“It's just a poker game with some roguelike mechanics,” I remember saying in disbelief to my friends when they first told me they were spending all night playing a little game called Balatro, ”How good can it be?” Tens of thousands of poker hands and hundreds of hours later, I realized that Balatro still has me wrapped around its finger.
We can say a lot about Balatro's addictive qualities and his magnetic ability to keep you playing another round. The reason for Balatro's meteoric rise lies in the fact that it takes one of America's oldest games and reshapes it for one of gaming's most popular genres: roguelike. The combination of classic poker rules and random Joker and Tarot cards that boost your combos and increase your high score to advance to the next round is pure gaming pleasure. Balatro is about endless moments of joy and devastation in equal measure. All you have to do is play your cards right... literally.
