I have spent the better part of a year trying to break away from Balatro. I have jumped into Astro Bot several times, tried getting back into Binding of Isaac, a game that I have 600+ hours in, and even desperately tried to start up Destiny 2 again. When you turn to D2 nowadays, you know you’re struggling. Nothing has worked to keep my attention from that beautiful card game…until now.
Ballionaire from developer newobject and publisher Raw Fury is an oddball game. It’s essentially Plinko with buffs and multipliers. Much like Balatro, it is a game of luck with a smidge of skill. You drop an object down a Plinko-like board, have it run into buffs you earn and set on said board, and then you see what you get out of it. The goal of the game is to reach a certain point value in a set number of turns. By adding and adjusting buffs and multipliers on the Plinko board, you strategically do your best to make that happen.
This game is addictive. This game is now my go-to game when Balatro gets the best of me. I can’t say that about many games, but Ballionaire is in that category.
So, sit back, aim correctly, make sure you have plenty of bumpers, trees, and dragons, and let’s get this game review clinking.
Falling gameplay
When I tell you that this game is like Plinko, I’m not making that up. It’s literally like the Price is Right’s most popular game. The biggest difference between the two is that Plinko boards don’t come in different shapes, and there are no obvious buffs in the real-life version. Just people dying for dough. Or dying inside.
Anyway, Ballionaire at its core is Plinko. You drop a round object (and it varies depending on the level) from the top of a board, it plinks to and from each pin as it makes its way to the bottom. The separating factor, as mentioned in my opening is that the game includes buffs and multipliers. These can be jump ropes that pop your object back upward, bumpers from a pinball machine that bounce the object violently everywhere on the board (or off the board), and/or warp portals that magically put your object back at the top. These are the very basic buffs for the game and there are a ton more.
The goal of the player is to hit these buffs correctly, though the game does leave 80% of the motion to complete the chance and gather points along the way. The more you hit, the more multipliers you achieve to bounce up your score, and the more you progress. The game sets scoring goals for each round of play (that start with five turns each). The initial point goal is 500, then it rises to 2500, then starts going way up. The goal system is easy to catch onto and the devs laid out their purpose and intentions well enough.
For every round you complete, you are gifted buffs and multipliers, and/or special objects that you permanently keep that have an overall effect on your game. The latter of the bunch could be a small multiplier that covers every action that you’re doing in the game. The former could be gaining a mine cart that your object can quickly bounce down the board in, or maybe even a campfire that releases fireballs that bounce everywhere and gain points. You choose from a set of buffs and multipliers between rounds, so you’re never short of choices in the game.
I think this part of the game might be the most valuable aspect of it, as you can try out combinations of objects in different places. Finding that sweet spot means that you’re going to just stare at your screen as points are gathered up. The longer your inaction, the better you’re doing, which is gratifying as hell. Anytime a game can make you sit and admire your efforts or immediately start strategizing improvements halfway through its actions is a good game. Ballionaire is engaging and easily understandable when it comes to what choices you have and how they help/hurt your chances of covering round-by-round goals. I think this is the game’s hook and it digs in deep.
Choosing what you want to put on the board is only half the strategy in Ballionaire. It’s easy to see that putting a tree by a jump rope means that your object is going to bounce back and forth quickly and garnish a lot of points. Where you put those objects on the board is a wholly other gameplay element.
Placements
Buff and multiplier placement in Ballionaire is a trial-and-error process. You’ll have to go into the game knowing that there is no sure bet when you pick a spot. As the object dropping truly is a game of chance, you’ll just have to estimate what the most visited area of the board might be during each game, as your object dinks through a few rounds. And each game is different from one another, which makes each game a different experience. Is that a good thing? Well, consistency would be nice, but if that happened then the game would be over too quickly, and everyone online would move to the next possible Balatro.
Ballionaire has a somewhat random set of physics at times. Where you bounced in game one, might be different than how game two reacts. So, you’ll have to keep a steady eye on the object as it falls repeatedly. It can be a bit daunting at times because what works in one scenario doesn’t work necessarily in the next. It’s not frustrating as much as it is just head-scratching, as there will never be a comfortable decision for object placement, but that is just what you get with this game. As much as I love going into a game with a sure-fire plan for good execution, sometimes it is just nice to sit back and let the chips fall where they may. That is the case here with Ballionaire and its gameplay. Complete luck.
Now, having said all this, it should be noted that when you get the warp portals (to reset your object back to the top), you probably want to place those at the bottom as a catch-all. That doesn’t guarantee that they will catch everything but that gives you the best chance, and it’s probably the only consistency in strategy for the game that you can count on.
Speaking of counting…
It’s a numbers game
The scoring in Ballionaire jumps from easy to oh-my-GOD in an instant. While you have five wonderful initial turns to drop your object and keep it on the board to gather a helluva lot of points, it can go quickly, especially if you have picked the wrong objects to place on the board, or just misplaced the object.
As previously stated, the scoring starts small at 500. The jump rope is around 200-250 points when the object makes contact with it, so meeting that 500 score is a piece of cake within five turns. The next jump is by 2000 points, which isn’t insurmountable by any means, but you can feel the heat between balancing your strategy and how many more turns you have.
The point in the gameplay when the pressure starts truly pressing down on you is around the fourth or fifth round of the game. You’re given a goal of 150,000 points to achieve, and you must work that out through your choices in the game. Honestly, at some point the choices start becoming something you can’t just blow off, rather they have to be conscious choices that you’re committed to making in the game. The game’s beauty is its difficulty, and it makes it as difficult as your attention span will allow.
The only real saving grace that helps you get through sometimes a steep uphill point gathering journey are the crazy objects you pick from, their descriptions, and all the literal bells/whistles that come with them on the presentation side. They’re all goofy and they create such a cute environment that you can’t stay mad for long.
The game’s whimsicalness helps to see you through the tough times, meet the goals set forth, and help justify the constant repetition of losing, and picking the game up and trying again. Anytime a game can make you feel like you’re progressing when you’re not and keep jingling its shiny keys in front of you to distract you from frustration, then that is a good game that knows what it is delivering.
All the above said, the game’s challenges and goals are reasonable. They can be difficult at times but picking up the game and trying again is seamless. Again, Balatro-esque.
Other odds and ends
The initial jumping-off point of the game, and one that you’ll probably be stuck on (like I was) for a good chunk of your early time, is a pyramid-themed level. It looks like Bill from Gravity Falls and acts like him, as it’s vicious, tricky, and cool. Good memories of a great show aside, the game has a variety (and I mean variety) of different levels to traverse as you progress. They are all creative, fun to see in motion and function, and carry new and trickier designs you’ll have to learn and strategize. This is the big bread and butter for the game and it’s impressive to see the different levels in motion.
In addition to these things, the damn game is $9.99 (at least on sale right now). That price point is justified considering the number of hours you’re going to get from just that initial gameplay. Since it’s going by the 80s arcade ‘highest score is awesome’ gameplay, you’ll never be short of challenging yourself and keeping the engagement of Ballionaire alive. It’s worth the price of admission.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Ballionaire from developer newobject and publisher Raw Fury is a masterpiece of fast and fun entertainment. It hits all the intriguing and addictive notes with its scoring and strategy while keeping it light and funny to tone down any potential frustration.
