If you need a reason to stay up late while continually challenging yourself to do better in a game, then developer LocalThunk has a card game for you called Balatro. Taking the simple concept of poker and turning it right on its freaking head, LocalThunk has put together a ridiculously addictive gaming experience that I literally had to pull away from to get this review done. I can’t say that about a lot of games that cross my desk, but I can with certainty say that has been the biggest issue during my time with Balatro – simply finding a stopping point where I can begin writing.
If you can’t tell what it is, let me break it down in a simple way. Balatro is a card game that relies on buffs, upgrades, and a simple backend system (at least to the naked eye) to drive an otherwise pedestrian poker game. I never knew this could be a thing with poker. Card games like poker are timeless, but now I must rethink how I play it.
So, sit back, know when to fold them and know when to hold them, and let’s get dealing with this review.
It’s all in the cards
The base-level gameplay design here starts with poker. You get cards drawn, try to find your typical poker combinations (flushes, straights, pairs, etc.), and go on from there. The ‘on from there’ part is driven by upgrades, buffs, and luck-of-the-draw card multipliers. It’s also the reason you’ll be hooked to Balatro.
Before the cards are even dealt in Balatro, you’re allowed to pick the card type that you want. In the beginning, the only card deck that you have is a pack of reds. The reds come with some attributes attached to them that are “+1 discard every round”. This attribute refers to the ability to discard five unwanted cards during a round. The typical discard number per round is 3 discards, but with the red deck, it is 4. That single additional discard affects the gameplay quite significantly, as you can push the game to deliver better cards to your hand which allows you to potentially score the most points. Having less than four changes your approach. It’s weird and simple, yet it makes sense with how it adds more intrigue and fun to the overall body of work.
Continuing, each card deck has its unique attributes, though the decks are locked barring progression in the game. For example, the second deck to unlock after you meet a certain criterion of challenges called the “Run” is the blue deck. This deck’s attributes are less discards, but it provides an extra hand of poker, which is essentially an extra life. That extra life might mean an extra push to meet point goals in the game. Much like the red deck’s discards, the single addition of a life in the game changes its complexity and ripples through how the gameplay goes, and what options the player has with the game going forward.
This lone concept of different attributes on decks, and there are a lot of decks, changes the very complexity of strategic methods for Balatro. And that’s before we even get to the good stuff. This primer introduces the next 10-15 hours of gameplay and complicates what should be a clear-cut poker experience. Thankfully, it’s not clear-cut because what makes Balatro interesting is how far down the rabbit hole you can fall with options and strategic intentions.
Once the match starts, the player is challenged with a score to beat each round. Using all the poker skills one can muster, you are required to score the greatest number of points in X number of rounds/hands, while trying to figure out additional play cards to use. Before we get to those cards, it should be noted that each round comes with its own rules and regulations to complicate the game’s perceived simplicity. These rules and regs can be as simple as some cards being off limits to use (called debuffing), rules set that only allow you to use certain poker hand types, or as something as dastardly as turning cards around during a match, which turns into a logical guessing game with what is behind the card curtain. Again, this is far from a straightforward game of poker, and much like poker, the game doesn’t necessarily show you its hands until the match begins. That could probably frustrate some gamers into believing this is a game of chance rather than skill, and their feelings would be valid. The game has no pattern to it when it comes to throwing wrenches into your gameplay, as it wants you to think on your feet as much as possible, much like the real game of poker. I can’t hold that against the gameplay design choices, as it never feels boring, rather it intends to lock you into the moment and keep you strategizing throughout the experience. That is just a cool way to keep the gamer engaged and interested in the gameplay, and it works well here.
We haven’t gotten to quite yet about those additional cool cards. Those cards are the real crux to how much fun you can have with Balatro, as they dictate how well you do, or how hard you fail. The cards come in a variety of random flavors, and they are random in their appearance, and those flavors are — joker, celestial, and arcana cards.
Why so serious, gambler?
The joker cards lead the way in the game, as they carry ways to make money, multiply points, and extend experience. There are so many joker cards in the game and reading the fine print with each is essential. I made the mistake of not doing that the first time around and was incredibly confused about why I kept losing. Once I started reading the descriptions more carefully, the cards began to shape the gameplay and the strategy I needed to use to succeed. For example, there is a joker card that gave me a 30+ chip boost before a multiplier was even applied. That chip boost allowed the acquired multiplier to give me more overall scored points because I had 30 more chips on that hand to multiply. That joker card was referred to as Scary Face, and it only worked on face cards (ace, king, queen, etc.). Those details and that card’s ability, changed the very dynamics of my approach during my match, as I had to focus on getting the most points out of face cards and keep them in play during the round. Joker cards usually are individual to certain numbers, card types, and with certain combinations. They add a helluva lot to the gameplay to the body of work, especially when you can equip five at a time (more with other decks).
Fly me to the moon
The celestial cards act as upgrades before matches, where you can use the cards to upgrade point multipliers with poker combinations. For example, you may get a celestial card that focuses on having two pairs in your hand. If you activate that card, it permanently multiplies the points you get when you have two pairs in your hand. The harder the poker hand combination, the more points you may get from celestial cards. You can mix and match these and they’re infinite from what I can tell during gameplay. They are buffy upgrades to the matches, and they mean so much when you’re arse is really on the line between winning and losing. Their function is different than the joker cards but equally as vital to creating something more than just a poker experience.
Magical, yet purposeful
The other cards are the arcana cards, which allow you to convert points, cards, or other card elements during gameplay. You can initially hold two of these cards at a time in your deck, though some decks and other cards can increase that amount. I was less fascinated by these cards in comparison to the other cards available. They can certainly be very powerful at times but not as readily so as the jokers and celestials. There were several rounds when I simply forgot they were there.
Deck your cards
The final cards you juggle around are deck cards. These are standard number and face cards in each deck. The cards can become their own multipliers, as you can add new cards (glass, stone, etc.) that carry their own set of functions. For example, glass deck cards are generally a rewarding set of cards, but when they’re used one time, they break and disappear. The stone cards are nice and quite the opposite, as they can add to pre-multiplier scores in rounds without going away, but they take up space in your deck. Other deck cards could include those of gold, steel, and celestial metal. The better the longevity, the more powerful and/or lucrative the card. Once these cards are in your deck during a match, they don’t leave unless they’re supposed to break and go away (looking at you, glass).
All the above aspects of gameplay cards in Balatro, when combined, shuffled and re-distributed randomly during each gameplay session, make this game one of the most entertaining experiences I have played in 2024. I might even go out on a limb and say 2023. Regardless, there is so much rich strategy to grow during a gameplay session, which is only stoked by the randomness of each playthrough, which builds an easy way to get attached to the game and not let go. I wasn’t buillshitting you when I said it was tough to stop and write a review. It’s that addictive, and I hate poker.
Anyway, the game is darn good and has a more complicated underbelly than it seems. Now, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to take to it as well as me. Let me tell you why.
Tough as nails
This game will not be for everyone, which is a shame because those who don’t give it a glance won’t know what they’re missing. As mentioned above, the big turn-off here is how random this game can be and how it can either eat your lunch without giving you a glance or give you hope that everything you’re doing is genius. People like some familiarity with their gameplay and getting random gameplay can be a chore to some gamers, especially once you believe you figured things out. And this isn’t a game that says, “Good job! You’re an expert”. More than likely it will say, “You like the rock, Gerald? It’s nice, isn’t it? (pause) OFF! OFF! OFF!”. Regardless, there is some difficulty in getting a firm grip on the gameplay and how it works. It isn’t easy to adjust to new ways of thinking on the fly and to be honest, it can be quite tiring.
Now, that said, for someone like me who enjoys chaos and having to troubleshoot on the fly, I’m quite at home with LocalThunk’s way of thinking with their game. It makes sense to me, and it entices more than it enrages. For me, it rates up there with Ring of Pain, a game that sits on the same throne as The Binding of Isaac, and now, Balatro. It’s replayable, yet I can walk away from it after a long period and return to it without missing a beat.
Anyway, I can see that many will take to Balatro like a moth to a flame, but I can also see a few who won’t find its intellectual challenge that much fun.
On that note, let’s wrap things up.
Conclusion
Balatro from developer LocalThunk is a marvel of a poker experience. While its base-level design is poker, the game’s complicated layers of beautiful strategic ridiculousness driven by upgrades, buffs, and jokers make for a unique experience that is both stimulating and challenging.
