I generally don’t like rogue-likes, and prefer rogue-lites. I think I’ve defined those a few times now, but the difference boils down to incremental in-game progress. Rogue-likes mean that YOU get better at the game, where rogue-lites mean the GAME gets easier. Something like Slay the Spire is -like, and Hades is -lite.

Balatro is a rogue-like game, using poker hands to progress. You have 8 rounds of 3 hands, with each 3rd hand being a specific challenge to surmount. You can modify the parameters of the game in a run through adding/removing cards, adding bonuses to cards, increasing the value of set hands (e.g. pair, straight) or by using Jokers. If you complete those 8 rounds, you’ll unlock a different difficulty modifier, so that the game is continually getting harder as you progress. Rather straightforward, until the Joker bit.

There are 150 Jokers in the game, and each adds a modifier to the game. The simple ones make more money, have more chips, or have a larger multiplier. The complex ones depend on you using a specific card, or randomly boosting an item, retrigger existing cards, or some other strange effect. The joy of a run is finding the right combination of jokers that maximize your points. Typically this is a combination of +multipliers, +chips, and x multipliers. RNG being RNG, odds are you are going to be trying multiple times (and re-rolling) to get what you want. Some runs go ultra smooth, others are bad from the start, and the perfect runs have you waiting til the last possible hand to decide if you win or not.

When I first started, I was hunting for cards that increased my chances of winning with a Flush, a relatively easy hand to make that pays out well. That worked a few times, but there was always a wall somewhere that stopped me – most often a boss that locked out all the benefits of a single suit, or forced me to play a specific card. When I pivoted to a hand-neutral strategy (play any card) that focused on multipliers, it changed everything. There’s still a lot of RNG in this mode, as you’re quite dependent on a subset of Jokers, but it seems a lot more forgiving.

Balatro has found the right balance between random and fair, with the drive for ‘one more run’. The hardest hand feels like it’s the first one, as after that you’re basically looking to break the rules, which feels like you’re always winning in some fashion. It’s a game that re-enforces my belief that the democratization of game development allows people with amazing ideas to share them with the world.

Also of note, this game works amazingly well on the Steam Deck. If you haven’t yet, give this game a shot – it’s up there as a GotY contender for sure.