BALL x PIT Review – More Than Just a Pit of Balls

Sometimes, to stand out, you need your idea to be as balls-to-the-wall as possible, and developer Kenny Sun sought to do just that, literally. The ball-infused arcade-esque roguelite, Ball X Pit, has been making quite a name for itself following its recent launch, with over 100,000 units sold in a day and overwhelmingly positive reception from critics and casual players across the board. After spending innumerable hours on Ball X Pit myself, I’ve been invested beyond belief right out of the gate, even if its mild frustrations can somewhat sour the overarching progression systems.

Ball X Pit Gameplay and Story

Ball X Pit has some manner of plot, really just here for an obligatory framework. Simply put, the city of Ballbylon has fallen after a certain event wholly destroyed it. A seemingly ceaseless pit formed as the former city’s tomb, so to speak, prompting treasure hunters to explore it for untold riches. Naturally, countless have fallen from this ambition, but amidst this continuous tumult, the nearby city of New Ballbylon has begun being built.

Throughout Ball X Pit, you’ll frequently traverse two central gameplay frameworks, with the titular ball pit being the primary appeal. This multilayered hole is divided into several clearly defined levels, and your goal involves slaying waves of foes while simply trying to survive. This format has you choosing one of the many unlockable characters, navigating an auto-scrolling vertical chasm that is crowded with waves upon waves of enemies.

Another twist here is that your sole method of offense consists of shooting balls in an almost pinball-like fashion, in which you’re able to redirect the directions and trajectories of your shots at your leisure. At the same time, you control the player character’s movement yourself, and you must be conscious of how many balls you have shot out since they’re not infinite in loadouts; they return cyclically.

Addictive Combat and Character Variety

Simply watching footage may not illustrate this, but Ball X Pit is phenomenally addictive and genuinely one of the most dopamine-inducing gameplay experiences I have ever had. The sense of shooting balls rapidly at incoming foes, with even minor alterations causing entirely different reactions, elicits constant delight, bolstered by crunchy audio design and rhythmic beats.

It’s truly an endlessly gratifying practice, and it’s not a one-trick pony either. The multiple characters have distinct characteristics, shifting specific aspects of your general approach, such as the twins who shoot simultaneously or others who embrace select elemental affinities. There’s even a character who shoots out their balls in reverse, meaning they arrive from the top of the screen, completely changing your approach to basic bouts. Plus, the different stages have unique terrain and effects, with later foes even having shields on precise portions of their bodies, necessitating measured usage of the pinball-esque aiming scheme. These components, alongside the run-specific leveling, complement each other beautifully.

Defeated foes provide experience orbs, and gathering them en masse raises the playable character’s level for that specific run. Then, doing so grants choices in what types of abilities you want to learn or upgrade, and they are instrumentally defining facets that can make or, occasionally even break, your run. From imbuing status effects to granting greater damage output at precise angles, there’s an impressive qualitative quantity of continuously growing assortments.

Additionally, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I also adore the act of physically picking up the experience points dropped from enemies, as it feeds into that tactile fulfillment. It’s a similar sensation seen in the underrated Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and I’m glad to see a system like that implemented in a modern release.

Base Building and Progression

The second central gameplay avenue, which directly ties into the primary ball shooting, is the base building. To be honest, I instinctively rolled my eyes when this genre type was introduced since not only is it not typically my thing, but it appeared shoe-horned in for the sake of hollow variety. Thankfully, this gameplay stream is simultaneously brief and impactful for the core ball shooting.

Simply put, during runs, you accrue materials and gold, and those currencies are used to create structures or farmland outside. Then, after any run is completed, whether it’s a success or a failure, you can send out workers to interact with those tiles. However, the distinct shakeup here is that these workers are utilized by being shot out like balls on stages, and buildings must be hit a certain number of times with these shots to be entirely crafted. Further, blueprints are acquired as stage drops, and some structures even straight-up unlock new playable characters.

Adding on to this collective component, select tiles can be upgraded for greater deliverables and some even impact the runs themselves, making them imperative aspects to note in the back of your mind. So, it’s pretty evident how these systems all cleanly integrate into one another, creating a loop that never overstays its welcome, ensures variety, and keeps you invested in the long term for rewards.

Potential Frustrations and Performance

For as masterful as Ball X Pit’s gameplay cycle is, the sole blemish I’ve had with it regards its roguelite incorporations. In this genre, losing a run typically results in gaining knowledge to hopefully make a better attempt on the next go around. Yet, in Ball X Pit, that design choice can feel nonexistent. While deaths to mistimed dodges are entirely fair, failing due to a lack of necessary damage output against incoming enemy walls doesn’t exactly teach me anything.

This isn’t a common occurrence, nor one that drastically impeded my enjoyment. Still, the instances where I lost a run due to what seemed to be a lack of offensive coverage were mildly aggravating. Regardless of boosts granted from the base building, there were just some runs where I lacked the damage to progress, and not having a method of countering that, at least to the best of my knowledge, besides hoping for better mid-run upgrades, killed my momentum to an extent. Combatting that frustration, performance is pristine on PlayStation 5, the soundtrack is remarkably catchy, and the pixelated visuals have a quaint charm to them that holds up after hours of play.

Verdict

Ball X Pit is, in several ways, an idealization of the indie gaming experience. An exceptionally addictive, gratifying, and replayable smash-hit for a mere fraction of the price of larger-scale AAA releases on the market is no meager feat to achieve. Plus, its intuitive pick-up-and-play nature, alongside impressive variety for builds, puts it at the top of the crop with other implementations of this genre. Slight annoyances with mid-run progression aside, I can’t deny that Ball X Pit, in terms of just raw gameplay, is the most satisfied I’ve been this year, and I’ll likely keep coming back for quite some time.