little different and taking the idea of trick shots out of the confines of a billiard table and created Arroic.

arroic

It was actually pretty easy to dive into the game, despite the amount of strategy that you actually need to put in to go through the levels. The premise of the game is simple, plot a bunch of arrows to guide a ball into the hole. You plot the arrows by touching, dragging and then releasing your finger from the screen, and once you are done drawing, you press the Go button to see the ball move on the course that you just set.

I found this a little awkward at first since you can’t change the course once you have pressed Go. And if there’s a mistake, such as the ball going the wrong way, you’ll need to start plotting your arrows all over again. There are plenty of obstacles to deal with as well (some of which you can use to your advantage), ranging from cogs, chasms and even goo that can slow the ball down and wreck havoc to your best laid plans.

Like many games, Arroic sports Achievements. But while most games that I reviewed do this on the OpenFeint platform, Arroic’s Achievements are done on Agon which also provides the global leaderboard to which you can upload your scores. The 2D graphics in the game are pretty decent, even though the main menu had a slick Flash-like quality which I thought would be nice if I can see that in the gameplay.

Arroic is a commendable effort from Outlaw Games Ltd and features plenty of replay value, since there are multiple ways to go through a level (shortest time possible, collect as many coins for a high score, or finish the level with the minimum number of arrows) and there are plenty of levels to unlock. A level editor would have been cool but maybe we’ll see that in  future updates to the game.

The game is priced at USD 0.99, which is pretty much a bargain! Grab it now at the App Store (click here), but if you are one who really looks before you leap, you can check out the free lite version which is available through  the App Store as well (click here).