We seem to have crossed the event horizon of roguelikes. Anything can be a roguelike now. Poker? A roguelike. Blackjack? Of course. Mahjong? Don't doubt it. All bets are off, and as I downloaded the new demo for Ballionaire, the idea of a pachinko roguelike didn't even strike me as strange. But as if to preempt my jadedness, developer Newobject has made its swing at the genre as bizarre as possible.
The core formula is pretty straightforward—every round you drop a ball down a pachinko board, earning money based on how many pegs, triggers, and bumpers it hits, and trying to earn a specific amount in a certain number of drops. Each time, you also get to draft a new item to add to the board for the next round. It's here that things get strange.
