Balatro

Genre: Turn-Based Card RPG / Roguelike

Players: 1

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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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