Balatro Reviews
It will be very difficult to find a game I have enjoyed exploring more than Balatro this year. Learning its mechanics were like learning a new language and it was all-encompassing. Balatro should be the design template going forward for many designers, it contain 0% fat and is trimmed to perfection. Not a pixel or mechanic is wasted in this immensely addictive roguelike. Its a shame that so many people will just gloss over its pure presentation and design. Bravo all involved.
Balatro is a roguelike for gamers who don't like roguelikes... and then everybody else on top of that. It utterly nails what it sets out to do, providing an instantly accessible, satisfying, and addictive gameplay loop that anybody can grasp. It's an immensely enjoyable experience from the start, but as you get deeper in, there's really nothing else quite like it. We suspect we'll be hearing a lot about Balatro when conversations steer towards Game of the Year, because this is a clear and obvious frontrunner. Utterly sublime.
Wielding nothing more than a deck of cards and a poker-themed twist on proceedings, developer LocalThunk has conjured something incredible and awe-inspiring with Balatro. What starts as a relatively-novel twist on the deckbuilding format quickly blossoms into an experience that's equal parts methodical, experimental, chaotic but satisfying all the same. A game that rewards clever thinking, mathematical meddling and having the courage to be just that bit braver in uncovering just how far one can push its systems at play. Wherein success and failure alike stand as equally memorable moments to build off. A paradigm for what roguelikes and deckbuilders should aspire towards, Balatro is addictive, expertly-crafted and the new front-runner for what is easily the best gaming experience of 2024.
A wonderful roguelike card game which twists poker rules in unexpected ways. It would seem that after Slay the Spire this genre won't be able to surprise in any way, but cool ideas from independent developers continue to appear.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Balatro is my new gaming obsession, I frigging love it. Deckbuilding roguelikes have had some phenomenal games over the years. Balatro reaches the lofty peak of Slay the Spire and has me hooked even harder than that incredible game ever did. You should buy it, now. Buylatro!
With its unlockable deck types, tricky economy, advanced joker concepts, challenge runs, and ascension-like “stake” system, Balatro offers countless hours to engage its treacherous machine of diversion. If this was preinstalled with Windows in lieu of Microsoft’s mandatory, productivity-wrecking Solitaire back in the 90s, modern civilization as we know it could have very well ground to a halt. For fans of deckbuilders, Balatro is an addictively delicious, menacing creation which devours hours without mercy. It should be handled with great care.
Balatro is a fantastic showcase of how to create complexity by establishing a simple ruleset and building on it. LocalThunk’s debut title turns the simplest of poker hands something magical with modifiers and special cards and jokers. At the same time, it pushes the player to try new strategies with its bosses and to skip blinds for a bigger reward. I felt like I barely scratched its surface and I still yearn for more. Get ready to devote all your free time to it and watch your “perfect” strategy fall apart just to try it again and again. A must have for poker, deckbuilder and strategy fans.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The poker roguelike. Balatro is a hypnotically satisfying deckbuilder where you play illegal poker hands, discover game-changing jokers, and trigger adrenaline-pumping, outrageous combos. Switch version reviewed. Everything comes together beautifully and seamlessly in Balatro, and it is now one of my favorite deck-building games ever.
Balatro is an astonishingly addictive take on Poker that's utterly impossible to put down. Occasional difficulty spikes aside; it's a piece of simplistic genius that we'll keep on our Steam Deck forever.
Balatro is an ingenious and entertaining roguelike and one of my favorite games of the year. Playing it has become a near-obsession; everything feels perfectly designed to encourage you to keep trying because that next run could be the run of your life. Even after hours of play, I still can’t overcome Balatro’s biggest challenge: putting it down.
Balatro is a masterfully crafted Roguelike card game, that's easy to learn thanks to its poker mechanics but hard to master.
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.
Balatro is one of those deceptively-approachable ideas that will absolutely consume you the more you start to puzzle out its secrets and intricacies. It somehow makes playing the same game over and over feel completely fresh in possibility each time, and doles out just enough new ideas and just the right amount of intoxicating feedback to keep you thinking "one more game" well into the AM.
Balatro is a true phenomenon. Simple in its execution, but giant in its complexity.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
If you're looking for games that are easy to learn, difficult to master and practically impossible to put down, there are very few similar titles on the market like Balatro. Even with one or two mistakes, it's difficult not to recommend this game. I only advise you to be careful with your productivity if the Switch is always within reach and you like cards: suddenly just ten more minutes can turn into hours spent searching for the perfect joker, and this is not even remotely a bluff.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
A roguelike deckbuilder debut already worth of joining Slay the Spire and Monster Train at the King's table. Essential.
A deck-building poker roguelike of endlessly satisfying proportions, Balatro is the sort of fun that threatens to derail whole weekend plans.
An expertly constructed and intricate roguelite deck builder that draws on the language and concept of poker, before twisting it with an infinity of modifiers, unlocks, and delicately balanced risk and reward.
Balatro's ingenious combination of poker and roguelite gameplay creates an intoxicating combination that's hard to pull away from.
I never would have expected that a roguelike could work so well in a card game before I played Balatro. It’s simple and guides you in so well, but escalates quickly and is happy to crush your run at any moment with the smallest strokes of misfortune. That’s what makes the variety of jokers and bonus cards so fun to explore. Every new option provides an opportunity to buck the house advantage. It leads to an appealing gameplay loop that kept me wanting to try all sorts of new angles and strategies. Balatro is something far out of the ordinary, and heaven forbid it ever makes its way to mobile because my casual time will powerless against it (please?).