BALL x PIT is a unique, Brick Breaker-inspired roguelite game from Devolver Digital. Read our full review to see what the game does well, what it doesn’t do well, and if it’s worth your money.
BALL x PIT Review Overview
What is BALL x PIT?
BALL x PIT is an action roguelite published by Devolver Digital, where players fight waves of enemies using a unique, Brick Breaker-inspired series of balls and power-ups. Combining effects and evolving different balls into unique weapons, BALL x PIT grants players the power to hurl their entire arsenal at the enemy in a bullet purgatory of their own creation.
BALL x PIT features:
⚫︎ Countless combinations of unique ball fusions and evolutions
⚫︎ Brick Breaker-inspired bullet heaven survival
⚫︎ Similar, ball-centric base-building and resource gathering
⚫︎ 15 unlockable characters with unique playstyles
⚫︎ 9 unique levels with challenging bosses
| Digital Storefronts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 PSN |
 eShop |
 Xbox |
 eShop |
| $14.99 | Coming Soon | |||
BALL x PIT Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Brick Break EVERYTHING Absolute Bullet Purgatory The Fusion System Changes Everything |
Metagame’s a Bit Slow Significant Learning Curve |
BALL x PIT Story - 8/10
Though BALL x PIT’s story is shallower than most, it’s far from bad. It’s simple, straightforward, and built around the game’s mechanical premise and visual storytelling. Don’t expect it to win a Pulitzer—that’s not what it was made for. It exists to set the stage, establish the tone, and let the gameplay shine, and in that regard, it does its job well.
BALL x PIT Gameplay - 9/10
The novelty of the brick-breaker-meets-roguelike formula pairs beautifully with the added nuance of the Ball Fusion system, creating something that feels not just iterative but genuinely innovative as well. It’s new and improved—right out of the box, before we even realized what needed fixing. If not for its sluggish metagame, this could’ve been a near-perfect execution of a brilliant idea.
BALL x PIT Visuals - 8/10
2D-on-3D visuals have always held a special place in my heart, and this game nails that blend with its distinctively arcade-like flair and grungy yet grandiose style. A bit more enemy variety would’ve been nice, but overall, it hits nearly every mark in the visual department.
BALL x PIT Audio - 8/10
A repetitive yet far from tiring soundtrack complements the game’s bouncy gameplay, adding rhythm and energy to every satisfying thwack of your balls. It’s not award-winning, but it’s well-crafted and lively, even without any voice acting to carry it.
BALL x PIT Value for Money - 9/10
This game’s practically a steal. Its high replayability, paired with a more-than-fair price, makes it an easy recommendation—just keep your skill level in mind before diving in, and you’re ballin’.
BALL x PIT Overall Score - 84/100
BALL x PIT stands out as one of the few truly worthwhile new-age roguelites. Rather than just rehashing familiar ideas, Devolver Digital let it soar, resulting in a chaotic, creative experience brimming with potential. The Ball Fusion system alone opens the door to endless overpowered combinations and experimentation.
It takes some getting used to, but with its originality and flair, you won’t find anything quite like it—so go ahead and grab this one.
BALL x PIT Review: Innovation Over Novelty
Roguelites. You love them, you hate them—but they’re not going anywhere. Once a niche genre with a cult following, the early modern days were ruled by titles like Spelunky and The Binding of Isaac, and were later joined by Enter the Gungeon, Nuclear Throne, and the like. Then came Hades, Hyper Light Drifter, Moonlighter, and enough Isaac expansions to last an entire high school career. What was once a curious subgenre soon became an ocean of procedurally generated dungeons and permadeath runs.
Nowadays, you can’t throw a stick in a game store without hitting some roguelike reinterpretation of a card, board, or arcade classic. It’s not a bad thing—innovation thrives on iteration—but oversaturation is inevitable in this industry, and the roguelike genre just took its first dose of salt.
Enter BALL x PIT, a roguelite spin on the humble brick-breaker—a concept that might’ve been overlooked entirely if not for the name attached to it: Devolver Digital. Known for championing Enter the Gungeon and other genre-defining titles, Devolver’s backing gave BALL x PIT an instant reputation to live up to and a mountain of expectations to climb.
So, does BALL x PIT live up to that pedigree? Is it destined to be another roguelike you spot during a Steam sale and forget a week later? The short answer: yes…then no. Let’s break it down and see where it lands.
The Fall of Ballbylon
Let’s start with BALL x PIT’s setting and story—the appetizer before the game’s main course of chaotic, ball-bouncing madness. The game takes place in the once-great city of Ballbylon, now nothing more than legend and rubble. Once a shining hub for all things spherical and sporty, the city met its end when a meteor struck, leaving behind only an impossibly deep, monster-infested pit.
You play as a treasure seeker—part adventurer, part fool—descending into the pit in search of fortune, fame, redemption, or whatever drives you downward. You’re not alone in that ambition, but most who enter never climb back out. Between you and your prize lie hordes of deranged beasts, traps, and bosses that test your reflexes as much as your patience.
Armed with your trusty orbs and an arsenal of abilities, you’ll carve a path through the chaos in hopes of conquering the pit itself—or at least surviving long enough to find out if it truly holds what you seek. The story isn’t deep or world-shaking, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s concise, clean, and perfectly tuned to serve the game’s purpose: get you into the action as fast as possible.
For that alone, BALL x PIT earns a surprisingly high mark for its narrative—not for depth, but for how well it complements everything else. The game more than compensates through sharp theming and clever visual storytelling, both of which we’ll get to in a bit.
But for now, let’s set the story aside, take a deep breath, and catch a whiff of that new tennis ball smell because it’s time to talk gameplay.
Everything is Balls
BALL x PIT, in its purest form, can be summed up in three words: Everything is balls. You are balls. You throw balls. Your upgrades? Also balls. The only thing that isn’t balls are your enemies, and even they spend most of their time getting pummeled by them. Allow me to elaborate.
At its core, BALL x PIT plays like a Vampire Survivors-style bullet heaven, where you hurl an endless barrage of bouncing projectiles at waves of enemies descending from above. Your goal is to knock them out before they reach the bottom. Let too many slip past—or get too close yourself—and your run comes to an abrupt, ball-shattering end as they dogpile you with every enemy touching the bottom.
If that sounds basic, don’t worry, it’s not just about tossing plain white spheres around. The game spices things up with a wide assortment of special balls. There’s the trusty Fire Ball, of course, but also a Poison Ball, Bleed Ball, Ghost Ball, and even an Earthquake Ball, to name a few. Each comes with its own quirky effect, triggering on impact, rebound, or under specific conditions. Whether you’re burning, bouncing, or blasting your way through the pit, there’s a ball for every occasion.
The game also features a diverse range of passive upgrades, which modify various aspects of the game, including critical hit rates and rebound speed. Combined with your arsenal of special balls, these buffs let you turn each run into a chaotic ballet of ricochets and explosions—all governed by the wonderfully tactile physics of a classic brick-breaker.
Enemies, meanwhile, don’t do much beyond soaking up damage and occasionally firing back. Their real threat comes in sheer volume, flooding the screen in relentless waves. Each stage builds to a crescendo: first a mini-boss, then a proper boss fight marking the end of one of the game’s nine distinct levels.
But all of that is just the wind-up. Because BALL x PIT has one pitch of genius that may have been what set it apart from every other novel roguelike out there—its Ball Fusion System.
The Ball Fusion System Changes Everything
Ever wish your Fire Ball could also freeze enemies? Or that your Bleed Ball could handle swarms without getting you killed first? Maybe that Earthquake Ball just isn’t shaking things up enough for your liking. Well, fret not, baller, BALL x PIT’s Ball Fusion System has you covered.
Every so often, defeated enemies drop colorful power-ups that let you manipulate your arsenal in a few key ways. The first and most common is Ball Fission, which randomly upgrades several of your current balls or passive traits, bumping their stats closer to the cap and keeping your momentum rolling.
Then comes Ball Fusion proper, allowing you to merge two balls into one hybrid monstrosity that combines both effects. It’s a clever mechanic that not only boosts your offensive potential but also saves precious inventory space.
And finally, there’s the holy grail: Ball Evolution. Meet the right conditions, fuse the right pairings, and you’ll create something entirely new, balls with devastating effects that can define the rest of your run.
This idea is what sets this game apart and elevates it from novelty into innovation. The game would’ve been fine without it, but with it, the game’s replayability, uniqueness, and fun value all skyrocket. The fact that you can build your own arsenal of balls and change them to your whims adds a bit of deck-building to this mess of balls, giving it that extra genre-fusion kick we all love.
But that’s not all. I mentioned earlier that you, too, are balls. That’s not true while in the Pit. Outside the Pit, however, yeah, you are.
Balling in the Metagame
BALL x PIT’s metagame is as unique as its core gameplay loop. You’re not chucking elemental balls at enemies when not in the pit, but you’re far from out of things to do. The game’s metagame progression is unique in that there’s no strict currency purchase you can just make to unlock things. You can’t even just gain EXP to unlock new upgrades.
No. To be better at the ball, you must be the ball. You’re essentially setting up your own shuffleboard of wheat fields, forests, boulders, and buildings for your gatherers to bounce around and collect as if they were balls themselves. This is how you unlock new characters and major buffs, too—by launching your tiny humans like projectiles until they hit something worth keeping.
It’s such a cool idea that deepens the game’s identity as one that truly commits to the bit: everything revolves around throwing balls. But it’s not without its downsides. For one thing, metagame progression is slow. You only gather resources you actually hit, and you’ve got just one shot between each run. One bad angle or misjudged bounce, and you’re going home empty-handed.
That ties into another issue: BALL x PIT’s metagame feels more like a random mini-game than a meaningful layer of progression. Sure, you need the resources to unlock new characters, but do I really have to bank a perfect trick shot off a tree just to do it?
It’s a skill ceiling most players will bump their heads on before long, but I can’t help but respect the commitment. It’s weird, it’s clunky, and it’s exactly the kind of nonsense that makes BALL x PIT so memorable.
Responsive Audio and Killer Visuals
Another standout aspect of BALL x PIT is its sights and sounds. Sure, you’ll constantly be hearing the thwack of your balls smacking enemy faces — a sound you’ll come to love, if not crave — but have you heard your enemies chant a war cry as they inch closer to the bottom? Because this game loves doing that. It’s funny at first… right until it isn’t, and you start sweating every time the chorus starts up.
The music, meanwhile, is exquisite. It’s never too repetitive and always just the right kind of charming. You’ll hear each track often, but somehow, you won’t tire of them — not until you’ve spent way too long bouncing balls across the screen, anyway.
Visually, the game’s a treat. It blends 2D and 3D assets seamlessly, layering its rustic, pixelated textures onto simple 3D models to create something that feels both retro and modern. It’s got the look of a classic game, but none of the visual limitations that came with it.
Chose Not Just to Be Different, But to Also Be Better
And so, we reach the end of our review for BALL x PIT. I’ve broken down what makes it tick and shared my thoughts on each of its eccentric moving parts. But how does it measure up as a roguelike?
Quite simply, it’s a breath of fresh air in a genre that’s been feeling a little stale and samey lately. This game could’ve easily been just another bullet heaven, bullet hell, deck-builder, or survival clone with incremental upgrades—but no. It chose to be something new. Something better. Something memorable.
The Ball Fusion System breathes a layer of strategy and controlled chaos that elevates the core loop. It’s the extra cog the machine needed to add a little razzle-dazzle to the mix, and it works beautifully.
What makes BALL x PIT great is that it innovates without chasing novelty. It’s not a cheeky gimmick that turns a familiar formula on its head for the sake of it—it’s a genuine evolution, built with intent and personality. That’s why it works. That’s why it’s good. And that’s why I’ll gladly throw more hours (and balls) at it. You probably should too, if you can spare a pair.
Is BALL x PIT Worth It?
I’d Happily Throw $15 at this Game
Yes, this game is absolutely worth it. I’d happily drop the AA premium of $25 on it—but it’s only $14.99. Curse Devolver and their annoyingly fair pricing; it just makes me respect them more. You’ll get hours of replayability for that modest sum, and with a core loop this addicting, you’ll want every minute of it.
Sure, there’s a bit of a skill ceiling to climb and a few frustrating moments in the slower metagame, but I’d wager my last throwing ball that it more than makes up for it with its satisfying, brick-breaking brilliance.
| Digital Storefronts | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
PSN |
eShop |
Xbox |
eShop |
| $14.99 | Coming Soon | |||
BALL x PIT FAQ
Is the BALL x PIT Demo Save Data Carried Over to the 1.0 Release?
Not by default, but demo save files can be manually transferred from their system folders into the 1.0 release to carry over progress.
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BALL x PIT Product Information
 |
|
| Title | BALL x PIT |
|---|---|
| Release Date | October 15, 2025 (PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch) |
| Developer | Kenny Sun |
| Publisher | Devolver Digital |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam) PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X|S Nintendo Switch Nintendo Switch 2 |
| Genre | Action, Shooting, Survival, Indie, Roguelite |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB Teen |
| Official Website | BALL x PIT Website |
