Balatro Review

LocalThunk's 2024 release is a poker-shaped roguelike deckbuilder that has almost nothing to do with poker. You play hands to score chips against a rising blind, and the actual game is the Jokers: over a hundred and fifty modifiers that multiply your score in ways that stack into absurdity, so a run ends with a pair of twos worth more than a straight flush because you spent an hour building a machine that rewards exactly that. Planet cards upgrade hand types permanently, Tarot cards edit individual playing cards, and Spectral cards do something risky. Everything is legible - the numbers are all shown, nothing is hidden - and the joy is in noticing an interaction the designer left open. It was made by one anonymous developer who did not previously play poker, runs on almost anything, and it won Game of the Year at several outlets in 2024 while being available on phones. It is the most dangerous thing on this site to install before bed.