I got a $20 Nintendo gift card for the holidays, and I immediately blew it. The first game I saw on sale that I was instantly interested in, was the poker rogue like deck builder Balatro. There's not one article on this site, so it pleases me to be the first. The problem with the game is in trailers, and playthroughs, and even those entertaining Twitch streams, the game is not fun to watch at all. But it is very VERY addicting to play.
Poker, as is, would be addicting. The game adds to this, by giving you a threshold of points, or chips, to get per round. If you achieve that, you move on. If you don't you start over. Balatro helps you by giving you power ups and multipliers through cards. Some of these cards are tarot cards, changing the suit or the attributes of a card, like adding a multiplier, or changing the suit. Some of them could be celestial cards, based on the planets. Those cards up the strength and multipliers of the hands you play. You can score plenty of chips with a pair of aces if you have it leveled up enough. Then there are the jokers.
The Jokers can change practically every hand, when they're triggered by the hands you play. One Joker adds an extra score to all of one suit. Another changes the multiplier at random. There are plenty of these to choose from, though you can only hold 5. And you unlock them by playing more Balatro. You're destined to lose, and lose, and lose, because it's a rogue like, but that's the addicting part. There's no way this game should be able to defeat you. Right?
The chip threshold goes up every round, and every three rounds, is the big blind. This is the boss. The boss usually has some special rule to hinder you from winning. They can debuff all of one suit, or even EVER CARD you've played in the previous rounds. You can see this when you're choosing the small blinds at the beginning, so strategy is all over the game. Just when you think you have the right idea, the game tells you that you don't. And then it's back to the beginning.
Once you feel you have the hang of it, you can even skip rounds, at a prize, and a cost of not receiving the benefits of jokers or tarot cards, even though sometimes, skipping them will net you some of those rewards. Lastly, after each round, you get money to spend in the store to get all of the cool stuff. You can even buy card packs, that lets you select 1 or 2 of each pack. The money isn't much, so spend wisely. I haven't won the game yet, as i believe there are 24 rounds total, and I get smacked around round 18. You only have a certain number of hands to play, as well as discards, so again, the strategies you think you have, will eventually turn against you.
Even this, won't convince you to buy the game. So just take my word for it, and give it a shot while it's on sale. The more you play, the more you unlock. The more you lose. From decks, to Jokers, to starting buffs and debuffs, Balatro is probably one of the best poker games I've played. But it's also one of the best rogue likes I've played. And I don't play deck builders, but it's probably going to be a thing. Balatro is going to be around as well. Get used to it.
