Balatro Reviews

Balatro is ranked in the 100th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Niche Gamer
Augusto A.
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
Jan 3, 2025

A game that consistently feeds players with such raw dopamine hasn’t come along since Vampire Survivors initially released, and it shows that indie developers can turn anything into a fun roguelike experience. If you are still in the fence about it, give Balatro a try, you won’t regret it.

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10 / 10.0
Dec 29, 2024

Balatro is a must-play for anyone looking for a fresh take on card games. Its innovative gameplay, polished design, and engaging progression system make it a standout title that’s impossible to ignore. Just be prepared: once you start, you may find it difficult to stop.

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Dec 27, 2024

Balatro is a must-play for those seeking a unique and rewarding gaming experience. Its blend of poker strategy with roguelike unpredictability creates a game that is easy to learn but difficult to master. Whether you’re a seasoned strategist or a casual gamer looking for something new, Balatro promises hours of challenging and satisfying gameplay.

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9 / 10.0
Dec 20, 2024

Balatro’s genius is exposed when you take the simple individual components of a run and combine them in the perfect mixture to create something far greater than the sum of its parts. And then you start trying to see how far you can push it, or what other combinations can help you reach e-notation. And then you’re there. You’re a Balatro fan.

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Yes
Dec 20, 2024

Balatro takes a simple concept that pretty much anyone could grasp, and feeds you with meaningful decision points at every turn. Which blinds to play and which to skip? What Jokers to buy? How should you modify your deck? And how much of a risk should you take when actually playing your hands? It’s a fantastically fun degree of agency to have in an otherwise simple card game.

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8.5 / 10.0
Nov 30, 2024

Balatro is a surprisingly delightful experience, proving that neither a massive budget nor breathtaking graphics are necessary to compete with the AAA giants of the gaming industry. This is a very simple title that relies entirely on its gameplay loop, yet its simplicity manages to captivate in a way that few other games on the market can.

Review in Italian | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Nov 29, 2024

Balatro offers a fair experience within its propposal, inovating taking as basis a simple and intuitive system. Everyone should experience it the same way how a good Solitaire should be experienced: as a logic exercise.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Nov 23, 2024

Balatro stands out from other popular games today due to its accessibility and the convenience it offers for enjoyment anytime and anywhere—whether during a long journey, a work break, or simply for someone seeking to pass the time. With simple rules and a gameplay system that is both deep and engaging, Balatro seamlessly transitioned from a casual experience we tried out of curiosity to a captivating game that absorbed hours of our attention. Its availability on mobile devices further enhances its appeal, solidifying it as one of the most entertaining experiences in its category.

Review in Arabic | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Nov 19, 2024

Balatro’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t have an overarching plot as to why you are playing cards, which doesn’t seem like a requirement for traditional card games, but for a roguelike deck builder, a little story seems like a necessity. The good news is that this is an easy enough deficit to look past due to how addictive and satisfying the gameplay loop is. Developed by only one person, Balatro is about 15 bucks and works around your schedule. If you have 20 minutes, you can play a few hands. If you have a free day and lots to do, Balatro can also ruin that for you. At the end of the year, Balatro might turn out to be the best deck-building game of 2024, but no matter what, it’s definitely going to be the best use 64mb of hard drive space

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100 / 100
Sep 26, 2024

Balatro is a triumph in simple-yet-airtight game design, combining the old-schoolness of poker & card shark mechanics with the new roguelike and deck-building-to-perfection loop that leads to an addictive time.

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9 / 10.0
Jul 1, 2024

Balatro is excellent all around. The concept is simple, and while the various card types seem overly complicated, the game remains easy to understand no matter how many rules there are. It's utterly enjoyable to the point where you'll keep coming back no matter how many times you lose to a boss with a ridiculous modifier. For anyone who likes card games, Balatro is a must-have.

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4.5 / 5.0
Apr 16, 2024

The constantly challenging nature of Balatro makes it an unforgettable experience and a delight for Poker enthusiasts.

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10 / 10
Mar 26, 2024

Quite frankly, it’s a miracle I’ve even managed to finish writing this review, my past week or so dominated by Balatro. When I’ve been playing it, I’m absolutely absorbed in its clever and satisfying gameplay. When I’m not playing it, I’m thinking about my next run. When I’m with friends, I’m excited to talk about Balatro and their winning combinations of Jokers. Put simply, Balatro is an incredible experience and one of the best (if not the best) game 2024 has seen so far.

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9.5 / 10.0
Mar 17, 2024

Balatro is one of those deceptively-approachable ideas that will absolutely consume you the more you start to puzzle out its secrets and intricacies. It somehow makes playing the same game over and over feel completely fresh in possibility each time, and doles out just enough new ideas and just the right amount of intoxicating feedback to keep you thinking "one more game" well into the AM.

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Masterpiece
Mar 15, 2024

Balatro is in equal measures a sensational and maddening roguelike deck-building experience that will keep you going for that all-so-close high score for hours upon hours.

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9 / 10.0
Mar 14, 2024

Balatro is one of the best examples of the growing number of deck building games in recent years. With the freedom it offers, the joy of new strategies and much more, it's a royal flush.

Review in Turkish | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Mar 12, 2024

A smart and engaging re-implementation of the classic poker game, including hundreds of different cards and special effects.

Review in Italian | Read full review

9 / 10.0
Mar 11, 2024

Balatro has taken a simple concept and turned it into one of the most tantalising and addictive deck builders that I’ve ever played. Playing the perfect combination of Jokers to pull off a victorious hand is always rewarding, whilst seeing your deck build up with each successful blind gives a satisfying sense of progression that makes the puzzle-like gameplay all the more captivating. And when you do fail? It’s hard not to just dive into another playthrough, with Balatro taking that ‘one more game’ concept and turning it into the cancellation of your plans for the rest of the day just so you can keep playing. It’s that damn good. It can have some sharp difficulty spikes and losing can be frustrating when you feel you’ve built up a special deck, but that’s par for the course as far as the roguelike genre is concerned. It certainly won’t stop you having a blast with the game, and believe me, once Balatro pulls you in, you’ll find it hard to stop playing.

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VGC
Top Critic
Mar 11, 2024

Balatro is an astonishingly addictive take on Poker that's utterly impossible to put down. Occasional difficulty spikes aside; it's a piece of simplistic genius that we'll keep on our Steam Deck forever.

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Ian Howarth
Top Critic
8 / 10
Mar 10, 2024

Though I have no doubt anybody who likes cards, poker, video games, or joy will have a great time with it, I feel I should also note that it does wear itself out significantly faster than most of its brethren.

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