Balatro Review: "The Next Great Deckbuilder Roguelite"
The next great deckbuilder roguelite doesn’t boast pretty hand-painted fantasy art or an epic story, just pixelated chips, cards, and threes-of-a-kind. Solo developer LocalThunk’s debut is, simply and on its face, an upgraded riff on video poker, but recontextualizes the familiar betting game as a roguelite scoring puzzle. Vulnerable to broken builds which produce compulsively satisfying feedback heretofore unknown to digital cards, is a spellbinding, time-engulfing abyss. It’s also one of the most accessibly elegant deckbuilders since first laid claims to the genre, and what it lacks in fluffy set design it more than makes up for in raw, mesmeric gameplay.