It's my turn to recommend Balatro
Joker Poker.
If you’ve spoken to me personally or read about video games online within the last few months, chances are you’ve heard of Balatro, the addictive roguelike poker game from publisher Playstack and developer Localthunk. It’s essentially the only game I played during the month of May (aside from some breaks to play Street Fighter). A sequel to one of my favorite roguelikes released (Hades II), as well as a Metroidvania earning rave reviews (Animal Well), and yet I’ve barely played either game thanks to Balatro. It’s addictive, it’s a lot of fun, and I’ll riot if it doesn’t earn a GOTY nomination. (Just a heads up, Geoff.)
So, what is Balatro? (Is it pronounced Ball-ah-tro or Bah-lah-tro? I don’t know. Playstack says there are 3 answers.) It’s a game where you play poker hands to earn chips (score) and attempt to reach higher and higher scores. To do this, you can purchase special playing cards that give you bonus chips or multiply your score, special tarot cards that enhance your existing cards, planet cards that give more score for their specified poker hands, and Jokers — powerful gameplay modifiers. Your goal is to complete 8 antes, which are comprised of a small blind, a large blind, and a boss blind. Each ante has its own unique boss, randomly selected at the beginning of the run, which requires the player to deal with challenges like suit debuffs, avoiding previously played cards, and forcing cards to be discarded after each hand is played. If you didn’t read all that, then here’s a TL; DR: it’s a game where you cheat at poker.
There are different decks to play with, each with their own benefits: simpler ones like the Blue Deck give you an extra hand each round, while more intriguing ones like the Plasma Deck balance your chips and multiplier before calculating your score. (And there’s also a really bad deck that I hate, the Black Deck, which makes me very angry.) Some decks are more exciting than others, but each deck changes the way you play the game ever so slightly.
When I first read the description on the Steam store page, I was a little worried I’d be getting into something complex and end up dropping the game after a week, but Balatro is a very approachable game. The tutorial walks you through the basics of making Poker hands, shows you how to gain score, instructs you on earning money and buying from the shop, and then sets you free. Five minutes into my first run, and while I really know nothing about how this game works, I feel like I have an understanding of what’s going on. Balatro’s tutorial is excellent, and I was hooked from the get-go.
One of my favorite aspects of Hearthstone is its “flavor,” essentially how the art of the game matches its gameplay, and this is also true of Balatro. This is reflected in how different types of playing cards are used (French suited for your deck, Tarot cards for upgrades) and the design of the Jokers. For example, the Vampire Joker removes enhancements from played cards to gain xMult- like he’s sucking the lifeforce out of your cards. The Square Joker gives you 4 chips whenever you play 4 cards, and as of the most recent patch, is also square shaped. One of my favorite Jokers, Spare Trousers, is a pair of pants that rewards you for playing Two Pairs. Balatro’s flavor spices up a game that could otherwise have a boring presentation given that we’re dealing with playing cards here.
Continuing in admirable design patterns is the simplicity of the Joker design, which allows you to get really creative in how you combine your Jokers to ramp up your score. Take the Joker “Pareidolia,” which makes all cards considered face cards. By itself, it seems kind of useless, but combine it with Midas Mask, which gives played face cards gold enchantments, and the aforementioned Vampire: now, whenever you play a 5-card hand, you turn them all to Gold, remove the enchantment immediately, and now you have 0.5x more score for the rest of the game. The most complex Joker is probably Shortcut, and that one allows you to skip numbers when making straights. I honestly think this game is easier to understand than Hearthstone, and that’s a game that makes card comprehension a priority for its players.
I’m not quite getting the Tetris Effect like I do with the game the phenomenon is named after, but Balatro consumes my thoughts often. It’s really fun to discuss different strategies with friends and strangers and think about how you can improve and get further along in endless. I love seeing Reddit posts where someone makes their deck all one single suit or gets a hand full of red seal steel aces. Sometimes instead of turning on Hulu when bored, I’m watching NorthernLion stream the game. I’m constantly talking to my friend about which Jokers he thinks are bad and which are overpowered. (We both love Hanging Chad.) I’m at a point where I’m starting to demand perfection from myself and getting frustrated when I miss out on a single dollar on the first round, knowing that I’m better than how I’m currently playing. Usually, this happens at around 12:30 in the morning when I’m half asleep and have to be up for work the next day.
The hardest part of Balatro (besides beating Black Deck on Gold Stakes) is putting the game down. It is seriously addictive, and only two months removed from my purchase I have more than 160 hours logged. The more I play, the more I begin to appreciate aspects of the game I previously disliked. I used to be kind of iffy about the fact that shop rerolls were so expensive, but now I like that I have a reward for maximizing my economy and investing into the reroll voucher. I used to think Straights were too niche to go for, but now I really appreciate that the difficulty in getting Straights is balanced by Runner and how fast its planet upgrades. It’s a really well put together video game.
I probably don’t even need to write this sentence, but I strongly recommend Balatro. In terms of money spent to enjoyment gained, this is easily number one in that metric— I paid just $11 and the game only retails for $15. The big question is which platform to buy it for: I personally bought it on PC since I thought playing it would feel most natural with a mouse, but a friend of mine elected to buy it on Switch so he could play portably. (The thought of shelling out $400 for a Steam Deck so I can continue my save file in bed has crossed my mind. It’s a relief I’m not impulsive.) I don’t really think you can go wrong with any platform; this isn’t really a game where you need 4K resolution at 144 FPS. (The PC version did get the most recent patch ahead of PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, however.) Some great games I’ll admit aren’t for everyone, but I don’t think Balatro is one of them. Unless you absolutely despise Poker and hate going for high scores, Balatro is a game you’ve gotta try. Don’t even wait for a sale.
Bryan likes this one a lot!