The card strategy game “Balatro” was launched in late February this year. Although it is a short independent game, it sold 500,000 units across platforms within 10 days of its release, and has overwhelming praise from more than 10,000 people on Steam. It has a good reputation and has been praised by many players as “the poker version of Slay the Spire”.
“Balatro” developed by the Canadian game team LocalThunk was launched on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch on February 20 this year. Sales reached 250,000 units in just 72 hours, and sales doubled again in the following week. It shows that the favorable word-of-mouth is gradually spreading.
— Balatro (@BalatroGame) March 6, 2024
The game screen of “Balatro” seems very simple at first glance, but it is actually a Roguelike tower climbing adventure game that uses the appearance of playing cards to package it into a variant of the rules.
The game battle rules of “Balatro” are very simple. You can earn chips (scores) by playing cards in your hand, and then rely on the “card type” (flush, full house, etc.)Multiplier bonuseach round has a limit on the number of “playing cards” and “discarding cards”. Within the limit, you can earn enough points by playing cards, and you can win by beating the enemy’s “Blind” (Texas Hold’em terminology). .
In fact, you can completely regard the enemy’s “blind bet” as the monster’s “blood volume”, and the round score of your hand is your “attack power”. You must be under the limited restrictions on playing cards and discarding cards. The deck with the higher score wins.
The depth of the game of “Balatro” is revealed from the very beginning after winning the first game of the novice tutorial: at the end of each round, players have a “lucky” purchase opportunity. In fact, they use the bonuses to purchase card enhancements. .
Among them, the store has various enhanced cards with different functions, such as clown cards, planet cards, tarot cards, etc. Some of these cards can change the suit or points of the deck, and some can double the score of the card type. , or allow you to get extra points or bonuses under certain conditions.
All these cards are actually “upgrades and enhancements” that are most familiar to the Roguelike player community. The purpose is to gain the opportunity to strengthen your own deck every time you win.
Under such variant rules, players’ 52-card poker deck is no longer limited to only 4 Aces. You can change the deck to make the situation as beneficial to you as possible.
The ultimate goal of the game is to win 8 “ante bets”. Each ante bet has three rounds of challenges. Players who are not familiar with Texas hold’em poker can also regard it as 8 levels, each level has three rounds, and the participation fee You have to consume the bonus gained from winning to enter the battle.
The game also adds a “skip reward”, allowing you to skip the first two rounds of battle to obtain special bonuses and directly face the BOSS in the final round.
In other words, “Balatro” allows players to experience the process of climbing through levels and towers with 8 ante each time, and try to use different clown cards or power-up cards, and bet on their own luck to follow the god of chance in a head-on Roguelike adventure. Being able to score astronomical numbers has become a hotly debated topic in the player community.
The new roguelike card strategy game “Balatro” has been released on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and other platforms. The standard price on Steam is NT$ 258. Interested gamblers may wish to add it to their wish list and pay attention.