Throughout 2024 I have had the immense fortune to taste the honeys of No Rest for the Wicked and Hades 2, two absolutely fabulous indies that must be nominated in The Game Awards 2024. My bet, my absolute all-in, was the Olympus-based roguelike, but that vision has fallen apart just a few weeks ago.
Balatro has come into my life, after a multitude of comments praising the developer’s work Localthunkat the same time that I was continually warned that the ruin to my productivity was found within the work. In my duty as a journalist dedicated to the field of video games, I had to verify such statements first-hand and I have discovered that you were all right.
Barajas has, poker is not
Since John Marston taught me how to play poker in Red Dead Redemption 14 years ago, I have to admit that I have gotten quite fond of creating hands. Whether resorting to vile traps or not accepting defeat with a good hail of bullets, the truth is that I never say no to enjoying having a few cards between my fingers.
Although it is essential to understand the idiosyncrasies of poker to be able to play Balatro, the truth is that its creator has chosen to a strange variation, the Big Two. Specifically, the one that the working class played in the city of Hong Kong during the 80s and what those people should not have imagined is that the games they played during breaks would become a time crusher 40 years later.
As if it were some kind of apocalyptic episode, Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirroralready warned that the landing in mobile phones would be catastrophic for the human race.
“This is going to sound very tragic, but right now there is a game called Balatro. It’s like poker, and it’s possibly the most addictive thing ever created. It’s currently on Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, but it’s coming out on mobile devices, and At that time I think humanity’s activity will drop by 25%. I play it in short games when I’m writing to reward myself.”
No wonder, since my first session consisted of just over two hours in front of the screen getting used to the synergies of the game. I noticed that the dynamics of controlling each hand were engaging and that the possibilities of multis and wild cards opened up limits that I didn’t know about, but until that moment I didn’t feel the tingle. When I stopped playing, I wrote a couple of news stories for iGamesNews and got ready to turn off the PC to go to sleep… and I had to resist the brutal temptation.
A single game of cards and my mind had already activated that area of the brain that generates an unparalleled addiction. That night I didn’t betray myself, so I decided to go to sleep, although for the next few days it was a very different story. I started preparing my work in advance so I could have some extra time deciding whether I should use a queen or a king each turn.
Like Booker has done, I also reward myself with sporadic games at Balatro. The speed with which a round is decided – especially after having activated the x4 speed – allows you to calm the desire to play in a very simple way. However, the joys took much longer than expected to arrive.
Points, points everywhere
As a good roguelike deckbuilder, luck in Balatro has an essential component
It wasn’t easy for me to win for the first time and in just over a dozen hours I only had a couple of decks conquered on the most basic difficulties. At that point, it seemed that I should simply submit to the vagaries of fate, waiting for fortune to smile on me. It didn’t matter if the 150 wild cards with unique abilities, the 22 tarot cards, the 11 planetary cards or the 32 coupons helped in the task; I was lost in a circle of defeats.
As obvious as it may seem to me at this point, the key that radically changed my way of interpreting Balatro It was the possibility of bypassing the blinds. It seems to me to be an absurdly broken mechanic that offers, in many cases, such juicy rewards that playing against the figure set by Localthunk becomes absurd. Polychrome wild card, negative or doubling the sum of dollars in a jiffy is imperative, especially with the two initial blinds.
In this way I began to unlock a good number of options among the wild cards and, Oh, God, there are tremendous combinations. Nothing is more broken than the wild card that copies the ability on the right, but I pay tribute when the creator decided to include multi multipliers that scale with each boost card. It is a simple formula to follow, but not the only one, since the range of Balatro is immense, which is reinforced by breaking the natural order of poker. Decks can do without figures, cards can be burned, new ones incorporated or everything limited to two suits. A fantasy full of new paths.
Of the 15 decks available, each of them contains a good handful of wells with various difficulties. It seems almost unapproachable to me to achieve 100% of what the work offers and that is praise for a video game that moves like few others in the field of minimalism. I love that the synthwave soundtrack works so well as background music, without stridency, with a monotony that is absolutely necessary for the poker format.
What can we say about the pixel art style card designs and with tributes to other franchises such as The Witcher 3, Dave the Diver, Vampire Survivors and Among Us. All of this has value in itself, but it increases exponentially if we take into account that comes from the genius of a single person. As happened with Eric Barone in his day, it is these types of projects that demonstrate confidence in the indie market; that place where innovation and originality will never be lost.
I have already exceeded 36 hours playing Balatro and I have unlocked more than half of the decks. In roguelikes I decide when I consider I have finished the game and for this occasion I have set the goal of gaining access to all of them. I don’t know how many hours there are left to achieve the goal, but what I am very clear about is that there are years left until I uninstall it from my Steam account.
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