Review: Ball X Pit (Nintendo Switch)
Ball X Pit is a roguelite shooter involving a weaponized bouncing ball. It features rows of advancing enemies trying to push past your line of defence while you attempt to hold them back. Think Breakout crossed with Plants Vs Zombies. Oh, and throw in a little Vampire Survivors for good measure. If these games appeal to you, Ball X Pit will be right up your alley.
I’ll get the gushing out of the way up front; I love this game. Ball X Pit speaks to me in a way few games do. It has everything I love: hordes of enemies, upgradeable weapons, unlockable characters, and a fun gimmick in the form of the ricocheting bullets. It’s simple on the surface yet complex underneath, making for an addictive outing.
The story involves a giant, circular pit only accessible via a metallic elevator. There’s a touch of steampunk to the overall vibe, with a combination of old and new ideologies merging in the design. In terms of the elevator, each level takes you further into this ominously dark pit. Winning a level earns you a cog, and a pair of those will adjust the elevator and take you deeper in the abyss.
Levels are played from a top-down perspective with a vertically scrolling screen. Enemies constantly shift from the top of the screen to the bottom. They can’t move per se—never left or right, for example—but they edge closer and closer to the bottom of the screen in a truly threatening manner. You, on the other hand, can walk around as you please.
Once an enemy reaches the bottom of the screen, it leaps on you. This causes a large amount of damage. The enemy then disappears, presumably to chill further down the abyss. Maybe it works its way around and back to the top? Who am I to question these things? The point is that letting them get to the end is bad. Very bad.
To stop them, you wield several weapons. You begin with a bouncing ball, but things grow more complicated as you progress. Each defeated enemy leaves behind a shiny gem, and collecting these allows you to level up. This briefly pauses the action and presents you with three weapon options. This is where the fun begins.
As you level up and add various ammo types to your arsenal, the on-screen action becomes more and more frantic. Bullets bounce around like crazy. Your weapons fire automatically, Vampire-Survivors-style, allowing you to concentrate on moving your character and directing the fire. This is important because bullets bounce off walls and enemies. When fired at the perfect angle, your weapon can ricochet numerous times, scoring many hits.
Despite its roguelite leanings, levels are finite in length. A handy meter on the right of the screen indicates progression, with a few obvious mid-way points indicating minibosses. A bigger boss awaits you at the very end. It’s a tough slog to get through each level, but leveling up and collecting buffs go a long way to encouraging you to try again and again until you succeed.
To that end, there’s also a sim element between levels. This provides powerups as well as a neat break between sessions without distracting from the main gameplay loop. It’s perfect for players like me who aren’t super into sim-style farming. Ball X Pit’s version of this involves planting crops and building houses on expandable plots of land. It’s quick and easy to do, and serves to assist in battles by providing powerups and new characters.
The best part of this light farming sim is the fun way resources are collected. Playing a level earns you one chance to reap your rewards from the land. Every unlocked character becomes a tiny avatar at the bottom of the screen. It’s only fitting, then, that resources are accrued by sending your avatars bouncing into the fields, ricocheting just like the balls we use in combat. It’s quirky, and I love it.
Overall, Ball X Pit is one of the most fun games I’ve played this year. The bouncing-ball mechanic is a game-changer. Couple the addictive gameplay with the upgradeable characters and light sim elements, and Ball X Pit is easy to recommend.
