What if aim trainers had more to them than just a litany of options for how your targets moved? That’s at the core of Lucky Shot, a new aim trainer hybrid that mixes in the high-score chasing and bonus mixing of Balatro and similar deck-building games.
It’s an interesting concept. Aim trainers and similar games are traditionally all about player skill, tasking players with proving out their raw aim in a variety of tasks simple and complex. Here, those principles are mixed with bonus-hunting and modifier-mixing, creating a fresh experience that FPS enthusiasts are likely to enjoy.
The Good:
- The mix of precision aiming and deck-building bonus hunting works well
- It’s easy to jump into a new round and get a fresh experience
The Bad:
- Luck of the draw inevitably affects high-end scoring potential
- Visual design can be noisy
Review Details:
- Reviewed on: PC
- Platforms available: PC
- Official release date: August 7, 2026
Taking aim for higher and higher scores
The core of Lucky Shot is, as one would imagine, its shooting. This involves taking aim at a variety of targets, some stationary and some mobile, within a set rectangular space. There’s no player movement involved in Lucky Shot, nor are any of the game’s targets going to strike back. The playing field is a simple shooting gallery with circular targets on display.
At least, that’s how it begins. The targets themselves may be affected in a variety of ways, some beneficial and some challenging, as a result of bonus modifiers acquired and stage effects taken on. But the essential act of aiming and shooting is as smooth and purposeful as it needs to be in a game of this type. When it came to checking our raw aim, we always felt as though we were in direct control.
There’s more to these proceedings than just aiming and firing, however. This begins with the game’s many upgrades, which come in different forms. One might be a special bullet that ricochets off one target to another. Another could be a graffiti, which in Lucky Shot conveys various benefits to the targets themselves, such as slowing them down or increasing their associated scoring multiplier.
These benefits are countered by optional challenges that can be activated in each normal stage, or by mandatory challenges that accompany the game’s “boss” stages.
The boss stages still operate normally, just with an added level of difficulty, whether it’s from targets flitting in and out of visibility or from missed shots requiring a mandatory (and potentially slow) reload.
The game’s upgrades are purchased at a shop between rounds. Shopping creates constant tension of balancing new purchases versus saving money and thus accruing interest between those rounds, which also calls back to Balatro and games like it.
The potential for the game’s highest scores does have some variance from one run to the next depending on what the shop makes available to players, and not everyone is going appreciate that aspect in a game that’s principled around raw aim and being able to build multipliers by shooting down successive targets without missing. But some randomness is a necessary aspect of any deck-builder worth its salt, and that remains the case here.
Lucky Shot also presents players with a variety of weapons to choose from, though most must be unlocked over time. The starting pistol is the game’s base mode of play, but there’s also a scoped rifle, a bursting rifle with recoil that requires managing, and so on. It’s something of a “greatest hits” procession among first-person shooter armaments. Clearing the game with a given weapon opens up a new difficulty level for that weapon.
The game’s presentation is generally appreciable. It’s a simple affair that should run smoothly on most any PC setup. The art has a certain charm to it, and the playing field is kept pretty clean so that players can focus on their aim.
Backgrounds do run through a variety of settings that will be immediately familiar to long-time gamers, from the opening Duck Hunt stage to a not-so-subtle Dust2 recreation. It all combines to make Lucky Shot read as something of a love letter to aim-focused video games.
It’s notable that the game’s lighting effects and arcade presentation style can sometimes work against it. During our review, we found that some of Lucky Shot’s effects were such that basic information in the shop could be difficult to look at. This isn’t prevalent across all stages and effects, but it did come up.
Lucky Shot proudly proclaims that anyone can enjoy taking a spin with the game given the vast number of potential modifiers and the varied ways players can cook them up together to create bonus opportunities. But realistically, you’re probably going to need to have at least a moderate interest in the idea of an aim trainer with bells and whistles attached to it in order to really get something out of Lucky Shot.
That being said, our review of Lucky Shot lands very positively. The game takes a fun alchemical idea and executes it successfully. It’s easy to imagine hopping into Lucky Shot to warm up for a session of CS2 or any other aim-intensive competitive game. This is a fun alternative to the traditional aim trainer, and something we’ll likely be returning to in the future.
The Bottom Line: Lucky Shot combines its aim trainer foundation with deck-building principles, resulting in a fun and potent mixture.
Score: 8.0/10
