Platform(s): PC (version reviewed), PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Genre: Arcade, Arkanoid Clone, 2D Shmup

At first glance, the ball-focused Kenny Sun & Friends-developed and Devolver Digital-published Ball X Pit seems like a new take on brick-breaking arcade titles like BreakOut or Arkanoid. You launch a ball at stationary enemy bricks, use your character to catch the ball and not have it fall off, and so forth. After 8 or so hours playing through its gameplay loop, it’s not quite that. It’s more akin to an arcade 2D shmup that just happens to have Arkanoid-like concepts in it. Oh, and bullet heaven games like Vampire Survivors, but replace bullet with enemy bricks.

Ball In

Rather, Ball X Pit plays more like a stage-based shooter game where your projectiles ricochet like pinballs. In addition to your main ball, you also spawn mini-balls for added firepower, and can collect power-ups in the form of extra main balls with various elements and effects. There’s so much ball-tossing going on, that you’re given the option to toggle AutoShot so you don’t have to manually and skillfully launch your ball(s) for the perfect bounce and angle fire. Like I said earlier: a glorified 2D shmup.

Like its clear inspirations Vampire Survivors, you play as a lone warrior against mobs of enemies ready to obstruct you on a 2D vertical-scrolling stage. Enemies go down, you go up; prevent enemies from reaching the bottom screen otherwise you take damage and eventually get a Game Over screen. And the enemies will come down in droves. Most of them will be stationary, but they take quite a ball-beating and sometimes are a few squares bigger. Every stage -with their own elemental theme; ice, fire, forest, and so forth- have two minibosses and a big boss you need to defeat to get a Gear. Get two to three Gears, and you go to the next stage.

And that’s the gameplay loop that will make you play through the game over and over. You need to use different heroes (which you get through base-building; more on that later) to get the gears needed to advance. Each new hero you get has different attack styles. The Warrior comes with no bonuses but no flaws. The Sheriff just fires more balls than usual while sacrificing aiming and precision. The Couple can shoot two big balls simultaneously but they come in a pair and balls deal half damage. Different playstyles equate to different ways each new hero handle, with you needing a minimum of three you need to get accustomed to.

Even if you’re still getting the hang of it, you will still level up your characters over time and repeated play. The “Game Over” screen isn’t actually final; you just warp back to your home base and get into a base-building and resource-harvesting minigame. Here, you place your buildings and resource tiles onto a patch of land, and then launch your heroes/settlers Arkanoid/BreakOut style to hit the tiles to either harvest them or add to the build count to complete construction. You can only harvest for resources once, meaning you have to get back to the field and fight through enemies and bosses over and over. With diligence, you will get through the eight-or-so worlds filled with more beefy enemy bricks and new enemy attack patterns to contend with, along with big bosses.

Even with all the arcade-level grinding and repetition going on, the game’s Amiga Era-like visuals and quaint music/sounds to go along with the multi-ball action will keep you coming back for more. The game’s power-up system has you experimenting here and there; you can combine two different power-ups to create a new evolution attack that usually deals more damage and targets more enemies. Or just summon more balls and mini balls.

Depending on the randomness of the powers you get when leveling up, I opt for the damage-per-second route with Poison and Bleed effects, and also add in some Area-of-Effect shenanigans with Earthquake and Lightning balls. I then add in passives that make me deal more criticals when I’m hitting enemies left, right, and centre. You’re given a good amount of choices and skills to play around with, coupled with each different hero’s ability. Ergo, more tools and characters so your replays don’t end up too stale.

Tilt To Live

Ball X Pit does get grindy and repetitious halfway through, especially when it comes to overcoming each new level’s difficulty curve and attrition-based challenge. But when you’re pinging balls and combining power-ups to make the most devastating attacks possible with just ricocheting and slinging metal spheres down enemy throats, it’s still a blast through and through.

The combination of simple-yet-satisfying sound design and short-but-addictive brick-breaking gameplay makes Ball X Pit a solid entry in the arcade indie frontline of titles this year. It’s best played in small spurts rather than for the long haul like us reviewers, because by God it does wear on you. Still, good on Kenny Sun & Friends to tailor the game in this 90s 2D PC style for that good first impression.

Final Score: 70/100