5/5 ★ – DanteSnowcone's review of Balatro.

It took exactly three runs for me to realize how much this game was going to take over my life. Run 1: I didn’t understand the difference between +Mult and xMult, I thought two pairs were good enough to win the game, and I made it to Ante 5. Run 2: I figured out most of the mechanics, I made some smart synergies, and I won! Run 3: I was getting over a million points per hand. Of course, Run 3 doesn’t always happen; sometimes I lose on the second blind from hasty decisions and bad luck. But the concept is so attainable, and the gameplay so fluid, that I can easily kill hours chasing that high of Big Number Go Up over and over. I like deck builders and I love roguelikes, and this is an excellent execution of both. Synergies are easy to identify once you know all the vocabulary, and there are so many ways to make a strong deck. Boss blinds do a good job of countering various strategies so that it’s hard for a single build to always work. You have to adapt to whatever you get in the deck and in the shop, which keeps you thinking about what works now and what will work later, what will scale and what’s going to flop. Basic math and probability skills are very helpful. There’s some nice variety in the different decks and challenges, which would be helpful if the game ever got stale, but not to worry — it doesn’t get stale. I’m playing on 2x speed now, and I’m sure I’ll be at 4x soon enough to get even more runs in. Putting this on my phone was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. This is an instant addition to the pantheon of deck builders, and its awards at TGA were all well deserved. Balatro has sunk its claws in me, and it’s not letting go any time soon. Time for another round. Time Played: 20 hours Played on iPhone XR