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I’m not a poker player. I’ve never learned the game, and my limited knowledge of it comes largely from pop culture osmosis such as James Bond movies and X-Men’s Gambit reference jokes. I couldn’t tell you what makes a real ladder, but I know it’s nice to have. Despite its premise and appearance, Balatro isn’t technically poker. It is, however, the first title that makes me understand and enjoy the basic premise of the card game. It also happens to be one of the most fascinating games of the year.
To call Balatro a game of poker would be disingenuous. You don’t even play against other opponents. It’s actually a poker-inspired roguelike table builder. During a series of rounds, you are tasked with playing the best possible hand to get a minimum number of chips to advance to the next round. You start with a standard 52-card deck and draw only four hands (with limited discards) to meet this scoring criterion. The most prominent element of poker is learning how to build various types of hands, such as a Flush, Straight or Full House. Fortunately, a handy glossary that illustrates what each hand type looks like and its scoring values is just a button click away. This simple and accessible reference allowed me to memorize poker hands for the first time, accelerating my enjoyment of Balatro.
Three Blinds (basically rounds) make an Ante, and you win a game by completing eight Antes. Lose a round and start from the first Ante. Balatro would be fun if it just consisted of this simple premise, but the magic comes in how it incorporates the satisfying power-ups of the roguelike genre. You earn cash based on your performance each round, which is in turn used to buy a variety of booster pack cards with wacky abilities to boost your deck. Equipping up to five Joker cards, of which there are over 100 types, grants passive effects or activation abilities. Some add score multipliers for playing certain pages or bonus tiles for not playing a face-up card. One of my favorites is a failed Joker that multiplies my score by a random amount, adding a fun roulette element. Jokers drastically alter the game in many neat ways, but it doesn’t stop there.
Using consumables such as Tarot, Planet, and Spectral cards increases the score value of certain types of hands, adds more special effects to cards, and more. Other examples include turning cards into gold or steel variants that reward tokens or cash the longer they stay in hand. Glass cards have a chance to break permanently when played, but have a score multiplier. I love weighing the pros and cons of each skill and how they improve or change my existing line. I am constantly evolving my strategy, even when I settle for a winning formula. Balatro never overwhelms players with too many options at once, and your strength grows at a constant rate. I also appreciate how these mechanics add whimsy and absurdity to a card game I tend to associate with blank stares and financial ruin.
The result is a very fun roguelike that is hard to put down. With so many deck combinations, discovering new Jokers and other cards leads to exciting experimentation. Many effects complement each other, sometimes in unexpected ways, allowing for a variety of strategies that I’m still discovering. Balatro’s flexibility allows players to try many different deckbuilding styles, whether you’re building a deck that consists of one or two pages or one that emphasizes face cards. I once made a deck that made it easy to create high-scoring direct climbs as often as possible. Everything feels doable with the right skill and luck.
Balatro is almost a Vampire Survivors in its satisfying escalation from playing small hands for decent points to triggering multiple card effects in succession as the multipliers climb into the hundreds, making your score counter light up in NBA Jam style. I love that building a good deck/equipment can earn me thousands of points for playing a simple couple. Everything works together to provide constant dopamine hits. Plus, playing well and trying out new cards unlocks additional decks (each with unique and beneficial traits) along with new Jokers, booster packs, and more. This mechanic encourages me to try cards I was initially skeptical of, and discover new favorites as I populate an in-game database of all available cards in the game.
Completing Antes becomes increasingly difficult, especially since every third round features a Boss Blind that lifts you up with a single debilitating effect. Maybe diamond cards are useless, or you can only play one type of hand. The more diabolical head blinds require you to win with one hand or negate the value/effects of every card you used during the round. As tough as they can be, I enjoyed how these fights made Balatro feel even more like a puzzle, forcing me to come up with new solutions instead of relying on reliable tactics. Boss Blinds are random, limiting how much you can plan ahead, and sometimes lead to devastating defeats when a boss’s stipulation perfectly counters your strategies. Losses mean starting from scratch, and as much as that often stings, I usually restart a new run immediately. Balatro’s “one more run” hook is powerful, and I’m still amazed at how much time it wastes while playing.
Balatro’s other great feature lets you save runs, called seeds, that can be played back or shared with others. Playing another player’s seed tailors your career to match theirs, meaning you’ll encounter whatever combination of shops and items they’ve discovered at the expense of disabling new unlocks/discoveries. In addition to shaking things up, seeds add a nice social element to the game, as players can share seeds to help others beat the game and discover rarer cards. Face several challenges and Balatro dangles plenty of carrots to keep players engaged for the long haul.
Balatro is a clever and entertaining roguelike and one of my favorite games of the year. Playing it has become almost an obsession; everything seems perfectly designed to encourage you to keep trying because the next race could be the race of your life. Even after hours of play, I still can’t get over Balatro’s biggest challenge: dropping it.
Source: gameinformer.com