Apple / games / BUCKSHOT BLAST
REVIEW
Buckshot Blast trades on a name that belongs to a better game.
A free, ad-supported shooter from Adknown that arrives wearing a borrowed silhouette. The mechanics underneath are fine; the framing is the problem.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 11, 2026 · 3 MIN READ
Some App Store games arrive on their own terms. Buckshot Blast arrives wearing someone else’s coat. The shells, the shotgun, the single-syllable verb — every signal points at a game this isn’t, and the storefront listing doesn’t go out of its way to clarify.
What’s actually here is a small free arcade shooter from Adknown, an ad-tech publisher whose catalogue leans on lightweight, monetised casual titles. It runs fine. It plays fine. The problem is the name it chose to play under, and the audience that’s going to install it expecting a different game entirely.
That gap — between what the App Store search result implies and what the binary does — is the whole review.
The shells, the shotgun, the single-syllable verb — every signal points at a game this isn't.
FEATURES
Buckshot Blast is a free shooter aimed at the casual download charts. The loop is short-session arcade: aim a shotgun, clear waves, watch the screen flash. Interstitial ads sit between runs in the standard free-to-play cadence, with the publisher's broader ad-network business — Adknown — visible in how the monetisation is structured rather than hidden behind a paywall.
There is no roguelike round structure, no two-player tabletop framing, and no live-action presentation. This is a one-thumb action title sold against a name that has come to mean something quite different in indie circles.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
As a free pick-up-and-play shooter, the basics are present. The shotgun feels weighty enough on a phone screen, runs are short, and nothing about the build is broken. For players who want a few minutes of ad-supported arcade between things, it does the job that most free App Store shooters do.
Crediting it for what it is: a small, free game that loads, runs, and doesn't ask for a card on the first launch.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The name is the issue. "Buckshot Roulette" — the 2024 indie hit from Mike Klubnika — is a tense two-player horror game about loading a shotgun with live and blank shells and pointing it across a table. It built its audience on streamers and word-of-mouth, and "Buckshot" plus shotgun iconography now reads as a reference to that game whether the developer intended it or not. Buckshot Blast is not that game, is not by that developer, and doesn't share its mechanics. Anyone searching the App Store after watching a YouTube clip is likely to install this and feel misled.
Beyond the framing, the game itself is thin. There is no real progression hook, no memorable enemy design, and the ad density is the part you remember. The 5-star App Store rating sits on a very small review base — typical of new free titles — and isn't doing the heavy lifting the storefront makes it look like it is.
CONCLUSION
If you want a free shotgun arcade game to kill ten minutes, Buckshot Blast is fine. If you came here because someone on Twitch was playing Buckshot Roulette, close this tab and search for Mike Klubnika's title instead — it's a paid game on other platforms and worth the few dollars. Adknown's release isn't malicious, but it lives in the shadow of a name that wasn't theirs to inherit.