I never knew I wanted a rogue-like pachinko game until Ballionaire arrived.
In spite of its incredible popularity, I’ve only recently played the tremendous Balatro. A gambling themed roguelike isn’t something that even makes sense to me, but here I am pouring far too much time into it. This seems to be an emerging genre though, as now I’ve played Ballionaire, a roguelike themed around playing pachinko. And much like the esteemed Dann Sullivan, I think it’s really quite fun.
Describing itself as an “autobonker”, which sounds like something you’d buy from very specific websites, Ballionaire tasks you with dropping a ball from the top of a peg board to earn enough money as a tribute to a deity. I have no idea why, but I also have no idea why I’m trying to win at magic poker, so I’m not overthinking this.
You earn money by having the ball you drop bonk all sorts of different objects that you’ll place as you progress from round to round. Initially, you’ll have a couple of bouncy pads that launch your ball around, as well as numerous pins that will earn you a measly $1. Before long though, you’ll have an absolutely insane table that launches your ball all over the place, reverses gravity, creates pizzas, and earns you obscene money.
This is similar in style to deck builders like Balatro and Slay the Spire where you earn upgrades as you progress, but it’s more about having different upgrades react to each other in ever more beneficial ways. To use the board game parlance, this is an engine-builder. You want your ball to hit a bounce pad that pops it up into a brick that earns money when hit from below before it hits an axe that splits it in two with each half collecting ingredient items to take to a frying pan to create meals that can then be taken to a mouth to earn big money. Hopefully after that they’ll land in a teleporter that sends at least one of them back to the top of the table.
What starts out as a game of pure chance rapidly becomes one where you manipulate the table to maximise every possible route your ball can take. Yes, you’re still bound to the whims of fate, but you’ll be tipping those odds ever in your favour. Sometimes though, you’ll still feel like you were screwed out of a great system simply by the one key ball not quite acting the way you had hoped.
Each of the nine rounds consists of five balls, with you needing to reach a target score within that limit. After each drop you’ll get to add a new bumper along with whatever benefits come with it. You very much want to create synergies between the objects you add, and thankfully Ballionaire shows you what a new addition synergises with, so you can try to zero in on a solid strategy. You can reroll your choices, and even remove pegs you no longer want which allows for you to free up space for something better. After a complete round you’ll get to add a perk that gives you even more bonuses.
There’s a lot to keep track of, and that’s kind of my biggest issue with Ballionaire. Initially it feels utterly overwhelming, even with the tutorial tables you can play through. There are just so many different additions to your table, and they’re all thrown at you pretty quickly. You’ve got movers, consumers, and spawners amongst a slew of others. Then there are a swathe of different ball types that each have their own benefits.
It’s a huge amount to take in at first, although I’m glad I powered through this early stage as, once you get to grips with all the different options, it’s a lot of fun to experiment with different builds to maximise profits. The fact that each run is pretty quick, even if you reach the end, means that experimentation is absolutely worthwhile. I started to find that coin ball builds worked quite well for me, but there are so many other approaches that are more than valid and even more absurd.
Now, I will point out that I wasn’t a huge fan of the presentation. I fully accept that this is a personal thing, but the dancing 3D models against the 2D background felt like a flash game, whilst the bangs and boops as a ball hit a bumper became annoying quite quickly. The visual designs of the boards themselves are solid though, with a few to choose from at this point, although you’ll need to unlock them. Each one plays in a unique way too, so you’ll have to think carefully about placement of your pieces. I especially enjoyed the madness of the rotating wheel stage.
It’s safe to say that Ballionaire is a pretty distinct roguelike. It’s fun and silly, but hides tremendous scope for experimentation with its unique bumpers that can combine into something that feels game breaking. You can experiment without score thresholds in the sandbox mode, or ramp up the difficulty so there are negative modifiers next round. It’s a mad challenge for sure. There’s even mod support, so there’s a good chance someone will make even more bananas creations. Like a banana ball.
Ballionaire is available now on PC.
