Balatro
Balatro takes poker hands and turns them into the backbone of a roguelike deckbuilder that’s properly addictive. You’re building synergies between your hands and a huge stack of Joker cards, each run throwing up new combos as you chip away at increasingly nasty blinds. It sounds simple on paper but the depth here is ridiculous once Jokers, Tarot cards, Planet cards and Vouchers start stacking together.
With 150 Jokers, 15 decks and loads of variants to uncover, no two runs feel the same. There’s a proper campaign with 8 difficulty levels plus challenge and seeded runs if you want to test specific builds or just have a laugh with friends comparing seeds. The stats screen is a nice touch too, letting you nerd out over your best hands and most used Jokers.
Wrap all that in gorgeous hand-drawn pixel art, a CRT filter that adds real character, and a synthwave soundtrack that just makes everything hit different, and you’ve got something special. It’s the kind of game where you tell yourself one more run and then look up two hours later. Genuinely one of the best deckbuilders we’ve played in years.
