I finally finished Silksong because I was feeling trapped by the game, and if I did not focus on rolling credits, then I would just be playing the game forever. In my free time, I played a BUNCH of this week’s game. I’ve never played so much Steam Deck on the toilet.

This week is my Ball x Pit review!

Ball x Pit is a BALL-THEMED action-adventure roguelite from Kenny Sun and friends and Devolver Digital. The game released mid-October for the PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch, AND NOW FOR THE SWITCH 2 SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE.

Nothing has changed. Annihilated by a cosmic event, the only thing left is an enormous hole in the ground where tombs filled to the brim with treasure. Many hunters go in, but only a few return, for the undead protect the tombs. Play as multiple treasure hunters armed with magical BALLS, venture in, kill, loot, and rebuild.

If you have ever played a Blockbreaker game before, then you already know the drill. The player gets to choose a character that has a unique ball. Drop in and rows of enemies line up, shoot your balls at them, and when they take a certain amount of damage, they die. The trick here is that enemies drop XP, and upon a level up, the player increases a stat and is awarded one of three perks. If enough enemies get past the player, the game is over.

Attributes like more targets, more damage, and more balls can be acquired. Passive options like statues that spawn every few rows, crit hit chance/damage, and ball-specific (poison poisoning more, bleed hurting more, freeze longer, etc) attributes can be acquired during a run. Even at the beginning, there is a large number of builds, and this number increases with every step.

Ball x Pit always has your attention because it is ALWAYS feeding you new, powerful things.

Fusing two balls is as easy as it gets here, but it is still just as fun to experiment with different ball fusions. I think the most recent evolution that I had was the glacier? The soul sucker? Regardless, glacier shoots little icicles on occasion, freezing baddies in place while the soul sucker freezes and passes through enemies.

The town/city building aspect initially confused me, but then it became a pivotal reason why I like Ball x Pit so much. WE GOTTA REBUILD BALLBYLON, and that requires getting people to call it home. Going through dungeons generates gold, which builds farms and forests, which construct buildings that give the roguelite passive buffs and unlock characters. Passive buffs range from increasing starting stats and starting ball level to specific houses giving buffs to other characters when their house is in the vicinity.

The city-building minigame is not a chore; it is incredibly fun to build up a living, breathing town full of adventurers.

Big fan of the look and the sound of Ball x Pit. Lots of colors, and I like colors. There has to be a link to the beginning levels looking drab with browns and grays, and the later levels looking way better and more colorful. Speaking of drab, Ball x Pit‘s characters and city management just look depressing, which is in line with what is happening in the wider game. The in-game environments are just great, I love each and every theme introduced so far. Introducing the BONE-ZONE as the first level with a bunch of skellies just makes the rest of the game worth waiting for. I especially like the fungal level.

Sound design is also just fantastic. I like the simple melody when I am constructing buildings and watching my city grow into a massive hub for treasure hunters. When you jump into play a round, every level’s music has me getting into it. THEY EVEN GAVE THE BADDIES A CHANT THAT HAS THEM BOPPING TO THE MUSIC.

Ball x Pit is an absolute hit of a video game. It feeds the player content every god damned moment, making my brain feel good pretty much all the time. The concept is just plain perfect, with 15-minute runs, and borderline infinite replayability with the like 20 characters, tons of unlockables, and hundreds (haha) of buildings to construct. The roguelite elements are great; every single ball is worth trying out and breaking, building up the settlement is super fun, though sometimes I get lost with what buildings can upgrade and those that cannot.

I’ve played 13 hours of the game, and I was so focused on having every character beat every level that I just never completed. I am currently doing that. It is also probably the best Steamdeck game.

9/10