BALL X PIT — Rogue Chaos, Bouncing Brilliance
A riot of colour and chaos, where every bounce brings discovery.
Some games feel like they shouldn’t work on paper — Ball X Pit is one of them. A fusion of brick-breaker, roguelike, and base-builder, it somehow makes all three ideas collide in a shower of light and sound that’s hard to put down.
Each run starts in The Pit, a sprawling underground arena where your chosen hero launches bouncing projectiles to fend off swarms of enemies. The longer you survive, the more chaos the screen descends into — dozens of ricocheting balls, layered particle effects, and the constant ping of loot drops.
Between runs, you return to New Ballbylon, a city slowly rebuilt through the resources you’ve collected. It’s where you unlock new heroes, structures, and upgrades — giving every run a sense of lasting progress.
Fusion and Freedom
The game’s heart lies in its fusion system, and it’s brilliant. Every ball has a unique effect — Burn ignites enemies, Frost slows them, Laser cuts through multiple targets, and Brood mother explodes randomly into more balls. As you play, these elements can combine and evolve into hybrid balls with unpredictable results.
My personal favourite has been going a ‘machinegun baby ball’ build, whereby I use Brood Mother, Egg Sac, Baby Rattle and things along those lines, to spawn as many of the little white balls as possible and savagely overwhelm enemies. These tiny moments of discovery are what make the game so engaging; every run feels like experimentation in motion.
You never quite know what combination will appear next, and that constant tension between control and chaos is what keeps Ball X Pit fresh hours later.
Character Variety
Fifteen playable heroes give the game a surprising amount of personality. Each brings something distinct to the pit — not just in stats, but in mechanics.
For instance, ‘The Itchy Finger’ character rewards aggressive positioning with rapid-fire shooting and constant movement, as he maintains full movement speed while attacking. Which means you can get into certain areas of the backline and then get back to your position before it’s too late.
Or ‘The Cohabitants’ which are actually 2 people that fire in opposing directions in a mirror-image style. Meaning you have double the amount of balls, but each one does half the damage. But if you can synergise this with certain combinations, it’s brutal!
These aren’t just cosmetic changes — they alter how you approach each descent entirely. Switching from a precision-based hero to a wide-coverage one changes the flow and pacing of the game, keeping things unpredictable.
Pacing and Progression
Outside the pit, you’re rebuilding New Ballbylon — a ruined city that serves as your meta-progression hub. Here, you invest resources earned from runs to construct facilities, recruit new heroes, and unlock passive boosts. It’s a welcome layer of long-term strategy, giving meaning to your failures as much as your victories.
The only slight drawback comes from the harvesting mini-game — a Peggle-style mechanic where you fire balls to gather materials between stages. It’s charming at first but can feel repetitive after a dozen runs. Thankfully, it’s over quickly enough that it never fully breaks momentum.
Still, there’s something satisfying about returning to the city after a brutal loss and seeing new buildings rise. It gives Ball X Pit the structure that many roguelikes lack — a sense that you’re always progressing, even when you’re not surviving.
Presentation
Visually, the game teeters right on the edge of sensory overload — and that’s part of its charm. Every bounce, explosion, and ricochet leaves behind vivid trails, creating a swirling storm of energy that’s chaotic but surprisingly readable. The art direction leans into clarity through contrast — bright projectiles against deep backgrounds — so even when the screen is packed, you can track the flow of battle.
The soundtrack deserves equal credit. A mix of glitchy synth and percussive electronica drives each run forward, adapting dynamically as the chaos ramps up. Combined with the crunchy hit effects and crowd reactions, it makes every moment feel loud and alive.
Replayability and Challenge
Where Ball X Pit truly shines is in its replayability. Between the sheer number of fusions, the diversity of characters, and the evolving difficulty curve, it’s the kind of game you can lose hours to without realising it.
Later runs introduce unpredictable modifiers — environmental hazards, curse effects, and elite enemies that demand quick thinking and flexible builds. The difficulty is steep but fair; skill growth feels tangible, and unlocking a new synergy or build can completely change your approach to the next run.
It’s easy to fall into the “just one more descent” cycle. You’ll finish a run, unlock a new ball type, and immediately want to see how it behaves with your favourite hero. That loop is what keeps Ball X Pit endlessly engaging.
Verdict
Ball X Pit feels like a controlled explosion of ideas. It takes the reflex-driven immediacy of an arcade game, the long-tail satisfaction of a roguelike, and the creativity of a fusion system, and blends them into something genuinely exciting.
The occasional pacing hiccup from harvesting doesn’t overshadow how brilliantly the rest comes together. It’s energetic, inventive, and packed with personality — a game that thrives on experimentation and rewards curiosity at every turn.
A confident, chaotic, and endlessly replayable roguelike that turns every bounce into a potential boss slaughter!
Available on Steam for £16.99.
Play it if you like:
Megabonk, Vampire Survivors, Peglin, or anything that mixes roguelike events.