I’ve recently become more than a little enamored of an independent video game called BALL x PIT. To be quite honest with you, I’m not entirely sure how one is supposed to pronounce that title, but I’ve just been saying “ball pit” in my head. What I am sure of is that I won’t be capitalizing the whole thing every time I type it out. That’s just obnoxious.
Ball x Pit is, largely, a brick-breaker game. You’ve probably played one before. Arkanoid, Kirby’s Block Ball, Wizorb, uh… others. If these don’t ring a bell, the gameplay consists of shooting a little ball up a shaft, where it will bounce around a bunch, and if it hits one of the bricks in said shaft, the brick goes away. The goal is generally to clear all the bricks without letting your ball fall off the bottom of the screen. Ball x Pit works a bit differently, as waves of brick-shaped monsters will constantly spawn and slowly move towards the bottom of the screen. If they reach the bottom, they will attack your character, and if you lose all your HP it’s game over.
However! You have not one, but a small arsenal of balls to fire at the encroaching enemy, giving you a much better chance at success. And not unlike Vampire Survivors (and the many clones that followed it), enemies will drop crystals when they perish, and collecting enough crystals will net you a level up. This gives you a (random) stat increase, as well as a choice from three upgrade items. Upgrades come in two flavours: new balls with special effects, and passive items that confer all sorts of advantages. Sometimes one of the options will be a thing you have, in which case you’ll be able to upgrade it to further boost its effectiveness.
As you battle the seemingly unending waves of block monsters, you’ll eventually see a little swirly rainbow thing, and that’s what really beefs you up. By default, you can choose “fission” which randomly gives you 1-5 upgrades to your held equipment. If you have two or more balls at level 3, you can choose “fusion” which will mash two together to combine their powers. And if you have two or more compatible balls, you can choose “evolution” which combines two balls into one completely new one that’s typically better than the sum of its parts. Fusion and Evolution are really the keys to victory here, as making the right combos can result in some insanely powerful effects, like firing off lasers across the whole board that cause status effects to any enemies hit.
This is a pretty solid gameplay model all on its own. It’s fast-paced, makes you feel powerful, and has very fine-tuned difficulty scaling so that wins and losses come at a pretty even pace. The only downside is that there are only eight levels, each one lasting around 15 minutes. So you could, in theory, burn through to the end very quickly.
However again! Very much like SNES classic Actraiser, there’s a second gameplay mode: a rudimentary town-building sim. And this is where the meat and potatoes of Ball x Pit’s replay value lies. In between rounds, you’ll be able to build new structures using blueprints you find in the game’s block breaker stages, harvest resources used to build and upgrade said structures, and expand your acreage for a vast sum of gold coins. Buildings do a great many things like improving your characters’ stats, improving stat scaling, adding new features to both game modes, and most importantly :unlocking new characters to play as.
Characters are what makes the limited number of stages fun to play over and over again, as each one not only has their own default ball and stat distribution, but they all have a different gameplay style. The knight guy that you start with is totally normal, perfect for learning the game. The next guy you unlock is a wild-west sheriff-lookin’ dude who’s always got auto-fire on. One of my favourites so far is a philosopher who chooses his own upgrades and fusions. And the most recent unlock I got is a bandit-type who hangs out on the bottom of the screen like everyone else, but fires his balls from the top of the screen. It’s a little mind-bending, as it forces you to think about how you play a little differently. I’ve heard rumours that there are unlocks that change the game even more drastically, and I’m very much excited to see what kind of wacky surprises I’ve yet to find!
So, the problem with Ball x Pit is that as fun as it is, it’s really only going to have legs if you’re interested in unlocking all the new things. Grinding the block breaker stages is fun in and of itself, but eventually only serves the purpose of being a conduit for blueprints and cash to expand your town with. I, currently, am having a great time rearranging my little toy houses and wheat fields between rounds, but the sheen is starting to fade a little bit, and I can see how certain types wouldn’t get any satisfaction out of it at all. Is there a solution for this? Not at present, but it’s entirely possible that something unlocks later on that will completely recontextualize the game. Like a mode that makes you play through all the stages sequentially. That’s kind of what I’m hoping for. Then I could see the thrill of not knowing if you’ll get to the end being reason enough to play. But when you only have to play one level at a time, it ends up lacking a little bit of the roguelike charm. Also the frustration, to be fair.
I should also mention that some replay value comes from the game adding a Fast mode for each stage after you complete it at normal speed. And then a Fast+ mode after that. And then a Fast++ mode after that. I haven’t got a clue how deep this rabbit hole goes, because I haven’t been able to clear a Fast++ stage yet, but there has to be a limit. (There does have to be a limit… right?) Maybe there’s some other difficulty modifier that comes after the speed maxes out, like an increase to enemy HP, or a nerf to your character’s stats. As far as I’m aware thought, every possibility is still on the table. These fast modes are also worth the effort, as each one cleared gives you a permanent passive buff for all characters.
With all that said, I can’t confidently express what I think about Ball x Pit yet. I’m enjoying it a lot right now! But will it get old and fall to the wayside? Or will it keep surprising me with new features and characters that play wildly differently from each other? It’s really hard to say. I’ve been playing a few hours a week since release and probably could be farther along by now, but I’ve been just a little too focused on buying upgrades over new buildings. But what happens over the next few hours of play will cement whether Ball x Pit ends up being one that I go back to for a good, long time, or gets left by the wayside in favour of newer, shinier games.