MY FIRST TIME PLAYING... - Balatro - Part 1
4A poker rogue-like... did NOT see that coming
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Balatro is a 2024 poker-themed roguelike deck-building game developed by LocalThunk and published by Playstack. It was released on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 20, 2024, with a port to macOS on March 1. Ports for Android and iOS were released on September 26, 2024. In the game, the player plays poker hands from a starting 52-card deck to score points and defeat blinds in a limited number of turns. Subsequent blinds become more difficult to beat, but the player can acquire joker and other cards, purchased from a shop with randomized offerings between blinds, that provide unique effects that impact play and scoring or the means to change the composition of their deck to give themselves an advantage.
The game was developed over a two-and-a-half year period by sole developer LocalThunk, inspired by the card game Big Two and the roguelike video game Luck Be a Landlord. LocalThunk had only seen the game as a side project to put on a resume, not anticipating the success of the game.
Balatro received universal acclaim from gaming critics, and by January 2025, had sold more than 5 million copies. In addition to several other awards and nominations, Balatro won Game of the Year for the 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards, while nominated for the top prize at The Game Awards 2024, the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and the 21st British Academy Games Awards.
Balatro is a roguelike deck-building game based on the rules of Poker. The player chooses a deck, each with unique effects and cards, before each playthrough or "run". A run is divided into antes, with three blinds each of increasing difficulty. A blind consists of multiple rounds, in which the player chooses and plays cards to form poker hands and attempts to score at least a required number of chips (points). To defeat blinds more easily, the player may choose to buy various cards which change the rules of the game. These items are bought in a shop in between rounds.
Each ante consists of three rounds: a Small Blind, Big Blind, and Boss Blind. Small and Big Blinds can either be skipped or played; on skipping a blind, the player forgoes the normal rewards of defeating the blind or an opportunity to use the shop, but is rewarded with a tag. Most tags give some benefit upon entering the next shop like free cards or booster packs, but some give effects instantly or when other criteria are met. Boss blinds provide additional challenges, such as debuffing the effects of certain cards or requiring the player to clear the round in only one hand.
In each blind, players have a limited number of poker hands within which they must beat a target score, as well as a limited number of discards with which they may replace up to five cards in their hand with different ones. The game ends if the player runs out of hands or cards to play before reaching the target score.
During a round, the player draws cards from a deck of cards, starting with a standard 52-card deck, with playing cards added and destroyed throughout the game. The player then selects up to five cards, with the objective of forming poker hands to score points. The hand's base value is calculated and turned into "Chips," which are then multiplied by "Mult" score, which increases depending on cards, hands, and current jokers. Joker cards affect the game in various ways, such as offering additional Chips or Mult when conditions are met or changing how certain poker hands can be played.
Once a blind has been defeated, players are awarded with cash based on their performance, after which they are taken to a shop. Here, the player may use cash earned by clearing blinds or selling unwanted cards to purchase individual cards, packs containing a random set of cards to choose from, and vouchers which add additional perks and conditions for the remainder of the run. After the player wins 8 antes, completing a run, they can continue the game in an endless mode where they see how many points they can get. The player is capable of beating 39 antes in endless mode before the game reaches an unwinnable state due to a floating-point overflow.
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