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Balatro review - acing the roguelike formula
You know a game is good when you can’t put it down. When you find yourself thinking of it when you’re walking the dog, taking the bins out, or working - don’t tell my editor. For most of the last year, that has been my experience with Balatro. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve reluctantly put down my Steam Deck, already planning the next evening’s run. At first glance, Balatro might look like a poker game. Well, it’s not. You use the same hands as you would in a game of Texas Hold ‘em to score points, sure, but that’s the only truly noteworthy comparison. LocalThunk’s smash hit indie is really a roguelike deck builder, but there’s no battling, it’s all about using poker hands to build your score and meet the threshold in individual blinds, the game’s term for rounds. For example, you need 300 points to get through the first blind, which you can achieve with a combination of lower-scoring hands, such as a two-pair or three-of-a-kind, or a single high-scoring hand, like a full house or flush. It all depends on your luck of the draw and the additional points you get for the cards you use, as each card you play adds its numerical value to the chip count. Continue reading Balatro review - acing the roguelike formula MORE FROM POCKET TACTICS: Balatro review, Best mobile card games, Best Apple Arcade games
You know a game is good when you can’t put it down. When you find yourself thinking of it when you’re walking the dog, taking the bins out, or working - don’t tell my editor. For most of the last year, that has been my experience with Balatro. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve reluctantly put down my Steam Deck, already planning the next evening’s run.
At first glance, Balatro might look like a poker game. Well, it’s not. You use the same hands as you would in a game of Texas Hold ‘em to score points, sure, but that’s the only truly noteworthy comparison. LocalThunk’s smash hit indie is really a roguelike deck builder, but there’s no battling, it’s all about using poker hands to build your score and meet the threshold in individual blinds, the game’s term for rounds.
For example, you need 300 points to get through the first blind, which you can achieve with a combination of lower-scoring hands, such as a two-pair or three-of-a-kind, or a single high-scoring hand, like a full house or flush. It all depends on your luck of the draw and the additional points you get for the cards you use, as each card you play adds its numerical value to the chip count.
