BALL x PIT - Review
When BALL x PIT was explained to me earlier this year, I figured it would be ok for a bit, then I tried the demo and was hooked. Now that the full game is here, was that hook still present, or was the balls to the wall fun, more one and done?
There is a bit of a story in the game, Ballbylon has fallen and where the once gleaming tower stood is now a giant pit. Treasure hunters from around the world have descended upon the land in order to reach the bottom of the pit and discover whatever treasures they can. That is pretty much the whole story, there are some lore moments as you meet new folks, but it is mostly a set up as for why you keep throwing yourself into the giant pit. The game has a fairly large roster of adventurers and you will find your favourite amongst them. They don’t speak or have fights with the others, they are just mostly faces you will see on the selection screen.
Speaking of the screen, that is your first step to venturing down into the pit. Each of the characters has a fun name, but more importantly they have a unique skill you can take advantage of. The only character that you have access to in the beginning has no real skills, but the first character you unlock does. Their skill is being a quick shooter and that means they fire all the time, without any input from you. There are characters that have their balls go through all enemies until they come back to you and even some that bounce the balls back stronger. As you progress through each run, the enemies will start to become stronger and your selected character skill can really hurt you, if you have the wrong upgrades unlocked.
This is the fun of BALL x PIT, the random unlocks. There are two types you can get, the ball upgrades and the assist ones and depending on what you get, along with the character you have selected, you can have a great run or a horrible one. I am not kidding when I say that with a bad combination, you can wipe in a matter of minutes, it happened to me multiple times. Ball upgrades can be something simple as a fire ball, or an ice ball. Each has three levels you can upgrade to, with them doing more damage and enhancing their various effects. When you defeat the mini-bosses in each stage, or even more challenging enemies, you will get a fusion power up. This can have three options to use, depending on what you have going on. The most basic is fission, which randomly gives you upgrades based on what you already have, either a single one or up to five. Fusion is where you combine two power ups, like iron ball and spiked ball, giving you the perks of both in a single ball and letting you add another to your line up. The final is the evolution and this is where things get crazy, here you can combine wind and ice to make a blizzard ball, or wind and lightening to make a storm. The effects depend on what balls you have, but then those balls can also be fused with others to make even stronger attacks.
The other half of the run is your assists, these can be you moving or shooting faster, to dealing out damage to all enemies within a certain radius of you. These can also be fused, well some of them and finding the right combination can really be helpful. There is one item I would always select if I had it presented and it’s a pressure valve, which causes enemies to take damage when a nearby enemy is defeated, combine that with the earthquake ball and you can do some serious damage. Getting lucky with the items you are presented with is half the battle and while you can re-roll if you don’t like what you get, it does cost gold and your giant pile of cash back at town, is not accessible here, only what you pick up as you play. Once you clear a run, you will earn a gear and get enough of those and you can upgrade the lift to move down further. If you need two gears, you need to complete a stage with two different characters, which helps keep you trying out new ones. If you get wiped a lot, heading back to town is a valid strategy.
That seems like a good point to talk about now, the town. When you are not in your runs, you will be in the new town that you are able to build. At first you will have a basic space, a few fields of wheat, some trees and a house, but as you clear stages, or find blueprints within them, you will unlock more. One upgrade I unlocked was called Matchmaker, which let me take two of my characters into the level, giving me a more powerful offensive option. That required a lot of wheat and gold to build, which meant a lot of runs. Between runs, you need to harvest your crops and cut down the trees, place down new buildings and such. The latter of that requires your harvesting team to bounce off the under-construction building, each hit moves it closer towards being done. Now I did worry that the city building would be less fun, but its more about just ensuring I keep track of what buildings give me what bonuses and upgrade accordingly, because that can also help in my runs.
On the presentation side of things, the game looks quite nice with its PlayStation style visuals, that is original PlayStation. The stages are all set up the same, a narrow field that widens over time and enemies fall into your path from above. While the looks vary from boneyard to fungal forest and more, they have a consistency to them. One of the things I really like is that most enemies have a companion on each stage, the first is an archer who shoots arrows, the second stage its icicles. Learning the various foes is going to help you, because when you see someone who can launch a lot of attacks at once, focusing on them will be important. When you are in town, the game shows it from a top-down view, which gave me Black & White vibes, but all you can do is move things around and harvest.
The games sounds are interesting, each stage has its own music and it works, there is a lot to enjoy within them, but they would not work outside of the stage. The characters don’t speak or even grunt, so you don’t need to worry about hearing that each time you shoot a ball. The enemies only really make sounds upon their death, but if they get to close to you, they begin to chant. This is a great audio queue to help let you know that you are in danger.
BALL x PIT is a fantastic game, the cycle of being able to jump into a run, head back to town and then repeat is great. The game really has a strong element of luck, because if you get upgrades that go against your characters skill, or just don’t work for you, then you can easily struggle. But the other side is that the right upgrades can see you end a boss in seconds. There is a lot of fun to be had here and while there are a few niggles to learn to deal with, this is one ball pit that I would not mind diving into as often as I could.
The Score
9.0
Review code provided by Devolver Digital
The Pros
A simple gameplay loop that provides a lot of fun each time you jump in
Being able to give stat bonuses based on how you grow your town, gives you a sense of control
The Cons
The randomisation of upgrades means you can end up with a bad run to no fault of your own
Not being able to get rid of balls or assists you no longer want is weird
