Ball X Pit is one of those dangerous games you'll intend to play for 30 minutes, only to lose hours to it instead. A heady combination of Vampire Survivors and Breakout (with some bullet hell sprinkled in), this roguelite arcade action title is incredibly hard to put down.

It's a game of two halves. You select a character and descend into the pit in search of treasures, and must use a range of balls to combat hordes of enemies marching down the screen.

When a run is complete (usually about 15 minutes start to finish), you'll exit the pit and manage the town of New Ballbylon, building it up from scratch after the original settlement was destroyed.

Able to fire manually or automatically, the bulk of the action has you aiming a barrage of balls at block-like enemies, with every bounce causing damage. Progression in a run is rapid; you gain XP to level up, and choose new special balls or passive perks to increase your firepower.

Taking things to the next level are fusions and evolutions, whereby you can merge two special balls to form an even more powerful variant, and there's a vast number to discover.

It's super satisfying, and with so many combinations and characters (each with unique abilities) to experiment with, the variety is pretty huge. The action can become so chaotic that it's difficult to read, but these instances were infrequent.

Town-building is where the meta-progression lies; you need to farm resources in order to construct more buildings, with every one of them benefiting you in some way. Early on, progression can feel frustratingly slow, but it snowballs as you unlock and upgrade new characters and buildings, each layering on more and more augmentations until you're practically unstoppable.

Every part of Ball X Pit feeds into another. Gold earned from runs funds building, and every subsequent upgrade or new construction sets you up for your next round in the pit.

It's designed in such a way that you're constantly given reasons to keep playing, and runs are short enough that it's easy to excuse "just one more". The game is so cleverly done and so moreish to play that fans of roguelites and quick-fire arcade fun simply have to check it out.