Last updated on July 26th, 2026 at 11:29 pm
Shotgun King – Puzzle Game Review
Shotgun King is a Puzzle/Strategy game from Plug In Digital, first launched in 24th February 2026.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 696+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Shotgun King Stand Out
Chess, but all your army has gone over to the white side, leaving you with nothing but your royal shotgun and your wounded pride. Carried by your dark folly, you decide it's time to teach those white pieces to fear the Shotgun King.
Every turn, you may either move your king or shoot at enemy pieces, after what you'll need to move again to reload your shotgun. Avoid checkmate and kill the enemy king to complete the floor. After each floor, you may choose between two random combinations of one upgrade for you and one upgrade for the other side. Choose wisely and keep on winning floors and you just may get your kingdom back.
Runs may take ~20 minutes to complete. The game features 15 ranks of difficulty, unlockable cards, over 100 achievements to complete, an endless mode, and now a chase mode where you get continually assailed from all sides!
This Puzzle game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Shotgun King is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 28th May 2026
Recent improvements include:
Fixed an issue that prevented progress from being saved
Fixed 2 soft locks that could happen under certain circumstances
Download & Availability
Shotgun King is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Not worth paying for this game if you cant save your progress at all and have to start with the tutorial everytime the game restarts. We would give this 5 stars if only the save feature is working.
Every time we close the app we lose all progress. No unlocks or achievements are saved. We have to skip the tutorial every time. Bummer because its a great game.
We love this the game we recently found it and have beating throne we dont know how many times by now but every time we open the app back up it starts from the tutorial again and makes us start all over again locks the other modes again like we havent played the game yet. We really want to keep playing but because this keeps happening we urge people to wait till this is fixed.
Great game and great mechanics. But Im taking two stars off because it doesnt save your progress. We hurt our leg so we played all day when we were couch bound, and when we fired up the game this morning all our progress (multiple unlocked shotguns, new game modes, etc.) were all gone and we had to restart from the tutorial.
Trust us on this, guys! The money is worth it! Thanks for such an awesome game! Our only complaint is that the story is too short, with only one boss. Please please PLEASE add more bosses! Other than that, 10/10 game.
We were obsessed with this game on switch and was dying for it to come to mobile. Cant be more happy that its here! Incredible game, excellent port 10/10.
Bug report: hard lock/hang when loafers were activated, and we used the directional fire stick function Selected target visually then hung indefinitely.
Seen this game randomly and became addicted very fast. Easy to learn and fun to play over and over again. Has good strategic game play. Highly recommended.
Great twist on Chess! Didnt look like a game Id usually try, but Im glad we did! Simple to learn, and gives you much freedom in different strategies, and challenging enough to keep you on your toes without ever feeling unfair. 10/10.
Rethinks the game of chess the American way, add a shotgun to it.
A perfect combination of rougelike mechanics, strategy, difficulty, and of course chess! No this isnt how you play real chess but with many achievements, shotguns, difficulties, secrets, and a few other game modes, you just might never run out of fun! Though we warn everyone, and not in a negative aspect: if you reach rank 10, then be prepared for a very difficult game! Overall, we love this game and those with a love for chess, strategy, rougelike or even just one of these should try this game. Oh, and if you combine the final countdown card with an undercover mission or a spy, select countdown reversal, activate the countdown, and dont kill any piece when it activates, youll get an achievement.
Been playing this since it was a jam game.
Good game but every time we use the royal loafers our game crashes.
They have markedly improved upon a thousand year old game. Play it play it play it.
We read a review that said its worth buying, so we took the plunge and we can say, definitely worth it. We love the mechanics and chess themes. Ive never really been keen to chess but this makes it fun for us. Fun to play with our son. Good thing he can read certain words yet.
Super satisfying graphics and sound design + interesting and engaging gameplay.
The gameplay loop is so entertaining to us, so many little details Im surprised this game is not more popular. However, we keep encountering a glitch where using right stick to aim while using the white shoes or the search orb causes the game to freeze completely. Works same as pc version otherwise.
Bought this game the SECOND we saw it on the App Store because Ive played at least a dozen hours on steam and its been amazing, easily the best chess roguelite ever made and we cant wait for it to take up hours and hours of time we would normally have spent doom scrolling.
Chess with Shotguns need we say more.
Ive never left a review but this changed that we dont really like games on our phone and didnt expect much honestly, but this game is well thought out and fun. Super addicting and rewarding.
We dont even like chess, but we love this game. The retro look and sound fits this game perfectly. TONS of cards. Each game is totally random, so you never play the same game twice. Our first day we played the game 50+ times. Well worth our money. Well worth our time playing it. Excellent.
We really enjoy this game its challenging enough and and is relaxing 10/10.
Worth every cent. Love the how each play through has different needs for strategy.
This is the first chess-like game where being good at chess helps you play better. Great game.
Shotgun king stands out from the existing chess rouge likes and was well ported from the PC version to mobile. One critic is that we wish it was easier to save mid run since this is a mobile game. However the gameplay and depth is exactly like the pc version.
Very intriguing take to the chess game. Its fun and adds rougelite ideas to the game.
Addicting and fun. Just add a save state and ill be happy.
Ive Vietnamese on pc pls add it.
We play chess every day and randomly saw this pop up on pre orders in December 2025 so we screenshotted it so we wouldnt forget. It came out today and we had to check it out. From the opening menu screen and brilliant old school sound design we knew we found a gem but was curious how a shotgun could fit into an already perfect strategy game like chess. Turns outIt always needed a 12 gauge. Its got some of the funniest dialogue Ive seen in a game and Im weirdly invested in the story. Combat is super satisfying and its just a super well made strategy game. If you love chess and youve wanted to blow up a horse thats threatening a checkmate but cantnow you can. Im gonna struggle to return to chess having experienced what its like to use a BOOM STICK on those pesky traitorous white pieces. FOR THE KING.
Awesome roguelite, but a feature we think is very important in a mobile game is the ability to save and pickup the run later. Runs arent very long as is, but not being able to play incrementally during downtime is rough.
The game is a fine take on the roguelike genre. Very replayable, interesting choices once you get your head around the gameplay. Losses really feel like its your fault and not simple RNG, which is satisfying. Theres a few small UX issues when playing on mobile, like differentiating between moves and attacks when you have long movements available. However, our main issue is the lack of a save file mid-run. If you close the game for any amount of time you will lose all progress and have to start anew. A pretty frustrating feature on mobile (where play sessions are shorter than PC) would probably give it 5-stars if they fixed that.
Great game! Experimental builds are rewarded with new shotguns, which is a fun incentive. Different game modes to switch things up if you need. We personally love the original Throne and climbing the ranks. Would be a 5 , but the game is currently bugged. The Royal Loafers, the one that makes you run and gun, crashes the game. If youre curious , try the demo on Steam and see for you like it. Thats how we got into this. We prefer the ease of playing on our phone instead of being locked down on our PC. Seems very fitting to be a game you can play on the go.
We love the game but the game crashes various points. The most regular crash seems to be when wearing the shoes and aiming. Some other crashes have occurred as well. Happens 25% of our runs which is frustrating.
This would be absolutely perfect if you could continue your play through after the app has been closed for any length of time.
Very fun mechanics with a lot to be desired secret wise. Game would benefit a ton from more secret unlockable cards and weapons. The basic gameplay loop offers a good amount of different self induced skills and challenges, but they become repetitive relatively quickly.
Great game if it werent for the clunky controls. Either let us drag and shoot or drag and move or tap to shoot or tap to move, every time but not all 4 at random.
Good but why does it have to do with stealing souls and pentagrams for some things in the game its chess why does it need to have that.
The game is good. Runs well on mobile. But the lack of no save while in the middle of a run HURTS. We cant start a game on a lunch break and then get back into it after work. So theres just no reason to play it until later in the day when we get time for a full session. That really sucks.
Game is a lot of fun, but we not being able to save progress mid run is a show stopper. Usually only have 5 minutes to hop into the game and seeing that our progress is wiped constantly is a killer.
Ive played damn near every roguelike and the balance here is insanely poor. The gimmick is every time you get a boon between rounds, the opponent does as well. The problem is the opponents buffs makes yours seem like pennies. Example boon is kill your range to get a tiny blade that only works when youre next to an opponent and they have low health. Basically get up close where its most dangerous – essentially a nerf. Meanwhile your opponent can get a rook which is a one hit kill enemy with 10+ range in 4 directions. Its silly. Only a few cards are actually good like a hilariously overpowered moat that walls off enemies. Got bored at the 4th ascension level. Regret buying.
It quickly becomes clear in the higher difficulties how paramount it is to get good RNG between black and white cards, which makes for a really unsatisfying experience when the only way to get a 'good' build is by spamming games and hoping for the best. Such little build agency even in the alternate modes leaves a lot to be desired. If theorycrafting combinations or working towards 'fun' builds is your thing, don't even bother — Shotgun King offers no avenue for choosing the direction of your build. (Seriously, Endless mode still only lets you pick 10 cards just like the main gamemode? Just make the main mode optionally continue after victory and make Endless actually Endless).
Just starting by saying its a lot of fun Ive got it on steam and saw it on phone and had to get it again. We would have given it 5 stars but we cant Unfortunately, when trying to use the run n gun shoes(cant remember the name) the game froze on us. Music stopped playing, pieces stopped wiggle we couldnt move; had to quit the game and on return we lost our run. At this point unless that is fixed we cant play again. Not exactly sure how the bug happened, but if it happened once Im sure itll happen again so we hope its identified soon cause this game is so much fun. Until then 2 stars so this is noticed and addressed before it happens to others.
But its crashed on us 4 times today.
We bought this game not expecting much but excited because of the trailer-and boy am we glad! It is so addictive, and time killing. Whenever Im on a road trip we bust out this game to ply until we get there. If you need something fun and time killing. This is THE game to play! Thank you devs for this game and our time.
So we love the game and the concept but the thing we hate is how many times we get trapped. Its probably just a skill issue though.
We use our mobile controller to our phone all the time, but this is one of the few games that we genuinely love to play, but it does not support our controller.
The only problem was the progress saving bug and now its patched.
The game is great now, since we can go to sleep without worrying about our progress. Just one more issue, whenever we get patience or bold plan, we cant actually pick from the entire deck. It shows a lot of cards, but never all of them, and it ruins a lot of runs that we have. Otherwise 11/10 game, hope you devs have a wonderful day.
We reinstalled and now works fine. 5 stars we like the game a lot and its easy to play and easy to pick up and learn and try new strategies. However, there does seem to be some glitching with the music and also its hard to get out of the app without accidentally moving your character. Furthermore, the game resets constantly, and we have to do the tutorial over and over again.
We recently got the game, and have been experiencing a pretty big bug. Whenever we close the app all the way, it resets all the progress we have made. All shotguns other shotguns are locked, and all achievements are wiped. We really do enjoy the gameplay, but it is really discouraging know one wrong swipe and all our progress is gone. If this is fixed, we will up the review to 5 stars. Problem was fixed:).
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.0.10
- Size: 468.24 MB
- iOS: 16.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, JA, KO, PL, RU, ZH, ES, ZH, UK
- Content Advisory: Frequent/Intense Profanity or Crude Humor, Frequent/Intense Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
- Developer: Plug In Digital
Last updated: 28th May 2026 | Genre: Puzzle, Strategy | Developer: Plug In Digital