Go Mecha Ball review – GameSpew (2025)

Loud, fast and in-your-face. That’s Go Mecha Ball to a tee. But despite being brash and over-the-top, there’s a lot of charm about this action-packed roguelike. It’s not new: I first played Go Mecha Ball on PC back in January. But now a wider release sees it finally land on PlayStation, Xbox and Switch. And if you’re a roguelike fan, it’s well worth jumping into.

The first thing you’ll probably want to do, though, is adjust the volume. I’m not kidding when I say Go Mecha Ball is loud. I’d described it as a “sensory overload” back in January and, playing on a console attached to my big TV this time, it’s never been truer. Its soundtrack is “dynamically generated and interactive”, apparently, but it’s a lot to take in. But then, it does go with the aesthetic of the game in general. This is a neon fever dream: every level feels like you’ve been transported to the inside of a 1980s pinball machine. As a whole, it works — even if you do have to take precaution to protect your eardrums.

But let me move onto what actually matters here: the gameplay. Go Mecha Ball probably isn’t like any roguelike you’ve played before. You’re equipped with a gun, sure, and you can shoot enemies in order to defeat them. But you also have the ability to roll up into a ball, performing a spin attack at enemies. It’s not optional, either: spinning is the only way to access certain parts of every level, and you’ll need to damage enemies while in your ball form in order to get new ammo for your weapon.

You can have two guns equipped at any one time, with plenty available that will typically randomly drop when you’ve defeated enemies. Alongside, you can also equip up to two abilities, which can be a huge help in the heat of battle. Abilities are generally available to select as an upgrade at the end of a level, and come in different shapes and sizes. My favourite is one that shoots out two damaging spikes in an arc shape in front of me, but you could also have a fast spray of bullets, a ground-pounding attack, and more. Unlike your guns, you don’t need ammo for these; they’re instead on a cooldown.

Related: The Best Roguelike Games on PS4 and PS5

On two feet, you’re pretty slow to move around, but as a ball you can speed easily from one side of a level to another. That’s the way Go Mecha Ball is intended to be played; it’s a relentlessly fast, frenetic action game, and other than the tutorial — which introduces you quickly to the basic controls and skills at your disposal — it never lets up. Using ramps and boost pads littered around each level, you’ll need to spin from low areas to high areas, maybe using the odd tunnel to get around, too. It’s wonderfully kinetic and satisfying as heck.

The downside to this speed, of course, is that it takes some practice to become accurate. You’ll need to learn how to effectively spin-attack enemies, timing them well to interrupt their attacks. And with numerous enemies on screen at any one time, many of them also spewing bullets, firing beams or otherwise damaging you at range, you’ll need to be precise with your movements to dodge everything. Needless to say, you’re probably going to see the “game over” screen very quickly the first time around.

But it doesn’t matter: that’s sort of the point of a roguelike, isn’t it? You dust yourself off and try again. And since you earn permanent currency each time, no run is ever wasted, as you can unlock new guns, abilities and upgrades, giving you more options next time.

The only real problem is that there isn’t much variety from one run to another. Levels feel essentially the same, and your starting loadout — at least until you unlock another character — is the same too. Unlike other roguelikes that manage to introduce more variation, Go Mecha Ball does feel like you’re continually going through the same motions.

It’s not a huge issue, because going through those motions is entertaining enough — at least to start with. And eventually you’ll unlock new characters and new difficulty levels to mix things up, but I’m not quite sure it’s enough to hold a player’s attention for an extended amount of time.

Still, there’s a lot to like about this in-your-face, fast and frenetic roguelike, and if you’re a fan of the genre, it’s well worth at least dipping your toes into. You never know: you might find something that really takes you by surprise.

This review of Go Mecha Ball is based on the PS5 version of the game, via a code provided by the publisher. It’s available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch and PC.