Ball X Pit

Written by Jeremy Duff on 10/15/2025 for PC  

The concept of block breaking games has been around for nearly as long as video games itself. Way back with initial release of Breakout in 1976, gamers were immediately addicted to the simple concept of organized destruction. You have a ball, and you have things that you need to destroy with it. “Man see thing, man break thing.” It works and it is fun. From Breakout to Super Breakout, the Arkanoid series, to the countless mobile brick breaking games that have launched over the years, the formula just works and makes for a great way to kill time and rack up high scores.

Rarely, over all these years, has anyone successfully altered the recipe for a great brick breaking game though. Different attempts have been made but no one has really matched the original concept…until now. Enter Ball X Pit. Kenny Son and Friends have taken the brick breaking concept and added in heavy roguelike elements, a dash of RPG and resource management, and crafted what has become my favorite game of 2025. Let’s break (no pun intended) down each part of this ingenious recipe and figure out what makes this the best way to kill time—and an addiction I am not looking to kick any time soon.

At its core, this is a brick breaking game. You have a ball, or several, and you will use it to destroy “blocks” of enemies that will progress down the screen toward your character. The character, which you’ll select from a wide-ranging cast of, can move about the screen clearly, improving their position and vantage point to line up the best and most effective shots for the situation. Think Arkanoid, but the paddle can now move more than just left and right; the added element of vertical movement that traverses the entire screen adds an entirely new element to the genre and makes it a much more frantic experience.

Again, that is just the simplest way to look at it. Ball X Pit takes that simple concept and explores it in a variety of ways. The first aspect is the balls themselves. Each character starts with a single “ball” that has some sort of special ability to power to it, and a small selection of “baby balls.” The baby balls are just that: small white balls that do a small amount of damage. They don’t have special powers or elements, but over time you can increase their number and strength as you see fit to flood the screen with what is almost an unending string of baby ball attacks.

Your main ball, however, is your bread and butter. Even though you start with one, you can obtain up to three (and eventually four) more. These balls have strengths and traits to them to alter the gameplay experience. One is a heavy lead ball, that moves slower than the others but deals twice the amount of damage. Another might be made of stone and cause an earthquake when it hits that deals area-of-effect damage around its collision point. Others have fire traits, ice abilities, poison, and even electric powers. There are a ton, and you will level up their strength as you go.

However, in addition to this roster of special balls, there is the “X” part of the game’s name, which means “cross,” as in crossing things together. All of the balls can be combined as they reach a certain point in their leveling, with some having special, unique synergies that create an entirely new ball altogether. For example, combine the ice ball with one of the ghost balls that passes through enemies, and you can create a Blizzard ball that freezes multiple enemies and makes them more susceptible to damage.

There are so many combinations that it is insane. I have put 50 hours into this game thus far and there are still a few combinations and creations in the in-game encyclopedia that I haven’t unlocked yet. In addition to the balls, there are also passive skills that you can pick up and equip, which can also be leveled and combined with one another. They add their own unique twist to the experience such as increasing damage when hitting enemies on a particular side or adding blocks that spawn from the bottom and move up the battlefield to assist you. There are a ton of options and a truly wide range of mechanics to be found that really lets you adapt the game to whatever style you like.

That is just the balls and passive abilities. There are also more than 15 characters to unlock along the way, each with their own unique trait or ability to alter the gameplay experience. You’ll start with The Warrior, who just launches a basic ball that deals bleeding damage to enemies over time. There are a few other straightforward characters like him that only differ by the special ball that they start with, but most of them also have some unique aspect or ability that makes playing with them a completely different experience. When you unlock the Shieldbearer, he carries a shield that he can use to reflect the balls back up the screen rather than catching and relaunching them, but each time he reflects them, he doubles their strength. Then there is another who launches the balls from the top of the screen, or the back of the playing field. This adds a new approach to taking down the hordes of enemies and bosses and creates a whole new challenge. Others may take away your choices for leveling and improvement and make them on their own, and there is even one that turns the game into a turn-based experience. The variety is insane and one of the game’s strongest assets. There isn’t one that I haven’t enjoyed learning and designing tactics for.

Don’t forget that I also mentioned RPG and resource management. Yeah, this game has that, too. Along with each of the characters’ traits and abilities, there are stats that determine their effectiveness in the field. They all gain experience as you play with them and grow their stats over time. It pays for you to spread the love and use different characters along your way down through the Pit. There are even little bounties offered with each run, that might give you bonuses on the money earned along the way if you choose certain characters at certain times.

That money will be used to build and expand buildings that you will unlock along the way. Each of the game’s levels has a variety of blueprints that you can find randomly through your runs. Earning a blueprint gives you the ability to purchase and construct the building in a small settlement that you will design and maintain. The buildings have traits and abilities and are the key to unlocking all the features and benefits in the games. You’ll need to find various houses to earn access to the different characters, special structures to expand your leveling options and ball capabilities, as well as other buildings that can be staffed to gather resources both while you’re on a run and even when you’re not playing. The resources serve as another means of currency. In addition to gold, you will need to harvest wheat, wood, and stone, which are needed to both build and expand the buildings that you unlock.

This all plays out in alternating fashion: you do a run in the Pit (play a level) and then you get one round to harvest resources in your settlement. Rinse and repeat, again, again, and again—and again. It is insanely addicting and truly the definition of the “just one more run” experience that roguelikes are known for. It is just so much fun and something that you can go either in short spurts or in extended play sessions.

We haven’t even discussed the levels yet. The other part of the game, after Ball, is Pit, and they mean that literally. Your settlement will utilize a giant lift to explore further down into the Pit and discover new areas and enemies. Each level is themed to a degree. You start off in a haunted mine-like environment, with skeletons and mine carts in your way. Other levels might be ice or snow-based, with others heading into desert, jungle/forest, and even space-like environments. Within each of those unique locales are unique enemies themed to the environment, with powers and abilities to suit the setting, and unique, themed bosses at every turn. Some levels may have enemies (blocks) bearing shields on different sides, forcing you to move and attack them from different, ever-changing positions. Other enemies may do environmental damage and make parts of the screen dangerous to traverse and move through, and then you get to the ones who catch and hold your balls hostage…I hate them the most! Truly every run is different, whether the formula is mixed up from the character you choose, the balls and abilities that you select as you level, and the enemies that you face. It is varied, addictive, and a ton of fun.

If there is one word to sum this all up, it is just that: fun. I would never have imagined I would have put as many hours as I have into this game, and I am not showing any sign of slowing down. I am constantly redesigning and reorganizing my settlement to alter the benefits different buildings grant and making every effort to complete every level with every character. The game makes things like that, for those players like me who must check off everything easy. You can see which levels you have completed with each character(s) at any time, and it just drives you to keep going until you have done it with everyone. Then you will want to do it again on the extra courses, which increase the speed, and eventually when you open New Game+. The experience just keeps going and going.

I struggle to really find any gripes with the game. If I were going to pick at anything I would probably like to see the settlement management controls tightened a bit. It gets a little cumbersome when you are trying to move buildings and resource nodes around using a controller; it just feels like it was fully designed to be done with a mouse and keyboard, which will be fine for PC players but a bear for those on consoles or the Steam Deck. Also, can we please give the character portraits eyes… I have a thing for dark, black holes for eyes. I find them unnerving and nightmare inducing.

Ball X Pit is truly a perfect fusion of the brick breaking genre and the roguelike experience. It’s addictive, frantic, action packed, and it never gets old. The gameplay loop makes it nearly impossible to put down and I am hopelessly addicted to doing "just one more run.” The ball and character combinations are so varied that they feel almost endless. I never would have thought that a brick breaker would be among my favorite games of the year, but here it is, and it just might be my absolute favorite game of 2025.