Trigger Witch

The witching hour is here

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to play as a witch with a gun? Besides Bayonetta, we mean. Well, now’s your chance. In Trigger Witch, the latest from Kiwi developer Rainbite (which brought us Reverie), you play from the perspective of a witch named Colette, who embarks on some colourful adventures involving witchcraft and gunplay with a supporting cast of characters, including her mother Hilda and her friends Shelly and Remi, in order to restore peace to her realm.

The game has a very interesting retro feel, reminiscent of the 16-bit, top-down, 2D action from the ’90s,1 and gives off serious Undertale vibes. The action takes place across a familiar-feeling array of environments: mines, bucolic countryside scattered with stone cottages, and so on.

Don’t let its colourful, pastelhued style fool you, though. Once you sink your teeth into the real meat of the game and start encountering all kinds of enemies, then that’s when things start to get very bloody. And this is when the fun with a gun (and, later, other weapons2) begins as you get to take on various gauntlets and puzzles. The twin-stick mechanics take a bit of getting used to, but you’ll have a lot of fun once you’ve grasped them, despite the serious lack of enemy variety. It’s more than made up for in level variety – it always feels new to explore.

Which makes it extra annoying that the music really does begin to grate on you after a while. The level of irritation is subjective, of course, but the same enemies, the same music… it makes us feel stuck in a time loop, eternally blasting away. Overall it’s a little formulaic (partly by design), yet its exciting shooting, colourful world, and decent story rescue it.

FOOTNOTES 1 You can play solo or in multiplayer, reminding us of crowding around a TV years ago. 2 You can upgrade weapons and acquire new ones.