When it comes to budget-friendly indie games, simplicity doesn’t have to equal unengaging. Of course, there’s no doubt that in that situation the developer will be challenged to come up with something that can deliver fun and even surprises for the long haul, but I’ve enjoyed numerous games in the space that have pulled it off. One in particular that I remain a fan of is One Finger Death Punch 2, where you’ll have to fight off varied enemies coming from both sides, but which uses humor and some legitimately challenging variety to keep it feeling fresh. At first glance I’d thought Blind Shot could be in that same vein, trading guns for martial arts blows, but unfortunately it simply isn’t as refined.

I suppose the premise is that you’re a lone hero, beset on both sides by hordes of zombies, looking to do whatever it takes to survive. For the most part you’ll be using a variety of shooting weapons, ranging from more traditional guns with standard ammo to the more exotic using poison or even electrical zaps. Aside from trying to keep the zombies from overrunning you, you’ll also want to keep an eye out for coins to pick up for unlocks as well as periodic air drops. Not only will you get resupplied with new guns from these drops, you’ll also simply need to be careful that they don’t land on you as well since they can also cut your run short if you aren’t careful.

The problem quickly becomes that the essentials of the gameplay are, and generally remain, as simple as is stated above. Sure, you’ll make some progress to unlock new cosmetics and relatively small-impact upgrades, and you’ll have the option of using your currency to change up your default load out to help improve your odds, but there’s not much going on here. It seems that the allure of different themes and some humor, making references to various movies and properties, is really the bulk of what’s expected to keep you on the hook. But since the fundamentals generally remain the same it simply isn’t enough to justify your sustained attention.

In the end, this is one of those somewhat baffling games that makes it onto the eShop where I simply can’t see what was expected to be its strong selling point. I suppose there could be some appeal in its humor, but since almost all of that is fleeting at best you’re just left with lackluster and highly repetitive play that’s neither terribly strategic or twitchy. I actually quite quickly became more fascinated by seeing how long I could game the system, keeping runs going while simply going back and forth in rapid succession, then just being sure to avoid falling supply crates. By comparison, One Finger Death Punch 2 will absolutely brutalize you for carelessness, but Blind Shot seemed pretty helpless to stop me most of the time. With the only reason I could see to keep coming back being the effort to unlock new chapters, there’s simply nothing terribly sustainably interesting here.