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Introduction

PengPong feels like what would happen if you fell into a 1920s-inspired ping pong table and got beat up by everyday objects, and I’m completely obsessed. There is a story here, I suppose, a very minor one, and frankly I haven’t paid attention to a single second of it. For games like PengPong, I always view a good story as something extra and never really fault the game for having a lack of one. In PengPong, I don’t think that the story is the point anyway.

PengPong is both a Bullet Hell and a Roguelike, and to me it nails both of these genres. But do keep in mind I’m not normally someone who enjoys Bullet Hells at all. After each match, the coins you managed to leave with will be what you use to upgrade your skills. You can also gamble coins away at the end of every match in hopes of making it out with more coins. Along with your upgrades, you’ll slowly unlock new characters and weapons. Each is assigned a difficulty rating, which I didn’t pay attention to until it started coming back to bite me.

The stages have some of the best theming I’ve seen all year from a game like this. Essentially, each stage has a theme. Using the attic level as an example, you’ll fight teddy bears, a lantern, a toy top, and a green army man, just to name a few enemies. What makes this level so clever, though, are the little touches. For example, when you kill a teddy bear, little balls of stuffing will burst out and attack you. Little things like this help pull the game together and complete the setting. To top this all off, PengPong has a stupidly fun soundtrack that sounds like it popped out of the 40s or 50s, which not only ties the whole experience together but also complements the combat. This is because of the sound effects and the overall sound design. Someone on the team knew what they were doing because the sound in general is amazing.

Gameplay Mechanics 

The basics of PengPong are pretty simple, and they go as follows. Choose a character, and every character has something special that they do. For example, one of the things that the Otter can do is double the weapon count. After that, you choose a weapon, and again each of them does something different. I’m partial to the headphones, but there is a wide selection to choose from. Unfortunately, it feels like some of them got more care than others. Once you do that, you hop into a stage and get going. The basics of the game are pretty simple once you figure out what’s going on on screen. 

Weapons 

There is a variety of different weapons in the game, but I don’t feel like they share an equal amount of balance, and at least two of them felt downright clunky in their execution. My favorite weapon in the game is easily the headphones, not only because they have an AOE attack but also because using the bounce mechanics as a charge to keep the AOE going was brilliant. It also feels the fairest in terms of how it feels once you start getting more upgrades. 

Weapons that I found “off” include the spell book, which in my opinion is the worst weapon in the game. Getting the casting off doesn’t feel natural with the way that PengPong flows, and the damage tends to be laughable even with upgrades. The issue is, bouncing and retrieving the book just doesn’t feel like a natural mechanic, even with the upgrades. The Cherry Bomb weapon shares similar issues for me.

The rest of the weapons are just fine and feel like they fit in well with the gameplay. 

Gameplay Loop 

PengPong is unforgiving in general, and the items that you choose to buy or unlock can really hinder you, especially if you screw up your weapon. For example, while using the headphones, I accidentally knocked the amount of time it can bounce down to one. Meaning I couldn’t keep them charged properly. I love this; this is one of the best parts of the gameplay loop. I like when choices matter, and those choices change depending on what weapon you choose to go with. 

The enemies become wicked obnoxious, but not in a way that I found unfair. The spinning top enemies are the bane of my existence, and I wouldn’t mind them being removed from the game completely. But I had a lot of fun figuring out the best way to counter each enemy on the screen. It gets especially fun when the screen fills completely. I like the stress of it all even if I lose. 

The upgrades are honestly great. My big complaint would be that the RNG feels a little off with some items. For example, I saw the Rugby ball once and haven’t seen it again in all of my playtime. Though I feel like this is the natural consequence of having so many items in the game. 

Stage progression is pretty simple. You go through 30 or so floors, complete the stage once, and unlock more stages in that level. Right now PengPong has 3 different main stages, with a fourth saying that it will come in a future update. Which I really dislike. I would’ve preferred not to even see the next stage. Make no mistake, PengPong has a lot of replayability, and for what the game offers, it’s so extremely fun. I truly do love PengPong; I just wish the base game didn’t throw the unfinished content right into my face.

PengPong is also so damn fluid. I love how the game feels in general, and yes, you can play it with a controller. I used both an Xbox controller and my keyboard and mouse. I did test the game on the Steam Deck, and it ran fine with none of my settings adjusted, but do be aware I didn’t test endless mode on the Steam Deck. 

Anyway, the game feels responsive. Far more responsive than I thought it would. The characters respond nicely to the movement of the joysticks. Stepping out of the game and going into the menus is where I start having an issue. Navigating the menus with a controller just doesn’t feel intuitive. It often feels extremely slow, which is a huge shame. 

Permanent Upgrades 

I like the permanent upgrades fine enough. They’re nothing to write home about, but they do get the job done. You can select an upgrade from each section, but only one. I do wish that the upgrades felt more impactful. I understand that the upgrades are incremental to give us a reason to continue to upgrade each upgrade. However, some of the upgrades feel completely negligible. 

Final Thoughts

So it’s here that I have to start pointing out some issues. PengPong is $12.99, and for that price you get three main stages which you can repeat. Every stage has multiple parts, and there is an endless mode that you can unlock for each. But as I said before, it feels a little weird to have a big black area shown to us when the game is not in beta. 

Menu navigation in general could feel a lot better on a controller, but otherwise is fine if you use a keyboard and mouse or the trackpads on the Steam Deck. I had no issues involving lag of any kind, and the game ran smoothly the whole time that I was playing it. 

Score

PengPong is getting a 75/100. This is an extremely enjoyable roguelike that feels like it could’ve used a bit more polish and a couple of more stages. However, the game feels fluid in combat, and the style and music are sublime. PengPong is an enjoyable experience and has honestly kept me very happy between much larger games.