It doesn't matter that there are no big new games in January because you can just play 744 hours of Ball x Pit instead

After sinking way too many hours into some of 2025's massive hits like Arc Raiders and Battlefield 6 over the holiday season, I'd reached critical fatigue and decided to step back and play something much smaller in scope. Something quick and simple for a palate cleanser, you know the drill.

Mistakenly, I picked Ball x Pit, an indie roguelike I'd overlooked when it launched back in October 2025 despite it selling 300,000 copies in just five days. What I thought would be a small distraction from the main meal has now completely consumed me.

On the bright side, it's January, meaning that while there's only a handful of games coming out, I'm sorted over here playing a roguelike pinball version of Vampire Survivors.

Basically, you're constantly shooting bouncing balls at hordes of enemies before they reach you, unlocking more balls as you go until you're covering the screen with colourful pixels. It's simple, but figuring out the best angle to get balls bouncing worms deep into your brain.

Each ball and passive item is already creative in its own right: Some pass through enemies, inflict statuses, or have bonus effects from bouncing. Most impressively, though, these balls can be combined and evolved to make even more devilish combinations, like mashing Bomb and Poison balls together to create a Nuclear Bomb, which explodes on contact and applies radiation to all enemies.

What if I told you that the ball-bouncing slickness only got slicker from here? Well, it does, because there's (currently) 16 characters to unlock, and each one has a unique trait that breaks the rules. The Repentant, for example, deals more damage each time a ball bounces, but it will immediately return to you once it hits the back wall. Being two people in one, The Cohabitants shoot balls in mirrored directions but deal half damage. The Shade shoots balls from the back of the map, making them a very risky character until you understand how many build opportunities this unique trait opens for you.

There are also map-specific conditions to throw a spanner in the works, like the snowy level featuring enemies with ice shields that block damage from different sides, encouraging you to master ball bouncing.

Oh, and it's also part city-builder. Between rounds, you'll need to harvest resources and construct new buildings to either unlock characters or provide permanent upgrades. Of course, this is also a creative game of pinball, because why wouldn't it be? Optimally place your structures, then lob your workers at the perfect angle to bump into as many objects as possible, then reap the rewards of your city planning.

One of the main reasons why I always want to do 'just one more' round? I get to do one more harvest run. If you can make what's effectively an upgrade menu a fun place that I actually want to be in, then you've struck gold.

Frankly, I thought I was getting tired of the roguelike formula, but as we've seen creative combinations like roguelike-meets-deckbuilder, there's somehow always a new spin to get you roped back in. Ball x Pit by no means reinvents the genre, but it's got plenty of fresh ideas and spins on existing concepts to have me glued to my ROG Ally over my more powerful PC.