Ball x Pit

Genre: Arcade / 2-Stick Shooter / Roguelike / Simulation

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Ball x Pit, released in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2, is one of those games that blends numerous genres to the point where it’s hard to fully explain it unless you’ve played it, but once you do play it, it’s pretty straightforward and easy to grasp. However, bear with me while I try to describe the game anyway.

The core gameplay is controlled much like a 2-Stick Shooter, with players moving their selected character with the left analog stick and aiming at enemies with the right stick. The game’s levels scroll vertically like a Shmup, and you can opt to have your shots auto-fire as soon as they load, or to fire them manually if you want more fine control over things.

As the screen scrolls, enemies will slowly make their way down the screen, mostly remaining stationary, with some attacking with projectiles, but mostly they will attack you when you come into range for them to strike you, or when they reach the bottom of the screen, at which time they’ll automatically damage your character.

As enemies aren’t doing much to mix up their attacks or dodge, mostly the challenge you’ll be facing is doing enough damage to take them out before they reach the bottom of the screen. Between this and the way most of your shots ricochet, the game feels similar to an Arcade-style Brick Breaker, or perhaps one of the Puzzle-style games with similar mechanics.

However, adding on to this, you get a Roguelike-style mechanic in the form of randomized power-ups that you’ll use to upgrade your capabilities through each run, with one of the key motivators here being that classic Roguelike drive to get the right synergy of upgrades. Perhaps you’ll add a phasing ball to your arsenal and then upgrade it so you can combine it with your fire ball, enabling it to pass through numerous enemies, setting them all on fire. Or maybe you’ll focus on balls that split into multiple other balls, and pair that with passive bonuses that increase the number and effectiveness of the number of balls produced, littering the screen with balls. As you can imagine, this can result in the game feeling like a “Bullet Heaven”-style game like Vampire Survivors. Of course, then when you reach a boss, you may find the tables flipped with the massive number of bullets you need to avoid transforming the gameplay into something more like a Bullet Hell-style game.

If this wasn’t enough, the game’s “Roguelite” elements are handled through a mix of Management Simulation and Arcade-style elements, where players manage their territory of buildings and crops to harvest, placing them in the most effective spots to ensure workers can get as much done as possible… by ricocheting them around in that space like you’re firing balls in the main game mode.

If all of that seems like a lot to keep track of… surprisingly, it isn’t. Once you get a feel for how it all works, it all seems pretty natural and straightforward, which makes this a shockingly effective combination of deep, complex gameplay that’s still highly-accessible and easy to pick up.

The presentation here uses a mix of simple 3D and 2D elements presented in a way that’s strikingly unique, but far from anything impressive. It works well enough for the gameplay, but I wouldn’t say it does much more than that. This is joined by a soundtrack that I honestly found to be blaring and repetitive in a way that got irritating.

Apart from the underwhelming presentation, the only other complaint I can think of here is that I wish this game presented players with more variety early on – you do gradually unlock new upgrades and new facilities in the Simulation portion of the game, but I feel this happens pretty slowly, at least early on.

However, while I can nitpick parts of the game I think could be improved, overall Ball x Pit is an extremely clever and unique blending of genres that’s really compelling, making good use of all those disparate genres to deliver something surprisingly harmonious and deceptively simple as a result. If you’re craving something to shake up the norm, consider this a must-buy. And even if you’re not, you still may want to check this out, especially if you’re a fan of one or more of the genres I mention above.

tl;dr – Ball x Pit is a game that blends a wide variety of disparate genres, such as 2-Stick Shooter, Arcade, Roguelike, and Management Simulation, resulting in something that is wildly unique, offering a lot of depth, yet still highly-accessible and easy to pick up. Consider this a must-have if you’re craving originality, and something still worth checking out even if you just like some of the genres I named.

Grade: A-

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Ball x Pit: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Genre: Arcade / 2-Stick Shooter / Roguelike / Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Released just a few weeks after other versions of the Ball x Pit, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of the game is available to those who own the Nintendo Switch version of the game, via a free upgrade. And what do you get with that upgrade?

Well… not much, to be honest. The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition boasts higher framerates and resolution, but the game’s visuals are already so low-fidelity that I honestly didn’t notice much of a difference. The game’s loading times did improve noticeably… but the game taking 5 seconds to start instead of 10 doesn’t exactly seem like a huge difference to me.

I felt that surely with this version of the game releasing a few weeks after the Nintendo Switch version, they would have at least added in mouse mode support to the Management Simulation elements… but no, nothing like that is here.

In short, don’t expect a dramatically different experience for this game on Nintendo Switch 2. In fact, don’t even expect a noticeably different experience. And hey, if you do notice something, then I guess you can count it as a pleasant surprise. In any case, I’m not terribly upset about the lack of a difference in this version – after all, it is a free upgrade.

tl;dr – Ball x Pit is a game that blends a wide variety of disparate genres, such as 2-Stick Shooter, Arcade, Roguelike, and Management Simulation, resulting in something that is wildly unique, offering a lot of depth, yet still highly-accessible and easy to pick up. Consider this a must-have if you’re craving originality, and something still worth checking out even if you just like some of the genres I named.

Grade: A-

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