While new releases like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Helldivers 2 may have received all of the attention from the gaming media, more and more people are starting to talk about a roguelike poker game called Balatro. Launching around a month ago on all major platforms, Balatro was developed by just one person. Despite its modest beginnings, the game has already managed to sell over a million copies, benefiting from a word of mouth campaign among fans. If you can’t get enough of the poker-style roguelike, then developer LocalThunk has some fantastic news.
In an interview with iMore, LocalThunk confirmed that Balatro is in development for iOS devices.
While there’s no news on a release date, it’s great news for anybody looking to play the game on the go.
LocalThunk also told the outlet that Balatro would continue to receive new content and updates, although not to the extend that it will over-complicate and “bloat” the current experience.
Instead, Balatro should receive new secrets to uncover, which should please dedicated fans.
If you haven’t already, then you should definitely give Balatro a try. Available for less than £13, the game has a 90% score on Metacritic, and an ‘overwhelmingly positive’ rating on Steam.
The game 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 planning your hand.
When playing against the game’s equivalent of a boss, players will be faced with negative status effects, such as certain cards not scoring points, or part of your deck not being visible before playing a hand.
It’s so good that I’m not actually sure an iPhone port is a good thing, because now I’ll never have a reason not to play!