New deck builder released today on Steam, is showered with 90 ratings in advance

A deck builder called Balatro is being released on Steam today, which is extremely successfully dedicated to the most famous card game: poker

If you’ve ever wondered how a poker roguelike works as a deckbuilder, the debut game from solo developer LocalThunk has apparently found the brilliant answer. Balatro will be released on Steam and for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Release is on February 20, 2024.

(Balatro on Steam)

Balatro: Poker roguelike appears on Steam

How does Balatro play?  Before we get to the great ratings so far, a brief overview of the game principle. Of course, you don’t just play poker in Balatro.

The well-known high-stakes card game is still the basis for Balatro. You build your decks around regular poker hands like a full house or a straight flush. To increase the value of your hand, you combine various special cards with it

With jokers, tarot cards, planet cards and coupons you can boost individual playing cards, your current hand or even your entire deck. You unlock new cards during the course of the game to find synergies for your deck

The aim is to beat ever-increasing blinds with a limited number of hands. After each round, you receive money that you can use to buy special cards in a store.

Check out the handmade pixel graphics in the trailer for Balatro:

Balatro gets heaps of 90 ratings

Open Critic has already collected twelve ratings with an average of 94 and also at Metacritic there are only ratings between 90 and 100regardless of the platform tested.

Abbie Stone from PC Gamer calls Balatro a deckbuilder that “can take a seat at the royal table with Slay the Spire and Monster Train “ A similar opinion is shared by Corvo Rohwer from GamingTrend, who says that Balatro is a “must-have for fans of the genre “ 

According to Kim Snaith from GameSpew, no two runs are the same and the game “is simply brilliant “  Alex Orona begins his own review on NintendoWorldReport by saying that he can’t stop playing.

With Balatro, the deckbuilder genre seems to have gained a new pearl. You can currently even download a demo on Steam and test the game. Are you already a fan of games like Slay the Spire and are you going to check out Balatro? Are you curious to see how poker has been implemented as a roguelike? Let us know what you think in the comments.