Trigger Witch [Xbox]
Rainbite’s Trigger Witch is a gorgeous 2D twin-stick action game, where you take on the role of Colette: a young Witch about to graduate from The Stock, in a world that follows Ballisticism - where guns have taken over from magic - although magic does still have its purposes. After graduating and becoming a fully fledged member of The Clip, Colette is given her first task - investigate reports of a mysterious figure that has been seen lurking around Ozryn Village.
As Colette, you’ll see yourself exploring the world of Evertonia to uncover clues about this peculiar Man in Black, and working your way through a myriad of dungeons. There are shops and buildings you can visit to speak with the NPCs and piece together information, as well as stock up on everything from potions to powerful weapon upgrades. As you go, you’ll gain access to additional weaponry, with all but your initial gun requiring a cooldown to reload. This is a really innovative way to get you to use alternate weapons, as it’s so easy in a lot of games to just find the best gun, and just stick with it entirely. A two-player co-op mode is available, where player 2 can drop in or out at any time, which is great. You won’t miss out on anything by playing one way or the other, as any dialogue between characters will always be directed at the original Colette, before player 2 reappears afterwards.
The visuals are surprisingly bloody and gruesome, for such a colourful, happy looking game. Enemies are very cute, in a variety of styles such as little onions, mushrooms and crabs, all the way up to much larger bosses - but they’ll all suffer the same fate: being shredded into a bloody smear of guts by your bullets. There’s also an adorable little familiar available (if you can impress the Gambler at the casino) that will follow you around and help gather gems as you go. There are different biomes throughout the world, each with their own look - and in some cases, weather effects - such as extreme frost that will hurt you after a while, although stopping to heat up next to open flames will help with this.
Trigger Witch also has fantastic sound design, with various gun-clicks being used as sound effects for text and interactions, as well as the satisfying sound of the reload when cutting back to gameplay after cutscenes and dialogue. Text bubbles with character dialogue use a variety of different fonts and effects to differentiate between characters, as well as add a little sarcasm or punch to the words. Soundtrack is very peaceful, which is a nice juxtaposition to the frequent violence on screen, with music becoming more energetic and rocky when you’re in battle, before returning back to the relaxing melodies when all nearby enemies have been obliterated. If decorating the place with blood ain’t your thing, you can adjust the settings to customise just how much blood you want to see, if any (instead you’ll get some piñata guts!), as well as other settings for damage, etc.
If Colette gets backed into a corner or needs to get some space from looming enemies, she has a dash ability that is perfect in its rainbow-y flair. Able to be used twice in a row before a short cooldown, this is super useful and definitely comes in handy at times - sometimes even just to travel a bit faster. I mean, who doesn’t dash constantly to quicken their movement speed in games!? Shooting feels super satisfying too, with enemies just bursting into piles of blood with every bit of firepower you unload on them. There’s an Arena further into the game where things get hectic, and it’s a lot of fun just mowing down enemies (some of which where the first time we’d come across them). The Arena has a score that would have been cool to see on a Leaderboard, but with so many customisation options that relate to difficulty, I can see why there isn’t. There are plenty of crates to smash for gems all across the world (as well as secret chests that have gems and upgrades), so many pettable pets (dogs, hamsters, rabbits, even turtles!), and shoot ‘em up sections where you can fly a broom (you are a witch after all!) that feel great, offering a slight deviation to the rest of the gameplay, and everything continually feels fresh as you progress. Admittedly, there were a few points in different dungeons that a chunk of backtracking was needed, which was a little frustrating, but aside from this it kept a good pace.
Trigger Witch is enjoyable, with a decent story to keep you invested throughout the 9+ hours you’ll spend with it. We had a lot of fun with it, and with the ability to play two-player as well as the customisable options, it really opens it up in terms of accessibility so that everyone can get stuck in. It’s absolutely chock-full of humour - solidifying my belief that New Zealand has some of the funniest folk around - and when a game can give me a good chuckle, that’s a big plus in my book. So, if that ticks all the boxes for you, you can get it for £12.49 on the Xbox Store (with 10% off for the next three days, at time of writing).
In the end, we decided to give Trigger Witch the Collecting Asylum rating of 8.5/10.
Have you played Trigger Witch yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to EastAsiaSoft for the Trigger Witch Xbox review code!
