GameReviewPad Favorite Games of 2024
Balatro
Developer: LocalThunk
Publisher: Playstack
Balatro is a game that came out of nowhere for me. This includes the release itself and it ending up being one of my favorite games of 2024. When Balatro first released I bought it because I enjoy poker, but this single player roguelike experience didn’t capture me right away. This game features many variables to the standard five card draw poker game. This includes deck size, card variables, hand size, discards, and special jokers that change the way a standard poker game is analyzed. As an enjoyer of non-gambling poker, I played the game a little bit on launch but could not really get hooked into the gameplay loop, in part due to my lack of patience and other new games available to play at the time.
I went back to Balatro this past December and spent a lot of time with it. The single player experience captured me this time around due to the overall gameplay loop of unlocking decks, new special joker cards that affect scoring multipliers, and trying out new strategies to achieve high scores. Poker has been around forever, but Balatro is a special game that you have to really enjoy poker to keep playing. It’s not for everyone, and even at times can be bland, but this serves as a pretty fun casual game that you can play a game here or there and have a different experience each time.
This isn’t designed to be a review, so I encourage you to check out the trailer below to see what the game actually looks like. The game is also on iOS/Android and I plan to eventually buy the Android version.
Congrats to LocalThunk for developing an excellent poker adaptation.
Steam Store: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/
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