Balatro’s perfect mobile port seals its status as the best game of 2024
Balatro was already one of the best games of the year - but a new outing on gaming’s most ubiquitous platform proves it’s the most important release of 2024.
What can I say, really, that I didn’t already say back in July when I prematurely declared Balatro as 2024’s best? The truth is that opinion hasn’t shifted - though if I’m being honest, it wobbled a bit here and there. It’s been a good year, after all - Animal Well, FF7 Rebirth, Astro Bot - Elden Ring DLC, too. But the truth is, all it took was being able to play it more often and in more places to be firmly slapped down from such blasphemous thoughts. Idiot: Balatro is the best game of the year. Don’t doubt it.
Anyway, Balatro is still Balatro. If you haven’t played it before, it’s basically a roguelite-structure game where you have to score increasing amounts of points with each successive ‘Ante’, which is basically a level. You score points by drawing cards from a deck which starts with a standard pack of 52 playing cards but can grow significantly - you must play cards to create sets of cards that match those from Poker.
All of this would be addictive enough, but the glorious twist in the tale is in how Balatro mashes up that simple formula; once introduced, barely minutes pass before the game starts smashing its own rules to bits. Joker cards are the primary method: special cards that, once obtained, massively adjust how you score and how much you can score. But quickly there’s more and more to wrangle, with you adjusting and augmenting your deck of cards to maximise your point gains. Naturally, in a roguelike structure, it’s a pulse-quickening race between you and the ever-rising tide of requirements to continue onwards.
It’s brilliant. Much of its triumph lays in how deceptively simple its design precepts are - and then how each of those decisions of design is stretched to maximise the depth. If game development is in a sense a creative act akin to cooking, this is an example of a truly economical chef at work: no ingredient is wasted, no part of the animal is unused.
Weirdly, I can also say that I think Balatro has somehow, inexplicably made me a better Poker player in real life - despite being a player for years, my 150-some hours in Balatro has made my identification and acquisition of hands in the real life game quicker. Talk about an unexpected bonus!
On mobile, it all just works. It’s the same game, basically - but in the palm of your hand, the one-more-turn nature of Balatro is deadly. Usually that ‘sticky’ element of games only really bites me in such an aggressive way in 4X games like Civilization - but Balatro absolutely cracks it.
You’ll be playing this in bed and be forced to slip your phone under the covers to not disturb your partner, who is ready to actually sleep but you’ve got a really exciting build on Ante 4 and now need to see the whole thing through. Bluntly, you’ll be on the toilet, your business finished, but you’ll hide in there, the door locked, Balatro’s funky, slightly eerie electronica music echoing through the room. One… more… ante.
I have a few tiny criticisms… But honestly, a lot of it is that feeling that comes from being used to a game on a controller and then being forced to play it on a relatively small touchscreen. My main complaint is simply that it’s a little too easy to accidentally sell a Joker with a swipe in the wrong direction - I ruined a run that way. But, lesson learned, I haven’t done it since. For the most part, the touch controls are slick and intuitive, and take nothing away from the experience.
I wouldn’t mind cross-save, either, as I work hard on completing all of the various decks, missions, and challenges and already have a significant process on PC. But then again - Balatro is such a banger that I honestly don’t mind doing it all twice. That might be the most glowing recommendation of all.