Ballionaire Review: A Plucky Pachinko Roguelite

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It's simple: press button, drop ball, number go up. We continue the curious trajectory of the modern roguelite with , a new pachinko-themed indie by developer newobject and publisher Raw Fury. This zesty score-chaser blends deckbuilder and autobattler genres with physics-based gameplay, giving way to considerable depth and stimulating feedback that packs the screen with sweet, sweet numbers. While a few notable design and interface issues mar the final package as it stands, anyone oriented towards game-breaking builds and the construction thereof should find an electrically compelling new pastime.

Japan’s much-loved pachinko, ’s Plinko, or 2016’s game show are all suitable touchpoints for the basics here, where a ball plunks down a board peppered with pins above a bottomless pit. Unlike traditional pachinko, primarily focuses on one initial ball drop per turn, but the board's quantum structure proves vulnerable to luck and strategy, with pick-three draws of «triggers» and «boons» – interpretable as «cards» and «artifacts/relics» in other deckbuilder roguelites – combining to expand the scoring possibilities.

doesn’t have the trick-shot angles of PopCap’s hit 2007 game or its recent spiritual successor roguelite , as each ball drop prevents any direct control. The game is more concerned with the board itself, and its unique accumulation of selected triggers and reactive surfaces. This detailed approach to construction summons apt comparisons to contemporary deckbuilder classics like , even if the final package isn’t quite as polished as its predecessors.

You begin on the «Pyramid» board. The animated Eye of Providence at the top follows the cursor as it moves, but don’t let this feedback fool you: each mouse-click or press of the space bar plummets it downward at a random angle. The relative emptiness of a starter board can make the first few rounds of a run feel empty, somewhat uninteresting, and mainly unproductive, like the first few rooms on a starter deck.

Howev