Any astute enthusiasts of indie games should understand how significant Balatro was when it came out in February of last year. It is a game that seemingly came out of nowhere and captivated gamers of all ages with its addictive and thought-provoking gameplay loop. As is the case with any roguelike, the more you play the game, the better you understand its mechanics. The better you know the mechanics, the more you will succeed. I first got Balatro on the Switch a few months ago, and I have been playing it non-stop since. A couple of weeks ago, I made a dangerous decision (given the game’s addictive nature): I downloaded Balatro+ on Apple Arcade. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the definitive way to experience and play Balatro, a game that has since become one of my favourite indie games of all time. From the endless ways to strategise your run to the hypnotic soundtrack, Balatro is a masterclass in roguelike game design and never gets old, even after dozens of hours.
PLAY OR BE PLAYED
In its most basic form, Balatro’s game design involves playing poker hands to earn a certain number of chips. Each round, known as Blinds, has an amount of chips you need to earn to go to the next round. At the beginning of a round, you get a certain number of cards, and your task is to organise the cards into a poker hand. Less impressive hands like a Pair or Two Pair will score you fewer points, but better hands like Straights and Flushes will score you more points. Once you earn the required number of chips, you will progress to the next round. Every Blind increases the number of chips you have to gain, making it more difficult to plan and strategise your deck. It makes you consider every single hand you play. If you fail to meet the required number of chips, you fail and go back to the beginning of your run.Â
The pixel art style of the game is charming, and the hypnotic backgrounds of each card game are creepy at first but become incredibly soothing the more you see it. Adding to the hypnotic visuals is the game’s simple but brilliant soundtrack. Balatro’s music consists of one single track played throughout the game. Amazingly, the tune never gets tiring, and you never get sick of it. Different remixes of the song play throughout the game, and it changes depending on the Blind. Complementing the soundtrack is the sound design, and it is one of the most satisfying overall I have ever heard in a video game. Every time you score, the sound of the chips and cards is perfect. The sounds are weighty, and the speed at which they play increases, the higher your score is. I have ADHD, and every sound is the perfect stimulus to put my brain into a flow state. Balatro keeps you playing because of the gameplay, but it becomes addictive due to the presentation.Â
Balatro’s Blinds come in sets of three: a Small Blind, a Big Blind and a Boss Blind. Small Blinds are the easiest and have the smallest number of chips as the target. Big Blinds are the same as Small Blinds, but the amount of chips increases slightly, making it a little more challenging. The biggest thorn in your side is the Boss Blinds. Not only do the Boss Blinds have the highest amount of chips to earn in a set, but they also have a unique ability to make your run harder. For example, ‘The Window’ is a Boss Blind that debuffs every diamond, meaning that playing a diamond will result in the card giving you no points. ‘The Mouth’ only lets you play one type of poker hand for the Boss Blind, so if you play a Two Pair for your first hand of the round, every following hand must be a Two Pair; otherwise, you will score no points. You are able to see the upcoming Boss Blind at the beginning of each set so that you can strategise your hands and deck based on the difficulty of the Boss Blind. If you successfully beat the Boss Blind, you increase the Ante of your run. If you defeat nine Antes, you win a run.
HOW TO CHEAT AT CARDS
The gameplay sounds simple, and at its base level, it is. However, Balatro takes the basic premise of poker and adds so many different mechanics and gameplay modifiers to make the game never feel repetitive and makes the game one of the most replayable roguelikes I have ever experienced. The main ace up this game’s sleeve is the Jokers. There are 150 different Jokers in the game, and you can purchase them after defeating a Blind. The Jokers act as upgrades/power-ups to your deck and certain hands. For example, ‘Sly Joker’ rewards you 50 extra chips if your poker hand contains a Pair, ‘Four Fingers’ allows you to alter Flushes and Straights so they only need four cards instead of five, and ‘Odd Todd’ rewards you 31 extra chips every time you play a card that is an odd number. These Jokers are just a morsel of the different ones you will encounter during your run, and discussing the intricacies of each one would take all year. As well as purchasing Jokers from the shop, more Jokers become available to you the more you play the game. For example, losing a certain number of runs unlocks a new Joker and playing a certain number of hands earns you another Joker. Balatro is intended to be played for a long period, and LocalThunk has crafted the game to achieve this in spades.
Incredibly, Jokers are not the only mechanic that alters the gameplay of Balatro. After defeating a particular Blind, you earn money to spend in the shop. You receive a set amount of money for beating the Blind and $1 for every hand you have remaining after winning the Blind. You can spend the money you earn in the shop that pops up after the end of each round. The shop contains Jokers, which you can purchase to give you the upper hand, but it is the vouchers, booster packs, tarot cards, planet cards and spectral cards you can buy that take Balatro to the next level.
Vouchers can make or break your run because they can be beneficial, but they are the most expensive. The same voucher remains in the shop throughout the current Ante, and it refreshes after beating a Boss Blind. There are 32 different vouchers in the game, and each one can change the way you play. For example, ‘Clearance Sale’ gives you 25% off Jokers and booster packs for the rest of your run, ‘Grabber’ permanently gives you an extra hand in each round (this is crucial in some runs), and ‘Magic Trick’ gives you the ability to purchase playing cards in the shop. It is up to you to decide whether or not paying the high price is worth it; will you take the risk and reap the rewards, or will you risk it and end up being too poor to purchase a crucial Joker that could affect your run? The choice is down to you.
Planet Cards are also available in the shop, and these are some of the most important upgrades to invest in. Planet Cards are most commonly available in Booster Packs, packs of upgrade cards where you have to choose one out of three to five different upgrade cards of your choice. In the case of Planet Cards, they are used to increase the points you can gain from a poker hand. Planet Cards increase the base number of chips a poker hand is worth, as well as the multi-score of the hand. During a run, it is often wise to invest in one particular hand, and then you can structure your Jokers around the chosen hand. Doing this will give you a huge amount of points and will increase your chances of winning a run.
Tarot Cards are also available in Booster Packs, and they offer some of the most devastating changes to your deck. Planet Cards only alter a particular poker hand, whilst Tarot Cards can momentarily or permanently alter any aspect of your run. Some Tarot Cards offer a quick change, like ‘The Hermit’, which doubles your money, and ‘Temperance’, which rewards you with the sell value of every Joker you own. Other Tarot Cards can permanently change playing cards in your deck: ‘The World’ allows you to change three selected cards in spades, perfect if you are prioritising flushes for your run, ‘The Lovers’ lets you change a card chosen into a Wild Card so it can go with any suit, and ‘Justice’ allows you to change a playing card into a Glass Card, which comes with an added multiplier power up for your hand. Unless you have played the game, the Tarot Cards can be confusing to work your way around, and it will take you time to learn what works best for you. However, once you understand the ins and outs of your poker hands, you will know which cards are the best to go for, as well as arrange your poker hands in a particular order to get the highest score. The complex mechanics of Balatro are what makes the game as rewarding and as addictive as it is.
Spectral Cards are the final special cards you can buy in the shop. These upgrades do not appear as much as Tarot or Planet Cards, but they can have some of the most devastating effects on your deck. For example, ‘Familiar’ destroys a random number card in your hand and replaces it with three random number cards with enhanced abilities. These enhancements could include a Steel Card, which, when held in your hand during a run, increases the multi-score, or a Gold Card, which rewards you with money if the card remains in your hand at the end of a round. ‘Ouija’ takes a select number of cards and changes them all into a single value. You could have a dozen Kings in your hand, which can also give you the upper hand in playing higher-scoring hands but also allow you to play secret hands like Five of a Kind or Flush Five. Finally, ‘Cryptid’ is an upgrade that permanently adds two copies of a selected card to your deck, which can increase your chances of getting a Full House or Four of a Kind but can also give you a better chance of getting Flushes. The Spectral Cards are less frequent than other upgrade cards, but that is because they have some of the most powerful effects on your deck.
IMMERSED BY THE CARD TABLE
When you thought Balatro could not deliver more gameplay mechanics in its already massive design, LocalThunk added different decks and additional difficulties. There are 15 different decks of cards to play with in Balatro, and each one is unlocked the further you progress into the game. You begin with the ‘Red Deck’, and this deck gives you one additional Discard per round. When you beat the first deck, you unlock the ‘Blue Deck’, which provides you with one extra hand every round. Future decks have much more intricate abilities, like the ‘Black Deck’, which gives you an additional Joker slot but sacrifices the number of hands per round. The most amazing thing about each deck is that you have to be comfortable with losing and taking risks in order to succeed. A strategy that worked for you with one deck will not work with another deck. Once you learn how each deck plays and you understand what you can and cannot do, you will be open to playing in ways you would previously thought not to. If 15 different decks were not enough variety, each deck has eight unlockable difficulties, which all alter the gameplay experience. These various modes mean that Balatro has 120 different unlockable game modes!
BALATRO REVIEW: VERDICT
I often think about Desert Island video games. Games that I would take with me to a desert island and that I would be more than happy to play for the rest of my life. One of the games I would take is Balatro. LocalThunk has taken the concept of poker and added layers on top of layers to make the game one of the greatest indie games of the decade. Balatro is one of my new favourite games of all time. I have played the game on Apple Arcade for more than 40 hours, and I have barely scratched its surface.
