Ball x Pit review: The deadliest ball pit you’ll ever see
I find myself growing more and more tired of roguelikes lately, and I don’t really believe in “guilty pleasure” as a concept. But if you held a gun to my head and asked me to identify my gaming guilty pleasure, I’d probably answer with *Vampire Survivors*. It’s the perfect combination of brainless dopamine and just-thoughtful-enough build-crafting that makes me dump hours into something that isn’t up to my usual tastes.
So when another game in the “like *Vampire Survivors*, but with a specific twist” pool floats up to the surface, I’ll gladly check it out. This time it’s *Ball x Pit*—a strange combination of brick-breaker (think *Arkanoid*) and survival roguelike, with a touch of base-building and… pachinko, kind of? It’s an odd one, and with a somber tone and setting that combines *Wizardry* with something like *Made in Abyss* (without the excess, mind), it definitely has a distinct vibe.
It’s fun to play thanks to its unique mechanics and combination-oriented system, but it’s extremely grindy and sometimes struggles to make its own nuances stand out.
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### Ballbylon’s Fall
The story is very silly. The city of Ballbylon is hit with a massive (ball-shaped, of course) meteor, which pierces the depths of the Earth and leaves a clean, morbidly intriguing pit in its wake. Naturally, the surviving locals decide to explore the pit and find several layers of godforsaken horrors inhabiting the abyss. But they also discover a wealth of resources, so into the pit they go, using their fancy makeshift elevator platform.
Each explorer has the power of combat pinball or something similar, with unique abilities they can use to take down hundreds of skeletons, dragons, sand lizards, and whatever else they encounter on their way to the bottom. If there even is one.
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### Unique Power Combinations
The cool thing about *Ball x Pit* is where it takes the idea of combining powers. We see this all the time with games like *Vampire Survivors*, where you can combine two powers to create a new one. But while most games have those combinations set up for an endgame state, *Ball x Pit* pushes combinations freely—not just as power-ups, but as a way to clear up inventory slots.
Not only are there specific evolutions, but powers that don’t evolve can still be crammed together to fit both effects into one ball. This creates a rush to get new powers, level them up fast, smash them together regardless of the result, and keep going as much as you can before the level’s boss shows up.
It makes for some wacky builds by the end, albeit ones that often lack cohesion compared to similar games.
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### Grinding Through the Pit
It’s a fun premise, but *Ball x Pit* immediately stumbles over itself with its obnoxiously grindy structure. The game DPS-checks the bejeezus out of you, and if you aren’t set up to deal enough damage, the endless scroll of enemies will just take over and crush you effortlessly.
All you can do is watch, then collect experience and resources to build up the passive numbers underpinning the progression system. Back home, you build bases from blueprints found in battle, unlocking more passive upgrades, game-changing abilities, and new characters with their own powers.
There’s tons of unlocking here, which is certainly exciting. But the pace can be glacial—especially when some passive benefits require you to beat each stage with every character or need multiple upgrades that cost increasingly rare resources.
Resources gained in battle are scarce and are mostly earned through these goofy, little pachinko-like maneuvers you can initiate after each run. With the right building arrangement and careful aiming, you can gather a small stack of resources. Some buildings can take several runs to afford, and once purchased, you might need multiple hits to activate their abilities, potentially requiring even more runs as you adjust to the system.
It can take forever to build up power, particularly as you progress through levels and push more finicky characters through later stages.
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### Numbers Must Go Up—or Die
Because of these serious DPS requirements, build-crafting suffers. I found myself quickly losing interest in potential new evolutions, skipping many sub-weapons and powers I knew wouldn’t get me through the level.
It was hard to discern, in the heat of moment-to-moment action, the differences between many power-ups beyond basic effects like damage over time or area of effect. At its core, the game became about how fast you could clear enemies before the screen got overcrowded.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell you the specifics about some of my winning builds if my life depended on it. Heck, there’s even a character whose gimmick is that it chooses upgrades for you—a character I often found success with, thanks to its high stats.
Despite featuring a lot of verbs, stats, tinkering, and codexes, *Ball x Pit* ultimately feels brainless. I found myself clicking on things just to make numbers go up, because that’s the only way to get through the levels. There’s no clever strategy or hidden breakthroughs buried off the beaten path, which is odd for an action game based on pinball that even allows molding into turn-based combat at one point.
For all the gimmicks, ideas, and mechanics *Ball x Pit* has up its sleeves, it’s so focused on Being a Roguelike that it misses the forest for the trees and corners you with stats from the jump.
While *Vampire Survivors* makes me sidestep my own tastes, *Ball x Pit* simply reinforced them.
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*Ball x Pit* is available on October 15, 2025, for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. A Switch code was provided by the publisher for this review.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146348/ball-x-pit-review-score
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