Ball X Pit Preview – Devolver’s got great balls of hellfire

Sometimes you need to turn your brain off, to step away from an endless stream of email chains, the daily struggle against the commuting tide, or incessant supermarket trips to refill the fridge. Games used to be panacea to your troubles, but many have become so complicated, filled with hand-wringing drama or tedious busy work, that they no longer fulfil their role as an escape from the real world. Devolver Digital are a publisher you can still rely on for experiences outside of the status quo though, and with Ball X Pit, they’re giving you one unlike any other.

Ball X Pit is a game that needs instinct. It’s a hellish combination of block-dropping, old-school Space Invaders blasting, pinball, Breakout, town building and tower defence with the framework of a roguelike implanted across it all. Coming across it in a faux-traditional Japanese street lodged inside the voluminous Tokyo Game Show floor was as refreshing as standing underneath the overworked air-con units, and when I left at the end of the blistering day, it was the first game that kept coming back to tickle my mind.

Ballbylon has fallen. This fated city has been destroyed, leaving a gaping maw in the Earth through which adventurers and fortune seekers have decided to set forth. This is the eponymous Pit, and it’s filled with legions of hellspawn who seem set on escape, and chewing you up on the way there.

Your adventurer strides forth from the bottom of the screen as wave after wave of demons and skeletons make their inextricable advance towards the bottom of the screen. Each unit is pulled into blocks – a bit like old-school Warhammer – with single blocks taking fewer hits to send back to hell, while anything larger has vast stores of health for you to whittle down, while launching projectiles at you.

Fortunately, you have plenty of projectiles of your own. This is where the Ball part of the name comes in, with your adventurer capable of firing several simple balls that ricochet off enemies and the edges of the Pit. Hit the enemies, break them down and move onto the next. Simple, right?

It might start out straightforward, but Ball X Pit thrusts options and upgrades at you with alarming regularity. Collecting the resources dropped by fallen creatures levels up your adventurer, and each time you level up, you’re given a trio of choices, unlocking new types of ball, or AOE attacks, or upgrading those you already have. These, in turn, have various special effects, and you’ll launch balls that cause enemies to bleed out, before they’re then electrocuted and subsequently poisoned.

There’s a whirlwind mix of offensive options, and it’s going to take a long time for players to settle in and discover how each of the weapons works and how it then interacts with the other armaments you’ve got equipped, but once you get the right run and the right setup, you can become the bringer of ball-based death.

Fusion makes that even more complicated. Finding the glowing rainbow icon from a fallen foe, you’re then given the option of fusing two of your current weapons to create something new. This can, to a certain extent, reset your offensive abilities, and you’re then thrust back into whatever situation you were in with a wholly new mechanic to deal with. I’m sure that as players become more used to the possible outcomes of Fusion, they’ll be able to pull out the best outcome, but here in the demo, it left me frantically back-pedalling as I tried to get used to the new options.

Once any of your weaponry has reached its maximum level, you can also perform an Evolution that further magnifies the unbelievable ball-bouncing, becoming a race between yourself and the residents of the Pit to become the most powerful. It’s such a wild, heady mix, and as you descend further into the pit, the walls of the arena expand further, once again changing your tactical options, on your way to facing off against each areas immense boss.

I didn’t get chance to check out the town-building aspect of the game, but it’s a totally new way to frame the standard repetition of Roguelike progression. You collect various resources like wood and wheat through each run, using them to build new facilities in your town that then grant you bonuses or unlock additional characters, hopefully helping you towards an even better run next time.

I can’t get over how far Ball X Pit has sunk itself into my psyche. It manages to be immediately approachable, while steadily layering on a host of new ideas and features to create something entirely its own.

Ball X Pit releases for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC and Nintendo Switch 2 on the 15th of October.