It’s not often that I’m towards the front end of a wave on a popular video game. I just don’t have time or make time to play video games all that often. Balatro, though, showed up on my radar early. It’s a poker style game, which is interesting. But it’s a deck builder and rogue like game which are even more interesting. What is Balatro, and is it a fun game?

How To Play Balatro

In Balatro you are trying to build your best poker hands. The better a hand you build, the more points that you get and the easier you can defeat the blinds, opponents. If it was just a simple poker game, it wouldn’t have blown up like it has.

Balatro offers more than that. You play out your hands, but you are limited in how many you can play. So you need to do well to hit those blinds. To make that easier, you buy cards for your deck or to help with multipliers and modifiers of hands. These allow you to create more and better hands, like adding more hearts to your deck to make getting a flush easier.

The Different Types of Cards

In Balatro there are four different types of cards that you can purchase to add to your scoring opportunities and modify your run. Plus there is a voucher as well which I’ll talk about later in this section. The types of cards, playing cards, jokers, planets, and tarot cards.

Playing Cards

Playing cards are the normal cards you add to your deck. So yes, it is possible to have a deck with multiple sevens of hearts. But not all playing cards are created equal. Sometimes when you buy a card it has a modifier on it. It might modify the number of chips you put into the pot that hand. Or it might modify the multiplier on that hand. Or it might even just add more money that you get to buy more cards.

Planet Cards

Planet Cards increase the number of chips and the multiplier of those chips for certain hands. So if a pair starts out with 10 chips and a x1 multiplier, you can get an upgrade that improves that to 15 chips and a x2. And the more planet cards you get, the more you can increase all your hands. It is possible to get multiple upgrades for, let’s say, a pair. So it might move from 15 to 25 to 50 chips and up to a x4 multiplier. So you can really improve hands.

Tarot Cards

Tarot Cards are one time use cards. A Tarot card might vary in powers a lot in terms of how they help you. They improve a hand or a card often. But they also change cards. In the example of getting more hearts to improve your chance of a flush, there is a tarot card that can turn three other cards to hearts. So it allows you to modify your deck and make some bigger changes that way.

Jokers

Then one of my favorite, the Joker. A Joker is going to provide an on going bonus. A lot of the ones that I like provide a multiplier for different things. Or they provide more chips if certain conditions are met. One might add to the multiplier for the more jokers you own. Or it might score every card in a hand, adding to chips, not just the ones that make up a pair or a set.

Vouchers

Finally there are vouchers. Vouchers, like Tarot cards can change things more permanently. But a voucher isn’t going to change cards so much. It is going to change how things work. A voucher might provide something like an extra hand or discard to beat a blind. Or more cards to buy in the store. Or that every planet pack contains your most common hand.

The Game Play Good and Okay

I don’t find major negatives with the game. It is very straightforward in what it does in a good way, so I won’t fault it for that. But I do think there are elements that are just okay. As compared to a game like Slay the Spire, which falls into the same category, this one is simpler. Not a major knock again it, it is playing poker hands. But I feel less like I can just play and play the game. And that is okay.

But for the good, I think there are a lot of fun to mess around with the different ways to improve your hands. You play a mix of them. You are unlikely to just focus only on one area. But one area is going to be your main focus. So you can experiment as you go.

And there are unlocks. That is always a good way to keep me coming back. The unlocks add more jokers to the mix and more decks. Each deck has a power as well, so how you play each deck is going to vary a little bit. And like Slay the Spire, it has difficult levels that you can go up as well.

Final Thoughts on Balatro

I enjoy Balatro. I don’t think I enjoy it as much as Slay the Spire. For me, Slay the Spire has a bit more interest on the deck building side of things. But Balatro definitely does have it’s place in my playing the game. Mainly that it plays faster. I can play a run, to a win, a little bit faster.

I also think that Balatro adds in a bit more variability. Such as I pick how I want to build my deck and strategy more each time I play. There is a downside with that, sometimes the jokers, planets, or tarot cards really don’t make a great strategy. You can skip buying, but as blinds get bigger you need to always be improving.

That said, Balatro is certainly in the rotation of fast video games I can play. I like a video game where I don’t need to plan a whole evening around it. I can sit down and play for thirty minutes while my wife finishes putting our kid to bed. Or for a few minutes after I stream a pack opening or game.

Have you played Balatro? Do you enjoy it?

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