Ball x Pit has become my new, all-consuming addiction. Its reliance on strategy (with a butterfly kiss of luck) and alluring upgrade paths both on and off the playfield took hold of the primal lizard parts of my brain to the detriment of all other civilized activities, even though I didn’t intend to replace all of my free time with grinding its roguelite take on Breakout. I’m addicted. Since I started playing Ball x Pit a few weeks ago, it’s actually the only video game I’ve played. Running a level, upgrading my balls, upgrading my city to unlock additional balls, and then immediately leaping back in is a rewarding cycle that I am unable to escape.
It’s a disease for which there is no treatment, and to be honest, I’m not even sure that I would want to be cured of the insanity that has overtaken me. I’ve been telling everyone about it, and thus far, everyone who has followed my advice has contacted me to say the same thing: “You ruined my life, you sicko.” It’s amazing. Come along with us. Here, we all bounce back.
From a distance, Ball x Pit appears to be one of those awful games that are promoted on Reels or TikTok. They say things like, “We’re playing a game the comments said was fake part 17,” or similar statements.
At first glance, it appears to be an endless runner game that is attempting to entice you with playtime gems or whatever predatory trash is currently popular. Crucially, though, it’s not one of those games at all because it doesn’t have any microtransactions and respects your time by cleaning it up. Each level offers gratifying upgrades, after which you have the chance to develop more enduring abilities at your home base. It is neither cheap nor dishonest. Even if there is some RNG in every level, it makes you feel strong and doesn’t let you down. Instead of depending on random chance or stupid luck, you must take advantage of every opportunity.
On the surface, the gameplay itself appears simple as well: As your character or characters advance across the field, they launch bouncing balls at successive waves of adversaries. You ultimately reach the special boss for each level after the balls are turned into weapons and the foes are destroyed by the assault. That’s the fundamental loop; however, “basic” is the keyword. Because Ball x Pit is a lot more complicated, friends. To begin with, there are many types of balls to shoot. For instance, the Warrior, your first character, begins with a unique ball that bestows a “bleed” status effect that accumulates to deal additional damage on subsequent strikes.
There are a variety of possibilities, including balls that spawn more “baby balls” (which is strange) and special balls with status effects or area-of-effect damage. Then there are defensive enhancements, buffs, passive effects, and even allies that will march forward with you while inflicting harm or even healing. Certain power-ups are far superior to others. For instance, the earthquake ball, like the majority of AOE balls, is extremely powerful when completely upgraded and causes damage the surrounding target it strikes. Some are quite awful, such as the Wretched Onion. Finding out which upgrades are most effective in a particular level and seeing what occurs when you combine specific balls with Fusions and Evolutions that further combine or alter their powers are both enjoyable aspects of the game.
It’s a gorgeous carnage when you’re fully enhanced and the RNG gods have favored you.
By combining two effects onto a single ball, fusions can easily save you a slot, but certain combos have the opportunity to develop into a new power instead. For instance, my personal favorite, the Holy Laser, is created by combining the Horizontal and Vertical Lasers. It deals AOE damage in addition to shooting beams of pure burning death both vertically and horizontally upon impact, which is both practical and merely rules.
It’s awesome that fusing balls allows you to add extra harm while also scaling the damage you are dealing. There is an in-game encyclopedia that displays the combos you have unlocked, but it might be challenging to keep track of every option. After more than 30 hours, I still haven’t discovered any fusions, which excites me very much.
To be honest, the laser balls in whatever configuration cause a ton of damage, including burning rows and columns and occasionally adding stackable status effects like radiation in addition to standard, hot laser damage. It’s a gorgeous carnage when you’re fully enhanced and the RNG gods have favored you. The screen is filled with damage counters as whole rows of foes vanish into experience gems and currency that you can spend back in your town in between runs. Lasers, explosions, and effects are all continuously going off.
The town, which is the other half of Ball x Pit, is crucial to the development of your characters. You’ll get permanent stat boosts simply by playing as them, but you’ll also get buffs and benefits by creating specific structures and character houses, which you’ll need to get through the later stages. Although it’s crucial, Ball x Pit’s city-building feature is quite awkward; in fact, it’s perhaps the worst aspect of what I believe to be an otherwise perfect game.
Regardless of whether you finished a level successfully or not, you are returned to the town interface, where you can construct buildings using the blueprints you collected in the field. Additionally, you construct resource tiles: fields for wheat, forests for timber, and rocks for, well, rocks. These materials, together with gold, are needed to construct and renovate new buildings. Fortunately, there are many other ways to obtain resources outside of harvesting, such as during runs and using passive structures like the stone quarry, although gathering them by hand is the most enjoyable.
During the harvest phase, you utilize your unlocked characters like balls, aiming from the bottom of the board and letting them rip in the direction of the objects you wish to strike, much like Beyblade. After that, they bounce off the walls and structures, gathering resources from the resource tiles and enhancing any structures you designated for improvement. Although you can reposition structures before harvesting to maximize their placement, there isn’t really a practical way to do so, which makes this procedure both entertaining and quite time-consuming.
The worst aspect of an otherwise perfect game is city building.
Usually, I end up shifting everything to one side of the map and then rearranging all the pieces to where I want them at that precise moment. Because there is no penalty or resource cost for rearranging tiles, it almost seems as though Ball x Pit is aware of how difficult the city building is. A holding pen where I could temporarily place constructions while I reorganize my layout would be ideal, as would some way to wash the slate clear without having to go through and painstakingly remove every building.
Additionally, you’ll be changing your layout a lot. Your characters must repeatedly bounce off structures to complete building upgrades. If a building is in an unusual place, you’ll have a hard time getting the trajectory to hit it enough times during the harvest phase without rearranging half the town. Frequently, I had to relocate pertinent buildings close to the launch area, which required removing everything else. After everything was said and done, I had to reorganize everything. It doesn’t appeal to me at all.
The city structure is crucial to your level of power in the actual stages, thus it’s very unfortunate that you can’t truly disregard this. The location of certain buildings is essential to your ongoing success since they offer buffs that intensify the impact of other surrounding buildings. When it comes to harvesting, building, and upgrading, the reality of continuously moving tiles around conflicts with the requirement for meticulous planning.
Apart from building-specific concerns, though, I truly appreciate how your town buildings directly support the action. The more blueprints you discover, the more alternatives you have for a new run, and the better your city, the better your characters. Moving everything about might be difficult, but the outcomes are significant and occasionally unexpected in a way that is ultimately beneficial.
Verdict
My favorite game of 2025 is Ball x Pit. The excitement of its Breakout-inspired runs is incredibly entertaining, despite a clumsy city construction phase that you can’t afford to overlook. Every time I sit down to play, what I promise will be a short round or two, I get caught up in the “just one more run” mentality. For a straightforward brick-breaker, its methods are surprisingly complex, rewarding careful preparation and thinking more than RNG and chance alone. After finishing the main story, I’m still eager to play this uncommon game, and in many respects, I wish I were playing it now. I highly recommend it if you want a deceptively straightforward brick-breaking roguelite to completely upend your life. I highly recommend it if you want a deceptively straightforward brick-breaking roguelite to completely upend your life.
