Roguelikes have been taking many forms and I’m a big fan of where the genre is going. I haven’t seen a game like this week’s demo, not that I am rummaging around the Steam store looking for pachinko-based games, but this game caught my eye with its colors and flair. Appease the Gods by placing pegs on boards and racking up a load of points. This week with Ballionaire.

Ballionaire is a pachinko based roguelike from Newobject and Raw Fury. The game will be releasing on Steam.

There are Gods, and they need to be pleased, and the only way to appease them is through playing a game that translates into money. At the beginning of each round, the player is given a money threshold that they have to overcome with a set number of pachinko balls in the top left corner, along with the current money they have. It looks like there are three sections to play through. Each has a God and a certain stipulation attached like ager pegs age faster or certain pegs lose value.

Ballionaire is incredibly straightforward. You have a pre-determined board with some already placed pegs that have some goofy abilities: a jump rope that gives you money and bounces the ball upward, a standard bouncy one, and maybe a tree that, if hit from the bottom, then you’ll money for each age counter on it. After each throw, you are given a choice between three new pegs to place on your board, some of which can be combined to make interesting combinations.

I am pretty sure that this game is made to be broken

There are a bunch of combinations, one of which is food, that when you hit pegs, food attaches to the ball, and if you have a mouth on the field (and it hits), then you’ll receive a multiplier based on how much food you have. There are weapons that do just about the same thing, but instead of a mouth to feed, you have enemies to defeat on the board that reward you with extra balls when defeated. There are elemental balls that, when bonking, something that synergizes with it, something fantastical happens. In no time, there will be explosions everywhere and balls flying all over the screen while numbers just are forever flashing on the screen. PURE CHAOS IN NO TIME.

There are loads of different synergies that, when combined, can have you making big bucks and beating levels in one drop.

Ballionaire is a goofy-looking video game. Everything is cartoony, and every peg has a face, which just adds to the pull of the game (My wife and I find the mushroom weird-looking). When things hit the fan, the game starts to hit you with a color explosion that makes your eyes widen, and a headache ensues.

Sound design is cartoony just like the look of the game. The explosions of color are accompanied by literal explosions of sound as the ball hits pegs and the on-hit abilities trigger.

Lots of sights and sounds that make me smile and shout when something awesome happens.

Ballionaire is just plain fun. The demo is really just a small dose of the joy of the game. It is easily digestible for new players and for veteran players of roguelike it offers the absolute absurdity of synergies between the different pegs. The demo provides the perfect amount of gameplay to get you hooked on it. There was one moment where it looked like I was going to go infinite as the ball just kept shooting to the top and it was absolutely magical.

Ballionaire’s demo is incredibly fun and shines a light on how great of a game that it will be when it releases. I cannot wait.