BALL x PIT Review
A Melting Pot of Tried & True Mechanics!
For those who might prefer it, the video review is located here!
Opening Statement
Every so often, a game will hit the market and hurl my brain directly into the perfect storm of design, mechanics and replayability. If I’m lucky, a dash of solid narrative is detectable on the doppler in this meteorological metaphor I’ve committed to using. The first video game that truly held my attention at gunpoint, beautiful, immersive gunpoint, was Final Fantasy XI Online. From there I moved on to the original flash version of Ed McMillen’s The Binding of Isaac, swearing undying devotion to its reboot and subsequent expansions. I freed myself from this death grip a few weeks after the release of Repentance. Somewhere in there, I devoured Motion Twin’s Dead Cells, bathed in the simple pleasures of Cellar Door’s Rogue Legacy and invested more time than I should have into Supergiant’s Hades. Hot take... I felt the movement and targeting in this title was disappointingly stiff. All the while, I found myself helplessly ensnared by the once-in-a-lifetime, decade-long narrative of Final Fantasy XIV Online. Bravo, Naoki Yoshida and team. Bravo.
There may have been others I’ve forgotten along the way, but their absence speaks for itself. That brings us to now, the stage you had reasonably assumed I’d make it to a bit sooner into the video. Does the subject of this review share the same noble blood of those previously listed. Stick around and find out. Or don’t. I’m not your mom. I can’t make you do as you’re told, but speak ill of this title and I won’t hesitate to wash your mouth out with soap.
Description
BALL x PIT. Ball Pit? Rumor has it that even the developer, Kenny Sun, isn’t sure whether the ‘x’ is silent. What is BALL x PIT? A kingdom and its residents find themselves the target of a massive, psychedelic ball hurtling from the sky. The impact is inevitable and the destruction incomprehensible. Nothing, but a bottomless pit is left when the smoke clears. A few surviving individuals take it upon themselves to build a lift and follow the source of their tragedy into the abyss. That about sums it up.
Now imagine your classic brick-breaker had a baby with bubble pop and fell into a vat of glowing, roguelike sludge. Persistent progression, an array of upgradeable projectiles, double-edge passive abilities, combos on combos and a cute little kingdom you create over the course of the game. Okay that last one may not be a cornerstone of roguelike design, but god damn it’s a welcome addition nonetheless. The game manages to tow the line between puzzle shooter and city builder remarkably well. Neither of these mechanics require a significant time investment, with the bubble pop sections topping out around eighteen minutes in my playthrough and that seems suspiciously high. I’ve had a brutal head cold and it could be me misremembering the timestamp on the end-of-level tally screen.
As your kingdom grows and you delve deeper into the pit, new structures are unlocked via blueprints found during runs. Some of these provide bonuses to attribute-scaling or access to new characters entirely. Other bonuses target harvesting. Yeah you heard that right. Farming sim, enter stage right. Within the city management screen, you are able to place forests, fields and slabs of stone in any of the available tiles. Resources are gathered from these nodes by sending your characters out in a conga line to bounce around the province and ricochet off occupied tiles in their path like a more predictable, top-down pachinko machine. Feudal billiards without the felt. It’s geometry the whole way down with this game and I mean that in the best possible way. The ultimate goal, however, is acquiring enough cogs inside each level to upgrade the lift and further your descent into the ball-shaped depths. What’s at the bottom? You’ll be getting nothing in the way of spoilers from me.
Mechanics
Let’s focus on the action-oriented portion of the game for a minute. In any given BALL x PIT delve, endless waves of enemies resembling statues cascade from the top of the screen, hellbent on reaching the bottom and collectively doling out enough damage to end your run. It is your job to annihilate this threat with your balls. Hey! Take this seriously! The kingdom is counting on you. These balls are acquired by leveling up via experience gems and can be infused with fire, poison, ice, etc. You build an arsenal by choosing between one of three options each time a new experience level is reached. The strength of previously chosen balls can also be increased twice for increased effects, however this is in lieu of acquiring a new ball.
Enemies also occasionally drop a chromatic fission pickup, an item that grants at least one, but up to five, levels of enhancement for your current loadout. When two balls have been maxed out, the fission screen presents you with new opportunities. There is fusion, the combination of effects from two different balls and evolution, the formation of a new ball with wild and whacky effects that you will just have to discover for yourself. At three distinct points, marked on a progress bar at the right side of the screen, a boss will drop into play. Although every level functions identically to its predecessor, the bosses bring the bullet hell to the party, while also serving as a hearty damage check for your current build.
A/V
Visually, I love everything about BALL x PIT. Its simple, low-poly designs are reminiscent of late 90s/early 2000s titles, sending me back in time into an office chair in some cold, dark basement. A CRT sits maybe ten inches from my face, projecting blinding colorful lights directly into my retinas, no doubt causing lasting damage I’ll discover down the road. Ah, memories. All that to say, the art in BALL x PIT feels modern. There’s a level of fidelity here that didn’t quite exist in the years of yore.
On-screen character and enemy models are crisp, completely detectable despite how tightly they bunch together at certain stages of a run. The only place I wish there was a bit more of an outline is in the city builder section, but I also packed my completed buildings into corners of the map like sardines. However, there absolutely should be a way to position the camera directly above your kingdom without needing to have the rearrangement tool equipped. That might be my only visual qualm and I’m not sure it even fits in this category of the review.
In terms of sound design, the effects are numerous and pack an adequate level of punch. Due to the nature of having 100+ assets on screen in the most hectic moments, the results can pass a cacophonous threshold pretty quickly. This adds a frenzied element to runs, heightening the tension and providing white-knuckle moments as the enemy frontline surges closer to the bottom of the screen. In contrast, the noise created by fifty balls spawned from an egg sac, caught in an inescapable loop between enemies and the back wall, is enough to drive you mad. I find myself adjusting the sound effects level frequently, searching for a happy medium.
The score, composed by Amos Roddy of Citizen Sleeper fame, is seriously fantastic. I could sit and listen to the main menu theme for a solid five to ten minutes before ever feeling compelled to select the continue button. We have been blessed with a sonically replete product, which is why it pains me to admit that, while running subsequent characters through the same level, I muted the game’s music in order to hear my own selection of tunes on Spotify. Hear me out. I love the original score, but unlike my experiences with Amos’s work in other games, BALL x PIT keeps the score on a constant loop. For example, Citizen Sleeper offers intermittent breaks from its score. This gives me a chance to rekindle my desire for another listen, especially given the likelihood you’ll engage in countless, consecutive runs. When it was time to move on to an unexplored level, I’d crank the game volume back up and savor whatever audial morsel was coming my way. Rinse, repeat.
Conclusion
Overall, BALL x PIT has offered me nothing but a damn good time. The combination of mechanics, pilfered from various titles throughout video game history, work extraordinarily well together. Without Kenny Sun’s innovative stitchwork, I never would’ve discovered how much fun it is to finish out the construction phase of a new building with a few well-aimed shots of my character cannon.
At the time of writing, Steam has clocked my playtime at 31 hours, which is a delightful surprise considering the amount of structures I have yet to unlock, characters I still need to run through specific levels and the willpower it has taken to not boot up the game every time I sit down at my computer. Is this game for everyone? That seems statistically improbable, but its natural difficulty progression, simple mechanical concepts and experimental combo crafting allow it to bridge the infamous gap between casual and hardcore gamers.
Don’t take my word for it though. Priced at fifteen dollars, this is a no-brainer. Sure, your employer might not approve of your third sick-day text in a row and that pile of laundry isn’t going to fold itself, but you’re supporting independent developers. Where’s the harm in that? Thanks for checking out my review of BALL x PIT! Let me know in the comments what you agree or disagree with in my assessment of the game. Take care y’all! I’ll see you next time.
Pros
+ Visually aesthetic
+ Fantastic original score
+ Familiar, yet innovative mechanics
+ Extensive synergy variation
+ Captivating gameplay loop
+ Approachable to players of all skill levels
Cons
+ Sounds effects can be overstimulating
+ Score is ever-present
+ Building selection tricky in isometric view