Developed/Published by Hitmark Brothers
Released for XBLIG (9/19/2013)
If you've read through any number of the XBLIG reviews here, you know that I've described many of those games as weird or strange (which they are), but I think this game might take the cake for the most mysterious piece of software that I've encountered on the service. Rather than just simply giving the game a proper name composed of letters like everything else, the Hitmark Brothers decided that this title would be named using symbols. GameFAQs has it listed as Arrow Diamond, but in the game library and back when it was sold it was simply listed as ->♦, which I suppose could be directly translated to Arrow Diamond. Naming your game with symbols is a sure-fire way to make sure that your game is nigh impossible to find, so its doubtful that many were even aware of this game's existence. This is just the beginning of the weirdness that lies within the game that will be referred to as Arrow Diamond...
After starting up a new game, you'll take control of a giant green hand that belongs to presumably a god, looming down from the sky above. Everything is viewed from a 2D perspective and the first thing you'll notice are the little green seed things walking around on the ground level. Some of the seeds will grow a sprout which can pushed down into the ground using your finger. You can also flick them to quickly move them or pick them up to manually relocate them. Once a seed has been planted, you'll need to nourish it with water. There's water on either side of the little island you have to work with, so using your giant hand you'll need to cup a handful of water and dump it on the plant.
A giant tree will sprout once you've watered the plant, granting you a few new options. You can flick the upper branches to drop more seeds or you can, for lack of a better term, jerk the branches off the tree. That's right, you clench the base of the tree tightly with your hand and, using the left analog stick, can jerk up and down in order to break the branches off. Continue up and down vigorously enough and you'll sculpt the tree into a rocket. You'll want to load your rocket up with as many of the seedlings as possible by picking them up and dropping them into the ship. Once the ship is loaded up it will take off into the sky and grant you points. As long as there still seeds walking around or a tree that you can knock them down from, the game will continue on. It's game over once you run out of seeds or trees to flick them from.
Arrow Diamond plays like a god-sim with arcade elements such as a score counter and short game sessions. It's definitely a unique game with an interesting visual design, but the gameplay itself isn't really all that interesting past the initial shock of how crazy it all is. All of the controls are mapped to the X button, which is a bit cumbersome and can cause some confusion when trying to decide whether you want to flick or grab something. Arrow Diamond does at least function as a proper game, which is more than can be said for some of the games that released on XBLIG.
Developed by the Hitmark Brothers, Arrow Diamond released exclusively for XBLIG in September 2013. An article about XBLIG games on Retronauts mentions that Arrow Diamond was developed by the same guy who programmed an old forgotten arcade fighter Survival Arts. This could be true, considering both games are quite odd and utilize digitized graphics, though it's hard to confirm thanks to a lack of information regarding both the development crew behind Survival Arts and the Hitmark Brothers. Regardless of who developed Arrow Diamond, it's somewhat remarkable as it manages to be one of the weirdest games to hit XBLIG and that's saying something considering the service was chock full of strangeness.
Final Verdict: Arrow Diamond is an oddity and is a god-sim where you plant seeds to grow trees which you "rub vigorously" into rockets, which after filling them with seeds they blast off and grant you points. It's fun for a few minutes, but once the novelty of its weirdness wears off there's not much to bring you back.
Related Links:
XBLIG Games - Xbox Overview
Arrow Diamond - GameFAQs
Strange Japanese Game - Indie Gamer Chick
Arrow Diamond Review - theXBLIG
In Memoriam: XBLIG - Retronauts
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