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00:00I have a new all-consuming obsession and that obsession is Ball Pit. I didn't set
00:06out to replace all my free time with grinding its roguelite take on breakout
00:10but its reliance on strategy with a butterfly kiss of luck and enticing
00:15upgrade paths both on and off the playfield grabbed a hold of the primal
00:20lizard parts of my brain to the detriment of all other civilized
00:25activity I'm hooked in fact Ball Pit is the only video game I have played since
00:30I first started it a couple of weeks ago I cannot break free from its satisfying
00:35loop of running a level and upgrading my balls upgrading my city to unlock more
00:40balls and then jumping right back in it is a sickness a sickness with no cure and
00:46honestly I'm not even sure I'd want to be healed from the madness that has taken a
00:50hold of me I've been recommending it to everyone and so far those who have taken
00:55my advice inevitably reach out to tell me the same thing you ruined my life bro
01:02you sicko it's fantastic join us we all pounce down here
01:10at a distance ball pit looks like one of those crappy games you see advertised on
01:20tik tok or reels you know the ones we're playing games the comments said were fake
01:23part 17 something along those lines at first blush it does look like some
01:28endless runner game trying to hook you with claytime gems or whatever predatory
01:31garbage is in vogue these days but crucially it is not one of those games at all as it
01:37both respects your time and your efforts it doles out satisfying upgrades in each
01:42level and then gives you the opportunity to build up more permanent powers in your
01:46home base there's nothing cheap or underhanded about it it makes you feel
01:51powerful not cheated and even with an element of RNG in each level it requires
01:56you to make the most out of every opportunity rather than rely on dumb luck or
02:00random chance when you beat a level it feels like you earned it
02:09the actual gameplay seems straightforward on the surface to your character or
02:12characters march up the playfield firing bouncing balls and wave after wave of
02:17enemies the balls are weaponized the enemies are crushed under the onslaught and
02:21you eventually get to a given level's unique boss that's a basic loop the
02:26operative word here is basic see that finger quotes because friends ball pit is
02:32much much more complex for starters there are different kinds of balls to fire for
02:37example your initial character the warrior starts with a special ball that
02:40imparts a bleed status effect that stacks up to cause extra damage on successive
02:46hits as you defeat enemies you'll also pick up gems in order to level up which
02:51then gives you a choice of balls and other power-ups to use during that specific run
02:57there are special balls with status effects or area of effect damage balls
03:01that spawn more baby balls weird I know and loads more then there are buffs
03:06passive effects defensive boosts and even allies who will join you in the march
03:11forward dealing out damage or even health some of the power-ups are much
03:17better than the others the earthquake ball for example deals damage
03:21around the enemy it hits and like most area of effect balls becomes incredibly
03:25powerful when fully upgraded others like the rich onion kind of suck we're gonna
03:30know part of the fun is finding out which upgrades work best in any given
03:34level as well as discovering what happens when you continue certain balls
03:38with fusions and evolutions that mix or modify their powers even further
03:43fusions can simply save you a slot by mashing two effects together to one single
03:48ball but specific combos instead get the chance to evolve into a new power for
03:53example fusing the horizontal laser with the vertical laser creates my personal
03:57favorite the holy laser it shoots beans of pure fiery death vertically and
04:02horizontally while also dealing area of effect damage which is as useful as much
04:08as it just rules it's cool a fusing balls both scales the damage you're dealing and
04:13and gives you the room to add even more it is hard to keep track of all the
04:16possibilities but there is an in-game encyclopedia that shows you the combos
04:20you've unlocked I'm more than 30 hours in and I still have fusions I haven't
04:25found yet which I honestly I find pretty damn exciting the laser balls in any
04:30configuration do a crap ton of damage searing rows and columns sometimes adding
04:35stackable status effects like radiation while also doing normal hot laser damage when
04:41you are fully powered up and the RNG gods and held you in their favor it is a
04:45beautiful bloodbath lasers and explosions and effects are going off
04:52constantly and the damage counters fill the screen as entire rows of enemies
04:58evaporate into experience gems and gold you'll spend back in your town between
05:02runs the town is the other half of ball pit one that is enormously important to
05:10growing your characters in addition to earning permanent stat boosts just by
05:15playing as them constructing certain buildings and character houses will
05:18provide buffs and bonuses as well which you are absolutely going to need in order
05:23to make it through the later levels but while it is very important the city
05:27building part of ball pit is extremely clunky in fact it's probably the worst part of
05:33what I think is otherwise a flawless game after you complete a level whether or not you did
05:38so successfully you're thrown back into the town interface where you'll build
05:43structures from blueprints you gathered out in the field you also build resource
05:48tiles for wood fields for wheat and rocks for rocks obviously these resources in
05:55addition to gold are required to build and upgrade new structures thankfully there
05:59are plenty of ways to gather resources outside of just harvesting including during
06:03level runs and with passive buildings like the stone quarry but collecting it
06:07manually is the most fun obviously in the harvest phase you use your unlocked
06:12characters as balls taking aim from the bottom of the board and then letting them
06:15rip bayblade style in the direction of the stuff you want to hit then they bounce off
06:20the walls and buildings collecting resources from the resource tiles and
06:24upgrading any buildings you mark for improvement the process is amusing but also
06:28fairly tedious as you can move buildings around before you harvest in order to
06:32optimize their placement but there really isn't a convenient way to do so what I
06:38usually end up doing is moving everything off to one side of the map and
06:42then shuffling all the parts and pieces backing into where I want them at that
06:46specific moment it almost seems like ball pit is aware of how cumbersome the
06:51city building is because there's no penalty or resource cost for moving tiles
06:56around what I would love to see is some kind of option to wipe the slate clean
07:02without meaning to go through and manually remove every building or maybe I don't
07:08have a holding pen where I could drop structures temporarily while I reconfigure my layout
07:14and you will be reconfiguring your layout a lot building upgrades require your
07:19characters to bounce off the buildings multiple times and if that building is in a weird location hey
07:25buddy good luck getting the trajectory right to consistently hit it enough times
07:29during the harvest phase without reorganizing half the town I often ended up moving relevant
07:34buildings down near the launch area which meant moving all the other stuff away and then reorganizing
07:41it again after all was said and done I don't like it at all it is such a bummer because you can't really
07:47ignore this as city layout is extremely important to how powerful you are in the levels themselves
07:54some buildings provide buffs that make the effects of other nearby buildings stronger so their placement
08:00is crucial to your continued success that need for careful planning is at odds with the reality
08:06of constantly shuffling tiles around when it comes time to harvest build and upgrade however building
08:14specific issues aside I do really like how your town structures contribute directly to the action
08:22itself the better your city the better your characters and the more blueprints you find the more options
08:27you have when it comes to a new run it may be cumbersome to move everything around but the results are
08:33meaningful and can sometimes be surprising in a way that is ultimately a positive
08:37somewhat early on you unlock a building that lets you bring two characters in the battle instead of
08:48just one adding another layer of complexity and experimentation to each run at first it almost feels like cheating
08:55but it would be functionally impossible to get much further without it I am still figuring out which
09:01combinations work well and which ones are total crap since you still gain gold and experience even
09:05on failed run I don't really mind when I pick a total dud combo because I've still made some progress
09:10there have also been several times where I thought I'd figured it out some god-tier combo only to get
09:16three-quarters of the way through a level and realize oh my god I have made a terrible mistake
09:20the worst was when I paired the warrior with the flagellant for a new game plus run of the first
09:30level balls shot by the flagellant bounce off the bottom of the screen instead of the top and the
09:34warrior has no special attributes other than being your starting character the first level boss the
09:39skeleton king requires you to hit the back of its skull to inflict damage now the rng gods had graced me
09:44with some decent fusions but all of them ended up bouncing harmlessly between his two arms out front
09:50leaving me almost completely ineffective an errant baby ball would sometimes bank off the wall and
09:56register a tiny I'm talking a tiny amount of damage but I ended up losing on purpose just the back out of
10:02the level as frustrating as that was it's emblematic of something I actually love about ball pit it requires
10:09strategy in almost every facet the balls and upgrades offered to you are at the mercy of RNG sure but
10:16you also have the choice of which ones to use and which ones to fuse and evolve I was also able to
10:23identify good combinations and bad combinations of characters based on their attributes and would
10:28make mental notes file it away up here about which pairings would work out for my specific needs as I
10:34pushed through each level the juggler for example throws balls over enemies and pairing him with
10:40the shade whose balls shoot from the back of the field got me through some tough times following a
10:46heavy AoE upgrade path allowed me to clear out basically any row of enemies on the board while
10:50still getting a ton of damage from the balls bouncing in the back that combination of strategy and knowing
10:56how to best upgrade my character combination for a specific level is what keeps me coming back over and
11:02over and over again until I'm bleary eyed and tired sweaty a little bit when everything aligns and
11:09you're wiping out entire fields of enemies when the screen is absolutely filled with lasers and
11:14explosions and baby balls scattering in every direction you feel an enormous sense of power from an
11:20outside view honing in your upgrades combined with a careful building placement and frequent stat
11:25leveling from buff buildings makes it seem like ball pit would feel easier over time but it does a rare
11:33and beautiful thing instead of ending up feeling easy you end up feeling powerful when I finally did beat
11:42the main story and watch the credits around the 20 hour mark I immediately started up new game plus I never do
11:50that but the entirely inconsequential story is just a small part of ball pit for me the real joy here
11:56come in building up your powers and combos and seeing what delights will unlock themselves during the course
12:02of a run I play for moments when the music is nearly drowned out by the sounds of explosions and laser blasts
12:08or when I get a gold bonus for clearing the field of enemies and then I do it again and then I do it again and
12:13and then I do it like five more times in a given level oh my god it scratches an itch deep inside my lizard brain
12:21hard work pays off but the right combinations of upgrades mixed with a touch of luck pays off even more
12:28ball pit is my favorite game of 2025 there I said it even with a clunky city building phase you can't afford to ignore
12:40the actual action of its breakout inspired runs is enormously fun I get stuck in a just one more run mindset every
12:48time I sit down to play what I swear is going to be a quick round or two I'll be right out its strategies run
12:56surprisingly deep for a simple brick breaker rewarding smart planning and forethought more so than RNG and luck alone
13:02it is a rare game that I'm still excited to play well after I beat the main story and in a lot of ways I wish I were playing it
13:09right now if you want your life to be completely upended by a seemingly simple brick breaking roguelike
13:15I cannot recommend it enough hey for more roguelike reviews check out our review of Hades 2 and for
13:23everything else keep it right Aaron on June that rhymed
13:27you
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