This might become one of the shortest reviews I’ve written but Balatro from developer LocalThunk is an incredibly clever game that takes poker, a game a lot of people are familiar with, and upends it with roguelike elements and modifiers that turn it into an addiction that is very hard to shake.

The basic premise of Balatro is that you are dealt a number of playing cards from a standard deck and from that you try to assemble a poker hand (pair, straight, full house, etc) to score points. As you complete scoring goals you then get a chance to purchase additional cards at the end of each round to help you proceed further:

• Jokers that add behaviours to boost your poker hand’s final score
• Planet cards that increase multipliers for specific hands
• Tarot cards that can apply bonuses to specific cards or reward new ones
• Spectral cards that can produce high risk/high reward changes to your deck
• Vouchers to modify your shop experience
• Even additional playing cards to add to your deck, some with bonuses too

All of this is random, so each run you play is going to be different and you’ll have to adapt to the hands you are dealt. Initially it can be confronting as you try to score enough to beat a score but the moment you start getting the right Jokers in and your scores start going up it can be hard to stop playing. With a typical run (8 rounds) taking less than thirty minutes it’s a perfect pick up and play game.

Presentation of the game is bright and cheerful and doesn’t get in your way. The music is something you can happily keep in the background and helps set the mood perfectly.You can also speed up the animations (highly recommended to do) so that you are not left waiting during some of the lengthier scoring sequences.

The moment the game’s mechanics finally grab you and the scores start piling up it’s hard to put this game down. It’s brilliantly addictive, a joy to play and might just be the best game I’ve played this year. 🙂

Balatro is out now on PC and console platforms, with mobile versions coming soon. Images sourced from the Balatro presskit… I get so caught up playing I forget to take screenshots!