(Game)bling of the Year.

I never thought in a million years that I would be this heavily invested in Poker. Balatro is a recent Steam addition that has reached over a million purchases, and has captured the free time of my Discord friends, and unfortunately, me. The concept around the game is fairly simple: Just play Poker.

I wasn't too fond of the real-world card game equivalent before hand, and had wrote off the promise of the game when I watched my friends play it. Starting last week, we would all join a voice chat, and stream the point of view of the game. In which Hazza, the one that got us all addicted, would coach our friends through making a good hand. Slowly throughout the week, I gained the confidence to finally pick up the game for $15 last Friday. The itch was starting to grow, and I really wanted to see what the hype was about.

This game is so fucking amazing. Sure, I don't really play that many roguelikes/lites at all, other than Shotgun King, but this game roped me in quick. In a similar manner to how I liked the idea of playing Chess with a shotgun. Quick parallel between these two games, I appreciate how both developers took a real life board game experience and turned it into a highly replayable video game.

Enough rambling (and gambling), here's the layman's terms for the game:

The main gameplay loop revolves around Poker, where the goal is to score as many points/chips as possible (gain the most money IRL) by playing a variation of Poker Hands. Unlike real life, you have the opportunity to see many more cards in your hand (seven versus two), and play a finite amount of hands and discards (three each, changes depending on which deck you select at the start of the game). You have access to a lot of key information right off the bat. Including which Hands score the most chips, information about the various cards and suits in your deck, how much chips/points you need to earn, etcetera. It is a plethora of valuable information that may not seem important to a new player, but is vital if you want to get good at the game.

The game functions similarly like Shotgun King and other indie roguelikes/lites in the genre. Fight round after round where you either die, or win with insane upgrades that beat the boss at the end of a run.

Moreover, there are Rounds and Ante' in the typical Balatro experience. There are eight Ante' in a run, with each Ante having three rounds each. There are two regular rounds, and a boss round (Blind) at the end of each Ante. These blind rounds are crucial and what make the game monotonous, in a good way, and difficult to do well at. Each blind has a different status effect that will affect your deck in a certain way. For example, The Psychic, a relatively easy blind if you like playing loaded hands, requires the user to play five cards with every hand. Other blinds disable suit types like no diamonds, clubs, etcetera.

Once the user reaches the end of Ante eight, they have won the game and the run continues into endless mode. This mode is required to 100% the game, as Ante 16 is listed in the collection menu for the game (I am nowhere close to Ante 16 ;c). Usually, Ante 8 ends with a 100k blind, or if you are unlucky like me, it would be the blind that specifically has an extra large blind (The Wall, score 300k).

Now here's what makes this game fun: It is a solid mixture of both player skill/action, and whatever luck you can receive from the game.

In order to get to Ante 8, you need to buff your cards with Multiplier or Chips. Each hand you play, Two Pair, Flush, Full House, etcetera, has a base amount of chips and a multiplier that it gives. The more powerful the hand is in traditional Poker, the more chips it rewards in Balatro. The hands can be upgraded through Planet Cards (gives a modest boost in chips + multi scored), and really helps if you main a specific hand throughout the entire run. Be careful though, as the blinds could fuck you up really good if they disable your all-spade deck, or don't allow multiples of the same hand-type to be played.

There's also the Jokers, the fun part of the game is to collect these wacky, eccentric little guys. When I commentated my first win with Hazza in voice chat, he was having a grand old time with my reaction to the Jokers and every little aspect within this masterpiece of a game. Jokers are like Planet Cards, except they are really powerful depending on the Poker Hands you play, or the luck you want to receive. Jokers give extra chips, multiplier, and the most powerful of them all: Times Multiplier. It is marked by a bold 2X with red and white lettering, and these cards are very crucial when it comes to success. TM essentially takes every effect into account, and times the hand by two. For example, if you score 20k in chips, a 2X TM would bring that up to 40k. Anyways, the Jokers are so fun to look at. Not because of their overpowered nature, but because of the art present on each one. Living up to their name as true jokes of their craft: To be entertaining and cruel when they need to be. (Especially if you accidentally buy a shitty Joker and it causes you to lose the Round).

Then there's the playing cards. There is such a wide variety of customization you can do to the cards in order to get the best hand possible:
-You can convert them to different suits, destroy them, enhance them to give extra chips or multiplier.
-Glass Cards that work as a TM (put these at the end of your hand!)
-Stone Cards (50 chips, no suit), Gold Cards ($3 if stays in hand at the end of the round)
-Play the game to actually experience this customization!
Rule of thumb, the base scoring for each card is listed as their numerical value. Aces through card-10 each give 10 chips, while card-2 gives 2 chips. Only until recently (yesterday) was when I kept on promoting 10s into Jacks when both literally give off the same chip amounts.

I just realized, I haven't even introduced the Shop mechanic yet! After each round, you will receive $Money depending on how many Hands you have left, how much the regular bind gives you (Usually $3, $4, and $5 each Ante), which Deck you've selected, and the amount of interest you've earned from leftover money in other rounds (Gain $1 for every $5 in your bank after a round, up to $5 ($25)). All of this money is crucial for buying Jokers, and Booster Packs that give you Tarot (they affect your Deck), Planet, and Playing Cards themselves to add to your deck. There's also the Booster, which will always be $10, and include important upgrades like re-rolling the boss blind, adding an extra discard, or increasing the amount of interest you earn at the end of a round. The interest mechanic, although small and irrelevant, is really important if you want a run to go well. If you have exactly $5 in your bank and want to spend it on a Booster Pack, it would be wise to save it for the next round shop. Finally, you can re-roll the shop but this is only for the Joker slots only.

Finally, there's the ability to skip blinds and earn little rewards along the way. You cannot skip the boss blind and you have to fight it every time. Personally, I don't like skipping blinds, but if you are low on cash, not earning enough due to playing all your Hands in each round, and have a pretty strong Deck that would decimate the Ante anyways, then SKIP SKIP all the way to the boss. If you ever wanted to do an "All-Luck" run, this would be the way to do it.

After all of this yapping about gameplay features, it's better to play the game for yourself. Just so you have a jest about what I am yapping about.

Back to my original statement: It is a mixture of player skill/action, and the luck you receive from the game that makes this game exciting, enticing, and worth every hour of the day. On the road to Ante 8, you have control over what Hands you play, what upgrades you buy, and which luck elements you want to play or manipulate. Most of the time, it feels like my skill ceiling is matched, and I can zone into the game more often than not. Sure, it can be frustrating to lose over and over, but it was less about luck and more about "Damn, I wish I did this differently" or "I wish I didn't use my last discard". It is a game about making choices, execution of Hands, and overall strategy that makes you smile while playing this game. For every low moment, there's a round won with only one hand played, and an Ante 8 victory.

Balatro is a game that makes you feel like you've accomplished something, your skills are matched. One of the few Contemporary Indie Games that I can state as having great game design. Most of the time when you lose, it is your fault and 100% justified. It feels like gambling, it's a drug, and I want to finish the in-game Collection that it has laid out for me. Balatro is in its infancy as a game, with several more opportunities to add more Jokers, abilities, and more.

I love this game so much, and it has plagued the last week of my life.
todo es justo en el amor y el bromista.

Here's some various screenshots that I've taken throughout the last week:

Addiction is Fun! :D

First Ever Win! (March 23rd) (Screenshot by Hazza, bro helped carry me) I have never tried doing a High Card run after this instance, nor do I remember my Jokers from this run.