BallxPit Review | So, This is My Life Now

When Ball x Pit from developer Kenny Sun first launched, I wasn’t particularly drawn in by it. I haven’t played many brick-breaking games apart from the one in that Tamagotchi game on PC from 1997. (If you know, you know). But, on launch day, when nearly ten of my friends were all playing the game at the same time, I was really intrigued by what had captivated them so much.

Ball x Pit is a brick-breaking, base building survival roguelite where you battle hordes of enemies with ricocheting balls and gather gold and resources in order to upgrade your characters and take on harder and harder levels. The game has many different elements that will surprise you as you delve deeper into the pit. 

You’ll have to learn the mechanics of Ball x Pit pretty quickly in order to start making progress and build up your town to start earning resources. When you’re in the pit, enemies will approach you and you’ll have to take them out by shooting your balls at them. Each level in the game features three bosses you’ll have to defeat. Finish these levels with enough of your characters and you’ll unlock a new one. 

Each level is distinctly different beginning with your average skeleton-infested level to a frozen wasteland and a fungi-filled forest. And each level comes with their own difficulties as well. The Fungi forest for example has enemies that push forward other enemies more quickly, overwhelming the player if they don’t get rid of them. And bosses are much different in each level too - you’ll have to learn the rules to defeat them in order to complete the level. 

In between each level, you’ll go back to your base and spend your rewards on planting plots of land that will give you important resources when harvested or buildings that can upgrade your characters to make tackling future levels a little easier for you. Some buildings can upgrade your characters’ health, some can increase the damage your balls do and much more. 

Speaking of characters, Ball x Pit features a bunch of different strange and fun characters that have their own set of abilities. For example, The Itchy Finger is a sheriff that automatically shoots any balls available, starts with a ball equipped with fire damage and his aim is scattered. The Jester character throws his balls in the air, dealing damage upon landing. Choosing certain characters can completely change the way the game players - there’s even a character whose balls shoot from the back of the field rather than the front - so strategy is key to your continued survival. 

While on a run you’ll also be able to collect experience and level up, increasing your characters abilities and giving them special balls or equipment to make the run a little easier. Special balls have specific characteristics that the fire ball I mentioned earlier, there are also electric balls, balls that spawn more balls, and balls that can cause bleed damage. I’m going to stop describing the balls now so that I don’t have to use the word “balls” anymore. Items can have a variety of different abilities like friendly blocks that heal you to items that increase your fire rate and much more. 

The game’s sheer amount of customization is truly impressive. You’re unlikely to load into a friend’s game of Ball x Pit and find that they've done everything the same as you. For example, I’m really bad at the “cohabitants” character who shoots mirrored balls (shoot I said it again), but I know that it’s a popular character among my friends. Your base is also fully customizable, with a Tetris-like mechanic where you can fit your buildings and crops in any way that you choose. And, of course, when you’re in the level you can create incredible builds that will have you breezing through the level. 

If there was anything I had to argue against the game, it’s that I found some of its characters to be hugely difficult to use and learn. There is one character, for example, that completely changes the gameplay type by turning it into a turn based battle. Many of the ways that Ball x Pit changes up the game is impressive and interesting, but I found this character to be nearly impossible to use. There were also some descriptions for items that I found difficult to interpret without having to practice with them multiple times to figure out what it did. 

Overall, though, I am completely enamored with Ball x Pit. At the end of every day I make sure I give myself at least an hour to play the game because if I don’t, I’ll be waking up in the middle of the night just thinking about it and itching to play. That’s the sign of a great game, and one that has proved to be one of the best of the year. I have a feeling many games will be influenced by its success and we may just see a resurgence in the brick-breaking genre.

Breakdown

Game Name: Ball x Pit

Developer: Kenny Sun

Publisher: Devolver Digital

Availability: PC

Release Date: October 15th, 2025

Reviewed on PC via Steam Deck

Final Thoughts

There’s very little to say about Ball x Pit that isn’t positive. The gameplay is fun and features nearly endless ways to customize your experience. By the time you’ve unlocked all of the levels and all of the characters, you’ll be ready to take on the even more challenging fast mode adding to the game’s replayability. It’s, honestly, fantastic and I’ll likely be recommending it for a very long time.