Summary

• Balatro quietly impresses players with its unique fusion of deck-building and poker, garnering overwhelming positive reviews on Steam.
• Players find Balatro easy to learn but challenging to master, with endless possibilities for deck variations and strategic builds.
• Balatro s the ranks of sleeper hits like Vampire Survivors and Risk of Rain 2, offering addictive gameplay at an affordable price point.

Balatro may not have released with much fanfare, but in the few days since the game hit Steam, the roguelike deckbuilder has already garnered plenty of praise from players. The genre isn't unfamiliar with sleeper hits, with titles like Vampire Survivors and Risk of Rain 2 earning massive and dedicated fanbases for their simple, yet infinitely challenging gameplay loops. Based on what players are saying, Balatro may be the latest game to the ranks of surprise hits.

At the time of writing, Balatro has managed to rack up 8,068 reviews, of which 98% are positive, granting it the coveted designation "Overwhelmingly Positive" on Steam. Many players have remarked on the game's mechanics as being easy to learn yet difficult to master. They've compared it to similar titles like Slay the Spire and Monster Train in of its welcoming approach to poker.

Balatro Is Impressing Everyone

Balatro, which is Latin for "Jester," sees players attempting to make viable hands in a game of poker with a variety of unique joker cards that can fundamentally alter how the game is played. With an emphasis on creating synergies between collected cards, developer LocalThunk notes that there are "endless possibilities" when it comes to variations of the available decks and builds. Many others have praised Balatro's price point of $14.99, especially given the amount of content on offer.

It's not just Steam that's currently enamored with the game. In Screen Rant's Balatro review, Leo Faierman described the game as an excellent diversion that can easily keep players engaged for countless hours. "For fans of deckbuilders, Balatro is an addictively delicious, menacing creation which devours hours without mercy. It should be handled with great care," Faierman wrote.

Balatro Isn't the First Poker Deckbuilder

While Balatro may be the most recent roguelike deckbuilder to find an audience, it's certainly not the first to use the classic game of poker as inspiration. Players who enjoy synergistic mechanics and a bigger emphasis on permanent upgrades can check out 2022's Poker Quest by developer Thomas Wolfley. Having garnered a "Very Positive" rating on Steam, Poker Quest boasts a similar concept but leans more into its fantasy setting to create an experience that's also evocative of poker but fundamentally different from Balatro.

Aces & Adventures by Triple.B.Titles is another roguelike deckbuilder that borrows heavily from poker, albeit with a bigger emphasis on longer campaigns and "Adventure Decks" that combine a standard deck of cards with a variety of powerful, game-changing abilities. Both Poker Quest and Aces & Adventures are also available on Steam. Aside from PC, Balatro can be found on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

Source: Steam