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Ballionaire is a pachinko roguelike where you build your board as you playPing ping ping
Ping ping ping
Image credit:Raw Fury
Image credit:Raw Fury
A trend of gambling-inspired games has surfaced in the wake of poker-like deckbuilding roguelikeBalatro. The recipe? Take a standard game of chance you might find in any casino and mash an uncountable number of bells and whistles and gizmos and weirdnesses into it, then slather it in a “one more turn” roguelike dressing, and make it as tactile and punchy as humanly possible. The ongoingSteam Next Festhas no shortage of these gambley gimmickers, buthere’s one demothat stood out.Ballionaireis a colourful pachinko-inspired roguelike, but you choose where the wacky widgets will go.
Ballionaire | Partnership Announcement!Watch on YouTube
Ballionaire | Partnership Announcement!
It’s more straightforward than the chaos of that trailer makes out. You drop a ball from the top of the board and watch as it bounces its way down through the pins. You earn cash for each little bumper or bonkable doohickey the ball hits along the way. Some of these bumpers (called “triggers”) will have special features. An axe will chop your ball in half, allowing it to fall in multiple directions, activating even more gadgets. A teleporter will zap your ball back to the top of the board, letting it fall all over again. You can get different types of ball, designed after the classical elements, such as fire, water, and chicken egg (placing an egg carton somewhere will catch the eggs for passive, eggy income).
Try the demo. Go on. Steam Next Fest is almost over (it ends on Monday) and this is a frivilous and fun hour of ball bonking (ahem). It’s not the first time pachinko has served as inspiration for a video game, mind. BothPeggleandPeglinowe something to the poppy pinging of the traditional Japanese gambling machine.