Ball x Pit

Ball x Pit is a strategic shooting game where you fend off waves of enemies descending from the top of the screen; the catch is that your only weapons are diversely powerful bouncing balls. You aim your shots to bounce off multiple foes in a single arc, all the while dodging return fire and upgrading your arsenal. It stands out for turning arcade classic Arkanoid into a full-blown hero shooter, with varied enemies, ball types, characters, and upgrade paths.

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You play a warrior, sent into the monster-infested ruins of a prosperous city to fight for treasure. Enemies appear above you and gradually descend to the bottom of the screen, where they attack, unless you first kill them with bouncy ball strikes. While you can simply shoot foes head-on, it’s much more effective to carefully aim the balls so that they ricochet and hit multiple targets in rapid succession. Along the way, you tactically select rewards such as new balls with effects like lightning, upgrades like firerate or ball damage, or even combine two balls into something more powerful.

In between runs, you use the gathered treasure to establish a settlement, placing Tetris-style tiles for wheat fields, sheriff’s offices and houses to slowly rebuild the fallen city. How you lay out your town is crucial, as you then ricochet workers through your settlement to harvest and build with each bounce. Do this well, and you can unlock new heroes to go out and fight with.

The result is a frenetic game where predicting the trajectory of successive bounces is the key to success. With practice and experimentation, you learn the best combinations of upgrades, ball types and heroes to reward you with deeply satisfying and effective enemy destruction.

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Our examiner, Jake Kendall, first checked Ball x Pit 3 weeks ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 3 weeks ago.