Earlier this year I started playing a new game called Balatro on Steam, and I haven’t been able to stop playing since. A poker-themed roguelike that was made by just one person, Balatro has racked up an impressive 90% Metacritic score since launch, making it one of this year’s best and most highly-rated games. It’s also stolen nearly 100 hours of my life, which isn’t ideal considering the massive pile of games that continue to gather dust in my collection. After successfully conquering Steam, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox, Balatro publisher Playstack has announced a release date for the hotly anticipated iPhone and Android versions, although if you value your time, I would stay as far away as possible.
In all seriousness, Balatro will be available on iOS and Android devices from September 26.
To ensure you get it the moment it comes out, Balatro can be pre-ordered from the iOS and Android App Stores for £9.99.
While it’s not the cheapest app on the market, the game is most definitely worth it. You’ve also got to assume that at those prices, Balatro will be ad-free.
It will also be available on Apple Arcade, which costs £6.99 and grants subscribers access to hundreds of games. Likewise, Apple Arcade is available with an Apple One subscription, so you might not realise you actually have it.
Balatro sees players attempt to beat a target score by playing classic poker hands like flushes, full houses etc.
The twist, however, is that you can pick up booster cards and modifiers that can multiply your score and money earned.
This includes Joker cards with special properties. One Joker may give you an extra card at the start of the round, while another will let you discard additional cards when building your hand.
Other Joker Cards will make cards of a specific suit earn bigger scores whenever they’re played, while further cards might make face cards more valuable, or give you more money at the end of a round.
Check out the Balatro mobile release date trailer below for more information.
You can use your money to purchase further Joker cards (although there’s a limit to how many you can have at any one time), or buy additional cards to add to your deck, or cards that level up a certain hand in order to score more points (I typically level up the flush).
There are even boss battles where you’re faced with negative status effects that can drastically alter the effectiveness of your build.
One boss may disable all discards, another may force you to always play five cards, and another might debuff all cards of a certain suit.
There are lots of different ways to play Balatro, including a challenge mode with special win conditions and presets.