Balatro

Genre: Turn-Based Card RPG / Roguelike

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Balatro is a Turn-Based Card RPG and Roguelike released in 2024 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Much as with the legendary Slay the Spire, Balatro uses its Roguelike elements for deck-building with players trying to get a combination of cards that will propel them through as many challenges as possible. However, the formula Balatro start with will be a familiar one for most players, as the core gameplay revolves around a standard French-suited 52 card deck of traditional playing cards, playing using rules that resemble Poker, with players aiming to get the best hands by matching pairs, straights, flushes, full houses, and so on.

However, unlike most variants of Poker, Balatro doesn’t have you playing against a standard opponent, AI-controlled or otherwise. Instead, your goal in each round will by simply surpassing a set score that gradually increases with each subsequent round. Every third round will pit you against a “boss”, which is really just an enforced limitation for that round, such as not getting any points from a specific suit, or not being able to use any cards that scored points in the prior two rounds. But for the most part, you’ll largely just be playing against yourself and the increasing demands of the rising point totals you’re expected to make.

This is where that Roguelike element comes into play. In between rounds, you’ll have the opportunity to spend the poker chips you’ve earned to purchase randomized upgrades. You can add standard cards to your deck, transform specific deck cards using “tarot cards” that can add point bonuses and multipliers, buy celestial cards that upgrade the points and multipliers gained from specific hand types, get jokers that sit in a sidebar and add a wide variety of passive bonuses… there are plenty of ways to alter or adapt your deck to boost your score totals, and as with any good deckbuilding Roguelike, the great skill here is in recognizing the best combinations of upgrades based on what you’re offered, while also being mindful of the challenge forecasted by the description of the upcoming boss.

I’ll make it plain – Balatro is the first deckbuilding Roguelike I’ve played that actually manages to stand shoulder to shoulder with Slay the Spire in terms of quality well-crafted gameplay. I feel like each game does some things better, and while I don’t think that Balatro gives players as many opportunities to change up their deck as Slay the Spire does, the deck you start with is far more malleable right from the get-go. You can focus on building up your face cards, or trying to power up one suit… you can focus on building up your hand multipliers, or just going for the best multipliers overall. At any given time you can opt to change course if you like, though of course it usually pays to choose a direction to go with your upgrades and remain relatively consistent.

The presentation here is nothing special, but it’s definitely not bad. The game uses mostly 2D visuals, though the cards themselves are 3D and can flip and turn in their animations. In addition, the way you can upgrade cards can add cool effects, like making them foil, hologram, or platinum, each with not only their own gameplay effect, but their own cool visualization. These cards are often backed by backgrounds that have a bit of a psychedelic effect that, while not so extreme as to be distracting, definitely helps this game to look anything but plain. These visuals are backed by fairly relaxed synthesized music that works well enough for the gameplay here, albeit without distinguishing itself in a significant way. And the fact that all of this fits into a tiny 156MB in your Nintendo Switch’s memory is quite excellent too.

When it comes to complaints, my main complaint is that it’s not always clear what some effects do, and you can’t really reference your deck or the upcoming boss whenever you want (at least, as far as I can tell). Also, while the Nintendo Switch version of the game doesn’t suffer at all compared to other platforms, and even adds touchscreen support, the touchscreen feature is fairly disposable, and it can be difficult to distinguish between different cards on the small screen (clubs and spades are particularly bad about blending together).

Overall Balatro is brilliant, cementing itself as one of the kings of the deckbuilding Roguelike genre, a game that jacks into the same great mix of skill and variety that made Slay the Spire such a compelling game, making you want to keep playing just one more run until you feel like a real ace, and while there are flaws here that keep this game from being a perfect ten, I don’t intend to be a drama queen about it – Balatro is nevertheless a royal flush of a game showing that Slay the Spire wasn’t a one-off flash of brilliance in the genre.

tl;dr – Balatro is a Turn-Based Card RPG and Roguelike that starts with a standard deck of poker cards that players gradually trade out and upgrade, aiming to keep racking up increasingly high scores to get as far as they can. While this game has a few rough spots, overall this is a brilliant mix of accessibility and exquisitely-crafted gameplay that puts it on par with the likes of Slay the Spire as the best this genre has to offer. This is an absolute must-play for any fans of this genre.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2024 Game Awards:

Winner:

Best Roguelike – Few games highlight just what’s so great about the Roguelike genre in the way Balatro does. Without its Roguelike elements, this would basically just be a solitaire version of Poker. But add in a deck where you can change or swap out cards for better ones, and a tableau of special Joker cards that add a variety of fun bonuses, and you have a compelling game that will have you coming back over and over again to try and get that one truly great run with an unstoppable deck.

Best Card/Board/Dice Game – Basing its gameplay on Poker rules makes Balatro ridiculously accessible, to the point where players who haven’t played it may strain to see what’s so special about it. But adding in Roguelike elements transforms this game into something very different and arguably far more than the simple rules that make up its foundation. What’s more, this game strikes an excellent balance between being believable as still having its roots in the Card Game while also clearly adding new elements that could have only been done in a videogame. For so many reasons, this is exactly what you want when trying to create a videogame based on a game derived from a physical media.

Runner-Up: Game of the Year, Most Efficient Use of File Storage Space

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Balatro (Nintendo Switch 2)

Genre: Turn-Based Card RPG / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Balatro is certainly one of those games that’s low on the list of “games I felt really needed a Nintendo Switch 2 release”. Though now that one has been suddenly released, I can see a few ways the game could make good use of the platform. But we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, I should take a moment to mention that this is not a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition release. Rather, it is an entirely separate Nintendo Switch 2 release, and as such, your game save will not carry over from one version to the other. On the bright side, if you own the Nintendo Switch version of the game, this game is discounted to being free, which is nearly as good (and if you still own both a Nintendo Switch and a Nintendo Switch 2, it’s arguably better because you can keep both versions at the same time).

The two big changes being touted for this version are the addition of Mouse Mode support, HD Rumble 2 Support, and 60FPS framerates. Let’s tackle the first two of these first. Balatro does indeed have full support of dynamic Mouse Mode, but in my experience this ended up being a bit buggy. Whenever the mouse was taken even slightly off a surface, I found the cursor position changed, creating odd flickering between multiple spots as they alternate being highlighted at high speed. What’s more, when using Mouse Mode I repeatedly encountered a glitch causing the HD Rumble 2 to continuously vibrate until I used the home button to return to the Nintendo Switch 2 menu and then go back into the game. All of this in a game that has perfectly decent gamepad controls, and I quickly found myself not wanting to touch Mouse Mode anymore.

At the very least, the third feature, improved framerates, makes for a much smoother experience, but I found Balatro’s graphical upgrades extended beyond this – the resolution seemed higher (yes, even in a game with pixel art cards, since their movement isn’t pixel-based), and the game overall seemed to have a brighter color palette, making the game more visibly-pleasing and easier to read.

The loading times are improved too – on the Nintendo Switch, it took me 25 seconds to load to the main menu, and only 6 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2. What’s more, even the file size of the game is reduced – from 179MB on Nintendo Switch to 123MB on Nintendo Switch 2. Both versions of the game are still quite tiny, but Balatro is even tinier on Nintendo Switch 2.

Taken all together, Balatro’s Nintendo Switch 2 release isn’t perfect. The inability to bring over your game saves and the spotty Mouse Mode integration are both disappointing here. However, I think the upgrade to the visuals makes it well worth picking up this version, especially if you already own the Nintendo Switch version of the game, since that means this won’t cost you a dime. And if you have yet to play Balatro and don’t own the original Nintendo Switch, you can be assured that the game is even better now than it was on the original Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Balatro is a Turn-Based Card RPG and Roguelike that starts with a standard deck of poker cards that players gradually trade out and upgrade, aiming to keep racking up increasingly high scores to get as far as they can. While this game has a few rough spots, overall this is a brilliant mix of accessibility and exquisitely-crafted gameplay that puts it on par with the likes of Slay the Spire as the best this genre has to offer. This is an absolute must-play for any fans of this genre.

Grade: A-

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