4/5 ★ – DaysposableHero's review of Balatro.

It's really nice to just pay for a game and then get the game. Especially in the mobile space. Balatro doesn't have real-money consumables, which would be so easy to add to a game like this. You can't buy special Jokers only available in the real-money store. Again, something I might expect to see elsewhere. You just buy the game, and then work on learning its language and its tendencies. Balatro is quite a lot of fun. While generally not a fan of rogue-likes, Balatro doesn't ask much of its players with regard to investment per run. I do get that "very disappointed" feeling when I've got a good setup going, and one bonehead mistake sends me back to square one. But it's not long before I'm back in the middle of a run, just hoping to get that one Joker I need to ace this thing. I imagine Belatro will be on my phone for quite a while. It has taken the place of Marvel Snap as my downtime app of choice. And I'm not just feeding it quarters, either.