Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Windows, macOS
Developer: Kenny Sun
Publishers: Devolver Digital
Ball x Pit, pronounced "Ball Pit", is one of the indie standouts of the year, fusing the classic ball-to-brick genre with modern roguelike mechanics. You control a group of treasure hunters who delve into the ruins of Ballbylon to slay hordes of enemies by wielding magical balls.
Throughout each mission, you gain experience a la Vampire Survivors collection and select from a range of powerups and passives to build synergies to kill enemies. These include effects like adding damage over time, area of effect, or crowd control (more on this later)
After completing each mission, you return to your base, where you establish a new settlement of buildings that allow you to collect resources for permanent progression, unlock characters, and more.
Overall this title, developed by Kenny Sun and a small team, ranks alongside Megabonk and Cloverpit as one of the most addictive newcomers of 2025 selling over 300,000 copies in just 5 days.
Our review for Ball x Pit was conducted with the Nintendo Switch version.
The Highs
Fusing, Evolving, and Synergizing Balls is Satisfying
By far the best aspect of Ball x Pit is, naturally, creating builds around your balls. When you first pick a character before a run, you'll see that they have a starting ball alongside a unique effect.
For example, the ninja-themed character called "The Shade", starts with the Dark ball that does whopping 3x damage per hit but destroys itself rather than bouncing. On top of that, their balls shoot from the back of the column rather than from the bottom of the screen where your character is.
This setup means The Shade would deal potent burst damage to the backline of enemies, but would need to find a way to reach the lines of enemies below it. To compensate, you might opt for AoE choices like Earthquake (damages in a 3x3 tile area) or the Lazers (which can shoot across a horizontal row or vertical column) to shore up that weakness.
These selections can be Fused (mash effects into one ball) and for certain combinations, Evolved, which unlocks new effects entirely. Consider the Lazers we mentioned earlier — you can take either of them and combine with Freeze to Evolve to Freeze Ray, which CC's enemies while piercing them.
Early on, part of the thrill lies in experimenting blindly. Later on, the fun shifts to connecting the dots to maximize synergies.
Memorable Art Direction
On top of its tight gameplay loop, Ball x Pit is complemented by a standout package of art style and music. Visually, it provides a 2.5D gothic pixel art aesthetic a la 2022's Loop Hero (another Devolver game), giving a retro feel that is familiar but still intriguing.
Each map has its own color palette and a distinct selection of enemies and bosses. However, the best part is that each level features its own soundtrack by Amos Roddy. You'll get haunting synths, pulsing beats, and epic choral swells akin to those in Sephiroth's theme, One-Winged Angel.
Together, these elements make it easy to dive back in for repeat runs, boasting a surprisingly immersive experience despite its indie scale.
Great Value
Priced at just $15, Ball x Pit easily punches above its weight, offering a ton of replayability and snappy sessions that make it too easy to queue up for just "one more round." Before you know it, dozens of hours will have passed by.
Whether you're playing it as your main game or a palette cleanser between bigger titles, it's one of the best deals of the year.
The Lows
City Building Can Be Tedious
Trying to make the permanent progression aspect of a roguelike title is always a challenge, and Ball x Pit faces it with a city-building segment.
During this portion, you buy and place buildings on a grid that offer a variety of benefits, like gaining stat boosts, expanding the character roster, or even game-changing upgrades like a resurrection.
The kicker is that you "fire" your characters to build and collect from the tiles, playing again into the game's themes as they bounce from place to place throughout your settlement.
However, the novelty wears off quickly, as you'll need to frequently replace buildings and rearrange positions. Although the gains are nice, it never really feels fun in comparison to the rest of the game.
Can Kacj Visual Clarity
This criticism is a tough cookie because a lot is going on during a run with many balls bouncing, experience gems and resources on the ground, and enemies attacking you. Some chaos is going to be hard to avoid.
Still, a few design choices make the chaos harder to manage than it needs to be. Many effects share the same or similar colors — for instance, both healing and poison use shades of green, making them difficult to tell apart in the heat of battle.
Another odd choice appears in the Encyclopedia menu, where all entries are grayed out except the one currently highlighted. In a game dominated by circular icons, this design makes it unnecessarily difficult to distinguish items at a glance. Keeping every icon colored, while still emphasizing the selected one, would’ve made the interface far more readable.
Overall, there was nothing too deal-breaking, but they did stand out as unpolished compared to the standards the rest of the game sets.
It's Pretty Easy
In general, Ball x Pit leans toward the easier side of the roguelike spectrum. This accessibility may appeal to newcomers, but genre veterans might find themselves wishing for a steeper challenge at times.
Each level presents its own obstacles, like the ice level features slippery spots, while the magma level has little pools of lava. In most cases, they're minor annoyances rather than hazards you have to truly plan around.
When it comes to enemy attacks, there are hardly any surprises as well. Sure, they might fire an increasing number of projectiles with different flight patterns, but if you've played bullet hell games, dodging them is a breeze. Oftentimes, you can even destroy them with your balls.
You can make the levels more difficult by making the speeds faster or setting self-imposed challenges like trying to climb the leaderboard, but it would've been nice to see the default experience provide more resistance, especially in later levels. NG+ helps, but it's mostly increased health for enemies.
Our Score
7.5/10 (Addictive but loses steam)
Ball x Pit carves a distinct niche in an increasingly crowded space. It takes classic concepts and tastefully blends them with current trends.
While it's genuinely one of the year's highlights and a fun recommendation to virtually anyone, it lacks the lasting power to put it among the historical powerhouses of the indie scene.
But hey, at just $15, it's a great addition to any library with more than enough value to justify giving it a shot.
