Johnny Trigger started life as a free to play mobile game. It has come to Switch stripped of its micro transaction, but still remains a mobile title at heart, with five different currencies, and simplistic game play. In each short level, Johnny walks along until he comes to enemies. He’ll start doing acrobatics and the game will slow. A targeting laser will appear. The goal is to shoot the enemy as the line passes it. Miss, and they’re fire back and you’ll die. There are twists though. There are exploding barrels and gas cans. There are hostages who can’t die. There are contraptions that you need to shoot to kill out of reach enemies. It is simple, but surprisingly engaging.
Now the mobile trappings of Johnny Trigger. There are two main currencies, cash and gems. Cash is easy to come by. Its primarily used to buy new guns at stores in levels. Gems are not easy to get. Gems are primarily given by doing flawless runs in 5 gem increments. If you can lots of flawless runs in any particular area, they’ll give a lot of them at the end. Gems have lots of uses, like bonus spins on gun skin wheel or unlocking prize briefcases. Then there are keys, which unlock sections of your apartment to furnish. Hammers are used to furnish sections of apartment to get more cash, guns, gems and clothes. Finally there are puzzle pieces, which are used to unlock comic panels of Johnny Trigger’s back story.
There are hundreds of levels, tons of guns, clothes and story to unlock. Johnny Trigger is a mobile title after all. The question is, is it worth it? Is the game fun? Johnny Trigger is not all that exciting, but it makes a good inoffensive time waster of game, which a mobile title should be. And it’s only five bucks, and there are far worse uses of five dollars on the Switch, trust me. I’ll give it a Recommended.
Overall: Johnny Trigger is a mobile title stripped of its micro transactions. It’s still engaging enough as a time waster to be worth it.
Verdict: Recommended
| Platform | Nintendo Switch |
| Release Date | 5/26/23 |
| Cost | $4.99 |
| Publisher | QubicGames |
| ESRB Rating | T |
P.S. Hot Lap League is another mobile transplant with great results.
