BALL x PIT review: ball-bouncing roguelite is hard to put down

As much as I’m usually loath to describe a game as like Game X meets Game Y, it’s practically unavoidable with BALL x PIT. In fact, it’s right there in the name: this game is Breakout (ball) crossed with Vampire Survivors (pit), mixing the ball-firing, brick-breaking gameplay of the former with the gem-collecting, upgrade-farming, power-mixing systems of the latter.

If you’re not familiar with either of those games, here’s a simpler explanation: you’re a little guy firing balls from the bottom of the screen at approaching enemies. By the end of a 15-minute run, the whole screen is filled with numbers and lasers and colours and explosions thanks to all the upgrades you collected along the way.

If too many of the bad guys reach the end of the screen and hit you – or a final boss hits you with a projectile right before you manage to take its final sliver of health, as happened to me several times – then you’ll have to try again from the beginning.

Going into the pit

You start each expedition by picking a character – each has a unique starting ball and ability as well as stats that level up as you play – before sending them to one of the levels of the pit you’ve unlocked. In each level, waves of enemies approach from the top of the screen while your character faces them from the bottom, firing balls in their direction.

You can set balls to fire automatically or do it manually. I could not find any reasonable argument for manual fire, but that feels like something that expert-level players will be arguing against in a few weeks’ time.

Defeated enemies drop gems, which can be collected to level up and unlock new balls, each with their own unique properties. Some might apply poison damage, or fire a laser that hits all other enemies in a row or column, or restore some of your health on each hit. (Enemies fire projectiles that will do damage if they reach you.)

You can also unlock perks that modify your damage or health. As you get further into your run you’ll unlock fusions and evolutions – new abilities that combine your existing weapons and perks into more powerful variants, which can, in turn, be levelled-up again and then fused further.

Each character also fires ‘baby’ balls – regular balls that bounce around and do moderate damage – but with most builds it’s the special balls that will dictate how you perform. This is a roguelite, so you’re starting from scratch each time you enter a level, putting together a fresh new build based on the unlock options you get at each level up.

How to bounce to victory in BALL x PIT

What makes BALL x PIT feel distinct is the way you have to take the physics of your balls into account. The most satisfying feeling in the game is getting your balls to bounce just so, ricocheting off multiple enemies and filling the screen with damage numbers.

I never quite hit the point with BALL x PIT that you might during a particularly good run of Vampire Survivors – that sense of being an untouchable god – but when you find a build that synergises well and suddenly you’re clearing the whole screen, it’s a good feeling, especially when you start to get a sense of which ball combinations can be evolved into stronger variants.

When it comes down to it, you’re not necessarily doing a lot in a standard 15-odd minute run of one of BALL x PIT’s levels. You move back and forth, aiming your cursor to dictate where balls go, and then pick your upgrades on each new screen.

The differences between characters are quite pronounced. One fires from the top of the screen rather than the bottom, another fires in two directions at once with only half-power, while another chooses all upgrades automatically for you. They level up separately, so there’s real incentive to switch between them regularly and get to grips with how their individual abilities work.

Watch the BALL x PIT trailer

Don’t forget to manage your homestead

You unlock new levels of the pit by finishing previous levels with multiple characters, and characters are unlocked by finding ‘blueprints’ for their homes during levels, which you can then build in your homestead from the main menu.

It’s in this homestead that BALL x PIT overcomplicates itself. When you’re not exploring, you’re building a little village full of buildings and managing resources that must be reaped regularly by your explorers. A surprisingly important part of the game is arranging and rearranging your ever-increasing homestead so that you can farm it effectively.

Stopping outside of the pit to reconfigure my homestead often felt laborious. You’re meant to really think about how your homestead fits together and how to maximise it, which is a different game to the one you’re spending most of your time playing.

Part of the fun of BALL x PIT is that you continue to unlock characters, abilities and upgrades that fundamentally shift the way you think about the game, but the mechanics for unlocking all of this can feel arbitrary.

BALL x PIT is what I’d call a podcast game. It will keep your hands and part of your brain busy, but not so busy you can’t also listen to a podcast while you’re playing (although the soundtrack to BALL x PIT is quite good too).

That’s not to say that there’s no depth here. There are plenty of ways to plan and strategise your way through BALL x PIT, but never quite delivered those moments where I suddenly found myself needing to mute my podcast and really pay attention.

There’s something soothing about BALL x PIT. Losses rarely feel too dispiriting and that part of your brain that enjoys seeing the numbers going up is well-served. Some of the elements dictating how you progress through the game are a little frustrating but it’s all worth it for those moments where you bounce your balls just right and a swath of approaching enemy forces are wiped out in seconds.

BALL x PIT is available on PS5, Xbox, Switch and PC.

Discover more screen, games & arts news and reviews on ScreenHub and ArtsHub. Sign up for our free ArtsHub and ScreenHub newsletters.