We’ve had roguelike deckbuilders, movement shooters, ARPGs and even Hello Kitty themed rhythm games (Yes, Hello Kitty and Friends Happiness Parade is a rhythm roguelike, don’t ask how I know). Now, in the year of our lord 2026, we have roguelike aimlabs. Okay, it’s not actually affiliated with aimlabs but Lucky Shot delivers precision shooting in nostalgic settings with a sprinkle of Balatro-style number-ramp to deliver pure joy into my veins. If you were a fan of flash games as a kid, it’ll do the same to you.
Lucky Shot launches right into sensitivity calibration, which of course involves shooting the sensitivity bar up and down until things feel right. In fact, every menu is controlled by shooting buttons. This brings me the same joy that seeing your PC cursor turn into a little sword does when you play a classic RPG or RTS game. Once that’s all set up, you can start your first run.
Part arcade game, part flash game, part Balatro-like
Runs go about how you might expect. There’s a box that targets can spawn in and you have to shoot them. Each target has its own behaviour, though. Some will stay still then suddenly teleport, others will move horizontally across the stage while others “fall” top to bottom, there’s yet more that spin in circles or fly in an arc like a Duck Hunt target.
Against these circular menaces you have a pistol, for starters. Simply point, click, and rack up the points. Like every good Balatro-like, there’s Score and Multiplier. You get flat score for hitting targets, but you rack up your multiplier by not missing. You want to be fast but also accurate, and you’d be surprised at how easy it is to throw a run to sheer panic.
Does anyone else remember sites like Miniclip and Newgrounds and BORED DOT COM? Simpler times. On a site like that, I believe it was actually Armour Games, there was a flash game simply called “The Gun Game”. It was like Aimlabs but purely side-on. You’d have weapon badges, money rewards to expand your arsenal and it was all mouse controlled. Learning to use recoil to your advantage was a huge part of the game, and I spent hours plinking away at ever-increasingly-small targets with ever-less-reliable guns.
Lucky Shot is the glow up of “The Gun Game” I never knew I needed, and never thought would be made — it brings me a simple nostalgic joy that is hard to describe authentically.
Create your clip, master your mag, satiate your shells
With the core mechanics in place and targets popping left and right, you can start dropping in the real juicy stuff: Bullets and holos.
In my first run I lowered my clip size by voiding bullets, because one of the Holos I got gave me a multiplier for every Full Reload. You can void bullets to remove them from your ammo reserve permanently, so often runs will begin by removing normal bullets and adding special ones. This also means you’re fewer shots away from any new bullet in the clip (mag?).
That multiplier from reloading applies to the weapon itself rather than just the level you’re in. So, by round three I was starting every round with a x10 multiplier. The end of the run had me spawning targets on reload, with a clip of three explosive bullets and one rainbow bullet (Which transforms into any other special when fired, so could end up also being explosive).
There are a range of special ammo types to choose from:
- The explosive bullet. As the name implies, this makes targets nearby break when you hit a target directly and also increases the damage of the shot itself.
- The silver bullet. This round doubles the gain of your multiplier when it hits a target, so can ramp up your mult. faster at the expense of having no other fancy effects.
- The guardian bullet. Guardian bullets don’t count as a miss, even if you miss. This means your multiplier doesn’t decay for missing and they don’t trigger any holo effects that occur on a miss. For example, one holo gives mult. if you never missed a shot in a round…a clip full of Guardian bullets guarantees that.
- The ricochet bullet. This bullet bounces to one other target on screen, which is a little dull but does double the amount of score and mult. from that shot when you think about it.
- The rainbow bullet. This bullet transforms into any other special bullet when you fire it. This means it can be different within the same run, or even within the same level after a reload.
- The clone bullet. Clone bullets create a copy of the target they just destroyed. This saves you adjusting your aim, as you know there’s a target where you just fired. A clip full of clone bullets is a spammer’s dream.
- The shiny bullet. This bullet is based around meta-progression and gives you £1 every time it hits. It won’t get you any more score or mult. for that level than an ordinary bullet, but the money you make can go into upgrades at the shop.
Combinations and builds beyond expectation
The number-crunching is crazy for Lucky Shot. There’s 180 holos which provide unique effects like spawning targets on reloading, rewarding you for never missing or providing points when targets escape.
There are 26 drinks, which provide instant effects like more time in the next room, voiding a bullet or doubling your money.
There are 16 graffiti items which make special targets spawn. Combining these special targets with special ammo can be incredibly satisfying, for example using Splitting Target graffiti (which makes child targets spawn when a normal one is destroyed) with Explosive Ammo (which explodes) creates a loop of spawning lots of targets and obliterating them in one shot.
There are 21 charms, which provide weapon-specific or powerful run-lasting buffs. Speed up your sniper’s fire-rate, make your multiplier never decay and more.
There are 12 guns. This is the part I frankly couldn’t believe when I saw it. I was fully expecting just to have the standard pistol and get run variety from ammo types and holos, but no. Lucky Shot says “that’s not good enough: Here are 12 different distinct guns with different starting ammo.”
You use all this customisation and progress through 10 difficulties, ramping up in a similar way to what you’d expect such as making score limits higher per level and increasing shop costs.
For the final flourish, Lucky Shot has 40 crosshair styles. In a game where everything you do is dictated by shooting, that’s more important than it seems. I’m sure they’ll be players who just need the crosshair to look like CoD, or Halo, or be a small dot, or be a large shot-gun style circle. With 40 options, everyone can set up the crosshair they remember most fondly.
A ridiculous game that’s ridiculous fun
It’s such a simple premise, but it’s executed with impunity. The weapon variety, holos, ammo types and visual identity of every level all add up to make Lucky Shot probably my favourite Balatro-style spin off we’ve ever seen. I’m not even a competitive shooter player, I’m more at home with an RPG (Role Playing Game) than an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade), but even I’m hooked. Welcome back “The Gun Game”, I have missed you.
Now, can someone make a roguelike Rail Shooter in a similar vein to this and revive that long-dead genre please?
Lucky Shot is available on Steam from August 7th 2026 and you can wishlist today
