What happens when you combine poker, solitaire, big two, roguelike and deck building mechanics and just a hint of gambling?  Well, you get Balatro. Solo developer LocalThunk initially released Balatro on February 20^th, 2024, and it has become a smash hit with “Overwhelmingly Positive” reviews on Steam and a 90/100 Metascore on Metacritic. As I mentioned in my Star Wars Outlaws review, I am not much of a card game enjoyer despite having a good time with the minigame Sabaac. Growing up I regularly played go fish, war, rummy and a few other card games with friends and family, but it was always just something to pass the time for me, not something I really sought out. However, I am absolutely addicted to Balatro.

I’ll admit that I initially overlooked the game when it was first released, passing it over as another deckbuilder that just wasn’t my kind of game. Then I heard about it coming to mobile devices in September and my curiosity was piqued, especially after seeing that it has overtaken Minecraft as the most popular mobile game on iOS and Android. I decided to pick it up as something to kill time on the go, and boy was that a mistake.

In the first two days after buying it, I put at least 7 hours into the game on mobile. Then I decided to be an extra degenerate and buy the game on Steam as well. Since then, about a week ago, I have put at least 12 hours into the game on mobile and an additional 4 hours on PC. I can’t say that I am particularly good at the game, especially considering some videos I have seen of people getting insane, game-breaking combos on YouTube, but my god is it addicting.

LocalThunk seems to have nailed something that scratches a particular part of my brain that I didn’t know existed. The old school simplistic pixel graphics, the music, the overly saturated colors, the satisfying poker chip and card shuffling sounds, not to mention the gameplay itself, all come together in a perfect cacophony of addiction. It forces you to use your brain just enough that you don’t get exhausted, but you do get an incredible feeling of satisfaction setting up absurd combos after strategically discarding cards from your hand, using Tarot and planet card power ups, and planning which poker hand to play to coincide with the abilities your Jokers give you to defeat the blind in a single round.

As the ante, or round difficulty, increases as you defeat boss blinds, you begin to face a much greater challenge, and the feeling of just barely beating a blind with your last hand is akin to making it out of an Escape from Tarkov raid while absolutely loaded to the gills with fat loot. There have been several times where I thought for sure I was about to lose, only to be shocked to see the worst hand imaginable score me just enough chips to move on to the next blind. I never thought I would describe a card game as exhilarating, but here we are.

Balatro is simultaneously a great game to kick back and play absentmindedly at the end of a long day, or one to really sink yourself into, becoming a sweaty chud and trying to get the best possible score on a hand. I simply cannot recommend it enough. It is a bit expensive as far as mobile/indie games go, coming in at $10 on mobile and $15 on Steam, but it is well worth the price. If you are apprehensive, I recommend trying it on Steam first since you will have a two hour window for a refund if you somehow don’t enjoy it, or if you do enjoy it and would prefer to buy it on mobile for the lower price.

9.5/10

All images courtesy of LocalThunk and BadHabitGaming.