Balatro for Android Review

Card Sharks

Balatro is a good game. Sorry for spoiling the ending in the first act, but there is a decent chance you already knew that. Solo developer LocalThunk originally released their roguelike deck builder on PC in February 2024, with publisher Playstack releasing it for Android in September. If you’re even casually plugged into the indie game space, avoiding the hype around this breakout hint is hard. I’m pleased to say that Balatro’s Android port lives up to that hype.

Despite knowing of Balatro for some time, I was only vaguely aware of what kind of game it was before starting it up for the first time. For anyone in a similar boat, Balatro is a roguelike deckbuilding poker game. Each match, called a Blind, requires the player to have a certain number of Chips to win.

Every third Blind is a Boss. These have menacing names like The Hook and The Manacle and replace the standard background with something more ominous. Each Boss has a unique effect, such as reducing hand size, forcing players to discard cards randomly, or negating all chips from cards of a given suit.

Searching for Context

It was partly because of these Bosses, with their creepy names, mysterious runes and menacing backdrops, that I assumed Balatro would have some kind of story. I half expected that it would turn out you are in Hell or something and were playing cards with the Devil to get your soul back.

However, as far as I can tell, Balatro doesn’t really have a story. That isn’t necessarily a flaw, though it really feels like there is meant to be more going beneath the surface. That could be part of the point, hooking you in by making you look for a deeper meaning that isn’t there. If nothing else, it demonstrates how games can do a lot with relatively simple visuals.

Playing Balatro

When you play a hand, the Chip value of the hand is determined by adding the value of each card to the hand’s base value and then applying a Multiplier. By default, the Multiplier reflects the hand’s rarity so that a Flush will grant a bigger Multiplier than a Pair. However, there are various ways to increase both your Multiplier and the value of your cards. Also, don’t worry too much if you don’t know anything about poker. Balatro features a convenient chart showing the names of each hand and giving examples of each.

Players start with a standard 52-card deck and then add to it by unlocking additional cards with the Money earned after each Blind. Cards can also have up to four modifiers, one for each Edition, Enhancement, Seal, and Sticker. These have various effects, such as granting bonuses Money or Chips, adding Multipliers, or being a wild card that the player can use as any suit.

The standard cards stay in your deck and carry over from run to run. However, players can also collect up to five Jokers, which grant various effects and modifiers. The standard Joker, for example, grants a simple x 4 Multiplier to your score for each round. Other effects include gaining extra Chips or Money, changing or adding cards to your deck, and various other things. The most overpowered Joker I found so far is the unassuming Blue Joker, which adds 2 to your Multiplier for every card left in your deck.

Tarots, Planets and Spectrals, Oh My!

Finally, Tarot Cards, Planet Cards, and Spectral Cards are consumables Balatro players can use for one-time effects. Most Tarot Cards let players customize their decks by permanently altering some of the cards in the player’s hand. For example, The Magician turns two cards into Lucky Cards, which have a chance to give players Money or a bigger Multiplier when played. Other Tarot effects include adding new Tarot and Planet cards to the player’s pool of consumables. Or you could get The Hermit, which doubles your Money.

Moving on, Planets let players upgrade the poker hand associated with that card, increasing their Chip value and Multiplier. For example, a Two Pair has a base value of 20 Chips and a base Multiplier of 2. The Uranus card increases the Hand’s Chip value by 20 and Multiple by 2 every time you use it. These upgrades last for the duration of that run, making them very useful.

The final card type in Balatro is the Spectral Cards. Like Tarot Cards, they permanently modify existing cards. However, while Tarot cards are often straight upgrades, Spectral Cards usually come with various trade-offs. For example, Incantation adds four random Enhanced numbered cards to your deck in exchange for permanently destroying a random card from your hand.

Final Thoughts

That might sound complicated, and I would file Balatro as easy to learn but hard to master. There is definitely a learning curve, and as you get better and expand your deck, you’ll discover new ways to use your cards more effectively. All things you expect from games in the deck-building genre.

My only real concern is that the lack of narrative context might diminish replay value for many people. Doing better than last time might be enough motivation for some people, but I’m the kind of gamer who likes to know there is a reason for all this grinding. I sometimes still think about FTL: Faster Than Light over a decade later, but I’m not sure how long Balatro will stay on my mind.

Still, I won’t condemn a genuinely innovative game because it isn’t doing exactly what I wanted. Balatro is a unique experience that fully earned hype around it. The game is $9.99 on Google Play and is definitely worth the price of admission.