I really didn’t think that an indie game that combined elements of Pong, Brick Breaker, Vampire Survivors, and Loop Hero would end up being a legitimate contender for my game of the year, but here we are. Actually, who am I kidding? As someone who has poured an embarrassing number of hours into Vampire Survivors and Loop Hero (and isn’t opposed to the occasional bout of Brick Breaker), I should’ve seen this coming. BALL x PIT is my new roguelite addiction, loathe as I am to say that word.
BALL x PIT is a new indie game from Kenny Sun (Twinfold) and Devolver Digital. It’s one that I’ve had my eye on for a while, especially after glimpsing the game’s base-building mechanics and gothic-style art. It’s an incredibly simple game, as most roguelites often are. Utilizing the mechanics of Brick Breaker, you move a character around a level that’s constantly inching you upwards as they shoot out balls that bounce off walls and enemies. The goal? To break through the blocky enemies in your way and make it all the way to the end.
And like all good roguelites, BALL x PIT also features a surprising amount of depth. As you kill enemies and level up, you gain new powers. Eventually these powers can be fused and evolved to become wholly different types of attacks, Vampire Survivors style. In between your runs, you’ll use the resources you’ve gathered to build up a little home base that provide various advantages such as stat increases and even new character unlocks. Despite only receiving my review code shortly after the embargo lift, I’ve already punched my way through almost every level BALL x PIT has to offer. And this is during Pokemon Legends: Z-A‘s release week, mind you. I have a problem and I’m not afraid to admit it.
I don’t want you to think that BALL x PIT must be an easy game just because I’ve made such progress in just a few days, though. I’m just an addict. That’s the takeaway.
Anyway, BALL x PIT starts off with you simply firing off balls at your foes. While you can shoot automatically, everything else is up to you. Your positioning and aim are key here, as you’re forced to constantly think about the angle at which you’re shooting. Before too long, I quickly learned that simply shooting straight ahead was far from optimal. Your goal should always be to shoot at an angle to allow the balls to ricochet off walls and enemies, hitting multiple foes at once. As you level up, you’ll start to get to grips with the various power-ups that the game has to offer.
There are balls that burn, poison, and freeze. Some will spawn baby balls that deal less damage, but add to the chaos nonetheless, which is always welcome. Then there are lasers that fire through rows and columns, ghost balls that pass through enemies, balls that go all the way to the back of the field… The list goes on. You can also get up to four passive abilities, which do a variety of things like increasing your critical rate, movement speed… You get the idea.
As you level up your power-ups, you can eventually fuse them. Fusion’s only the first step, though. For instance, the Burn and Laser balls can be fused to give you something as simple as Burn + Laser, which is a combination of the two but only takes up one ability slot. Evolutions come later when you have the right combination of powers, such as Magma, which moves slowly but sets the floor on fire, dealing a ton of damage. Killing enemies causes them to drop gems, which you pick up to gain experience. Again, Vampire Survivors style.
In order to progress, you’ll need to clear a stage with two different characters, of which there are many to choose from. You’ll start off with the basic Warrior, but soon enough you’ll unlock plenty of fun folks including a sharpshooter, a mummy, a couple of creepy twins, a philosopher, and plenty more. They all start with different balls, but they also come with various quirks. For instance, the sharpshooter’s shots are scattered, while the mummy’s shots will always pass through enemies before bouncing off a wall and returning to you. The quirks get crazier as you unlock more characters, and I always found myself looking forward to experimenting with them.
In between your runs, you’ll engage with BALL x PIT‘s base-building element, too. Back at your base camp, you can set up fields, mines, and forests to harvest resources, while also constructing buildings that give you stat boosts and unlock characters. What’s interesting about the base-building mechanic is that you do need to be conscientious about how you’re placing your buildings. You see, after placing a structure, you need to fill up its construction bar, and you do that by launching your unlocked characters to have them bounce around the walls of your base to hit those buildings. Hit it enough times and construction will be complete, unlocking the full effects of that building. Thankfully, you can rearrange your buildings at no cost at all, so don’t worry if you’ve messed up the placement.
The levels are nicely varied, though BALL x PIT will run the gamut of the usual suspects you see in these games: the ice level, the desert level… You know the drill. Enemies get much tougher as you progress, with some of them even fighting back with laser beams and shots of their own. The terrain also changes; for instance, there are slippery tiles in the ice level that make you lose control of your character momentarily, while there are sandpits in the desert level that slow you down drastically.
Levels are usually comprised of two mini-bosses and one big boss at the end. Surprisingly, I found that most of the main bosses were pretty easy to beat, though I guess that makes sense, thinking about it now. The challenge lies in actually getting to the big boss, and the mini-bosses in-between serve as skill/damage checks to see if you’ve got what it takes.
While BALL x PIT can feel severely punishing at times, especially when you’ve hit a wall with the mini-bosses, the game is also extremely generous with what you can carry over between runs. Every character earns experience at the end of the run, which gives them a nice boost to their stats. Simply put: the more you play, the easier BALL x PIT gets. The difficulty does ramp up quite a bit to keep up with how strong you get, but I welcomed the challenge.
Long after you’ve cleared every stage, you can revisit them and play them on Fast mode, which simply means that enemies will drop in much quicker than before, seriously testing your aiming and tactical skills.
BALL x PIT checks off everything I want in a roguelite game I can take on the go (I played on Switch with no performance issues whatsoever). The numbers get big, the chaotic nature of the levels, with skeletons and other eldritch horrors exploding in piles of goo, blood, and tar lit up parts of my lizard brain I never even knew existed. BALL x PIT‘s depth and simplicity make it one of the most compelling roguelite games I’ve played this year, holding its own against the likes of Loop Hero and Balatro in this increasingly competitive genre.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here. Reviewed on Switch.
