Ballionaire Review (Markus Kruber)
Honestly? Meh. I generally like where they're going and I think the synergy aspect of the game is really cool, it just lacks player agency and polish.
Player Agency:
Sure you can place the pieces on the board, but unlike something like Peglin (not to mention Peggle, the OG pachinko game obviously) there is absolutely no strategy of where you aim your ball. Each board has some neat quirks but they all are just kinda gimmicky with little substance. I played every map and I still thought the Pyramid was the best one only because it wasn't hamstrung by a gimmick, none of which particularly felt complete enough to truly differentiate those boards other than the basic shape of where you could/couldn't place pieces. I know that's a lot of slightly different complaints, but player agency is one of those broad topics that's hard to pin down where/how to implement it. All I know is that this game doesn't really give me that feeling, and a big part of that is the lack of control over how the ball moves other than putting obstacles on the board that it might hit if you're lucky.
Polish:
There is definitely a strong style to this game and I'll give it that, even though I wasn't the biggest fan of everything being a goofy cartoony face it kinda grew on me a little, and it definitely feels unique. However, again it just feels kind of half-baked in the little details that truly matter. The little asides with the 3D dancing stick figure guy just felt weird and out of place even in an oddball artstyle like this one, and to get into the actual gameplay the physics just feel kinda floaty and unsatisfying. One of the things which makes Peggle so addicting is how good it feels to hit things with the ball, there's a perceived weight and impact to it that is quite satisfying, and even though it isn't really a "gameplay" thing per se, those details really do make the difference. It's why you feel really fast in Sonic games even though his character model isn't moving that fast compared to other 2D/3D platformers.
There are also just some pieces that don't really feel fun IMO (I'm looking at you Broom), and even though they have some level of synergy with other pieces the combinations are very base level and hard to play around with. Water balls only interact with Dams and Chalices, Fire balls only interact with Firecrackers and Candles, etc.. It all just feels very silo'd, and there aren't any universal mechanics other than multiplier that you can really synergize with like in other really strong synergistic games like Enter the Gungeon or Magic: The Gathering.
Honestly a lot of this could be overlooked if the game was more polished in terms of visual/audio/gamefeel, or vice versa, but the fact that it doesn't quite get either aspect right makes me not want to recommend.