Balatro

love this game, already poured tons of hours into console version and put more on the phone as well, but I lost my saved stakes recently, did not even start a new profile or game, I just booted the app up on accident while I was on a hike, then came back home and found all of my stakes gone, there needs to be a better local save solution, Google Play cannot be relied on as my experience with other games loosing my progress is tied to their shoddy system. But other than that, this game is gas.

I cannot express how often I try booting up this game, because I do really like the gameplay loop. It offers me something to do when I have absolutely nothing else to pass the time with. The facade of deck building is engaging enough that it feels like you’re progressing a little bit at a time. My main problem are the challenge levels, the bosses, whatever you want to call them. It seems like every time I boot up this game, I am offered upgrades by the shop that are immediately taken away from me by one of the boss’s conditions. Stuff like “all clubs are debuffed” and “you have to play a different hand type every round.” All of the upgrades in the game are designed around rewarding particular hands. The tarots help you duplicate cards or give you bonuses from them being played, and the planets increase the multipliers you get for specific hands. These are the only way to progress, aside from the jokers. And when you take those upgrades away, you set the player back to square one. I understand the need for challenge, since the game is incredibly basic. But to me, the rng of deck building and pulling the right cards for your hand is challenge enough. It’s not even frustrating to encounter a boss that shuts down the only combo you’ve been allowed to buy. It’s just annoying, and reminds me why I don’t play this.

Exactly the amazing addictive rougelike everyone says. I've loved my time, and think I'll eventually buy it on PC too for the mods. I've just got 2 little issues. 1. Sometimes the sell or use button pops up on a card like if you hold it, but doesn't go away. 2. I'm not sure if it's intentional, buy unlike the PC version no matter the game speed moving the jokers while the hand is active does not seem to be working for me.

Way too addictive! I was skeptical when my friend recommended it, but it deserves all the awards that it has won. Don't be fooled by the ESRB rating suggesting it's gambling because it isn't. Money resets every game and is not the goal to win. It merely borrows a lot of poker terminology and redefines it all. There are no in-app purchases. This is a classic buy-to-own solo game. Score big to defeat the minimum points limit before you run out turns. It's as simple as that, while very complex too.

I know that this game says that it’s “Poker meets Solitaire” but that statement doesn’t do it justice. I was a little hesitant to buy the game because the preview didn’t catch my attention. I saw the reviews and decided to buy it. Upon playing, it was mostly like “Poker meets a rouge-like”to me. Each run has a type of deck you can choose (it’s still a 52 card deck) BUT the color gives you a different effect. Red gives an extra discard to your standard discard amount, blue gives you an extra turn, etc. The more you play the more crazy effects you’ll get with your decks, and your Jokers. Each run starts off like a rouge-like, No stats, everything is slow, but as time goes on you’ll get better cards, better point multipliers, and better jokers. The jokers have tons of effects that you can unlock and build into how you enjoy playing (pairs, two pairs, straight, full house, etc). I bought it yesterday and was hooked, I played for hours on end without getting bored. Plus the music is fantastic! Highly recommend playing with earbuds or with the sound on.

If you are into Poker or Roguelikes (Binding of Isaac for example,) you will most likely find Balatro to be a very interesting and fun. Jokers are like powerups for your deck and lead to a lot of fun interactions and interesting combos. Now with that being said, I feel the nature of how the game difficulty progresses ruins the expectation of experimentation. As to meet with the high antes you either need to set up the same powerful, but repetitive combos, or get very lucky, which leaves a very small window to mess with jokers as it becomes very quickly becomes punishing to do so. This does not ruin the game in the slightest, just my ability to explore it further. I own this game on PC as well and very much enjoy the interface changes made for mobile and I actually find myself trying to drag cards in the PC version because I’ve become accustomed to dragging them here. Highly recommend for mobile. My only gripe for mobile is for some reason, this game makes my phone very hot and eats battery very fast. Like it’s taking a LOT of processing power to play. My phone usually has a long battery life but to lose 20% or more on a single run of Balatro is kind of unfortunate. If this gets fixed, it’s an easy 5 star.