A video poker game that looks like it’s being played on a 1980s TV screen might not sound like a recipe for games chart success. But the maddeningly addictive Balatro has become a sleeper hit on games service Steam following its full release this week.
Despite costing only $13.49, Balatro is hovering around the top 10 games by revenue on Steam at the time of writing, muscling in alongside big hitters such as Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3. The thousands of user reviews are “overwhelmingly positive”, according to Steam’s summary.
I bought the game a couple of days ago and have already sunk about nine hours of my life into it, according to the Steam counter. So, what makes it so ridiculously moreish?
Poker Meets Hearthstone
I’ve played plenty of poker games before and quickly discarded them, because playing cards against a computer without that jeopardy of winning/losing real money is dull.
Balatro beats that boredom by fiddling with the mechanics of poker. Instead of trying to beat other players’ hands, you’re merely trying to earn enough chips to progress to the next stage (or “blind”, in poker terminology).
To do that, you’ll not only need to play decent poker hands (a knowledge of Texas hold ‘em hands is an advantage, but not necessary) but also buff them with a variety of other cards.
The key buffs are the joker cards, which you collect as you progress through the round. These might apply benefits such as applying score multipliers for hands played with hearts, or giving your chips a boost if you play a hand with only one card.
There are 150 different jokers to collect, some of which are brilliantly devised. A joker card depicting a walkie-talkie gives bonuses if your hand contains a ten or a four (ten-four, ten-four. Get it?).
The real scoring starts when you devise ways to use those jokers in combination with one another, in much the same way deck builders such as Hearthstone require you to devise combos to beat the bigger bosses. The order in which jokers are played is also crucial, requiring you to think carefully about how hands are constructed as you advance through the rounds.
Balatro Tarot Cards
Jokers aren’t the only way to buff your poker hands. There are also tarot cards that can apply score-boosting effects to individual cards in your deck or to specific types of hands.
There are also vouchers that apply boosts such as giving you an extra joker slot or increasing the number of hands you can play in each round.
You buy jokers, tarot cards and vouchers with the money you earn from winning poker hands. The faster you reach the required number of chips to move on to the next blind, the more you earn.
If this all sounds a little complicated, it is. But gloriously so. Even after sitting through the tutorial, I spent the first few hands in a state of near bewilderment, trying to work out how each of these different buffs was applied to my cards.
And then it clicked, and before long you’re chewing on the end of a pen, trying to devise ways to apply sufficient multipliers to a Full House in order get the 5,000 chips you need to get over the line and into the next round.
Then will come a near heartbreaking moment where you have to sacrifice a winning combo of jokers to upgrade the buffs required to get the monumental scores, or watch the whole game come crashing down because a duff hand has left you short of the necessary score. Brace for those moments. Put heavy objects out of reach.
Huge Potential
Perhaps the most exciting thing about Balatro is how much potential there is for expansion.
As with any deck builder, new cards/buffs could be added or removed at any time that completely change the complexion of the game and force you to rethink tactics.
Currently, it’s single-player only, but you can easily see how an online head-to-head matchmaking facility could be added too.
In the meantime, it’s already a gripping poker game that won’t cost you your shirt, but less than the price of a stiff drink in a casino. What’s not to love?
