Reviews / 28 August 2024

BALATRO – Addiction On Another Level

The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos.

Balatro is a deck-building roguelike like no other. Tasked with hitting increasingly higher scores set by a small blind, big blind, and boss in each of the eight “antes” that make up a run, it’s your job to create poker hands by discarding cards and hoping you draw the ones you need. Play these hands before running out of your limited attempts to build a high enough score and you’ll move on to the next challenge, with the ability to improve or modify your deck between encounters.

Manipulating your hand is the key to success. For example, a tactic for some could be to focus on creating as many flushes (five card of the same suit) as possible, so transforming the cards in your deck to the same suit can make this easier. This is just one example of many Poker hands you can use to rack up the points. Of course, luck is still involved, just as it is when it comes to actual poker games.

The best way to turn your luck is in the form of opening the booster packs offered to you after each round. The quicker you reach a target score, the more money you’ll earn that round and the easier it will be to improve your deck by buying these booster packs. The packs vary in type, each offering a selection of cards with abilities that can change the way your game will continue.

Let’s talk about the mascot of Balatro, the Joker. Jokers are like the bread and butter of Balatro, with them offer huge multipliers and different abilities that can often change the course your run will take. With room for only five jokers to take effect at a time, you need to think carefully about which ones to pick and how they will work with one another. It’s a delicate balance, but get it right and you’ll bring in the rewards.

Balatro has been able to create a very fun gameplay loop that every game wants to create. It truly is a deck-builder of endless fun and doesn’t fail to satisfy once you get a good run going. If you are looking for an addictive but fun card game, make sure you check out Balatro.

Alongside the main game, a free collaboration was just released, introducing a bunch of cosmetic cameos from The Witcher, Vampire Survivors, Dave the Diver and Among Us. I am definitely looking forward to what the future holds for Balatro.

I played Balatro on Nintendo Switch with a gifted copy from Playstack. The game is available now on Steam, Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. While my copy was gifted, my review remains unbiased.