Balatro Review
Balatro Review
Balatro feels like a game that should have been installed in your computer lab right alongside Number Munchers and Oregon Trail. The visuals are pedestrian, there is only one song, there is no story and having knowledge of poker is almost a prerequisite.
Despite all of this, Balatro is nearly impossible to put down and should be picked up for anyone who has enjoyed some of the more esteemed deckbuilders of the past few years like Slay The Spire and others who have attempted a shot at the throne. Balatro works perfectly in handheld on the Steam Deck and likely on Nintendo Switch, which means that you never have to be productive again, anywhere.
Deck Building Roguelike with a poker twist
The premise is fairly simple: play basic poker hands to score in an attempt to get the required amount of points to beat the boss. However, once the systems start layering into each other, that’s where Balatro hides its devious, and addictive nature. There are so many different variables that could happen on any given run, which makes each play feel drastically different from the other.
Although, it’s a poker game, the knowledge you need is basic. Mostly you just need to know about which hands score points, there isn’t anything like the flop, the river, raising and calling. The way the jokers change the game, a lot of the information you would have brought goes out the window because quickly a two pair can become a smarter play than a Full House.
After each victory you get some money, which can be used to unlocked magical cards that drastically alter your hand and this is where being great at poker kinda goes out the window. There are jokers (150 of them) that change multipliers on your hand in a variety of ways, and since you are only allowed 5 per run, the hard choices won’t be the poker hands you play, but the jokers you decide to keep. There are also vouchers which act as passives, tarot decks that boost cards, planet cards which boost the base score of certain hands and a variety of starting decks with different quirks.
These are all stand in for stopping along your journey at a fire pit to rest, heal and upgrade. The economy of the game is pitch perfect as you never have too much money to spend in between blinds that would allow you to become over powered easily. It’s always a Sophie’s choice.
Balatro taps into the frontal cortex of your brain as the gambling stimuli is euphoric. From the booster packs you can open during each run down to the sounds of everything in Balatro that have an ASMR qaulity to them including the card shuffle, cash payout and score breakdown. Then there is the singular synth wave song in Balatro that sounds like the best hold music you have ever heard in your life and you don’t want customer service to answer your call.
Verdict
Balatros biggest problem is that it doesn’t have an overarching plot as to why you are playing cards, which doesn’t seem like a requirement for traditional card games, but for a roguelike deck builder, it does seem like a necessity. The good news is that this is an easy enough deficit to look past due to how addictive and satisfying the gameplay loop is.
Developed by only one person, Balatro is about 15 bucks and works around your schedule. If you have 20 minutes you can play a few hands, if you have a free day and lots to do, Balatro can also ruin that for you. At the end of the year, Balatro might turn out to be the best deckbuilding game of 2024, but no matter what, it’s definitely going to be the best use 64mb of hard drive space