This game is a masterpiece. It's simple to learn, yet has a skill ceiling that grows with you as you learn more about the jokers and master tricks of the game. It wants you to exploit the rules, find synergy, and blast past the goals set each level, but it never just hand it to you. Playing the game is rewarding and inspires that "just one more run" feel.
Reviews for Balatro
← Back to BalatroJust one more round... this is the first mobile game that has sucked me in for a while. Be careful. This could take up hours of your time if you let it. I'd wishlisted this on my console, but having in my pocket is great. Touch interface is perfect. Only real complaint is it doesn't seem to be optimized very well. It can take up a decent percentage of your battery, even when it's just running in the background. I recommend getting into the habit of closing the app when you're done playing.
Phenomenal game! A fantastic port of what was originally a PC game. Best part is you get the full game experience, no ads, no live service, no in app purchases begging you to pay for more stuff. You buy the game, play the game, enjoy the game with no interruptions, and no being taken out of the experience. This is a developer and publisher who cares and loves their players. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
ISSUES WITH SOUND! the app will randomly lose sound, it's happened a number of times though it is not regular. Typically happens when I listen to music or something and then switch to the game. The game will simply not have sound, even after i close the music app. Game itself is lovely, truly enjoy it and curious to see where it goes next. Thank you!!
Very fun and easy to play in short increments. I initially found this game through PSN and enjoyed playing it on PS5. I really appreciate the Backbone controller support! The only thing that would make this port better is if there was an option in the settings to change from an Xbox style button prompts to Switch or PlayStation button prompts. I have several other mobile games that allow that and it's really nice to have as an option when using a PlayStation controller or their Backbone
Buy it once, own the full game. I own 2 copys of this game, one for mobile, one for pc and have 100%ed the game on pc. Its great for when you have a bit of downtime and want to spend said time playing something without ads. Good music, good vibe, part of the fun is learning and slowly getting better.
Very enjoyable game! The animations and sound design are very good as well. my biggest issue is that i experienced a bug where, after completing my most recent run, my profile disappeared. i still had my unlockables, but my stats reset, and i was unable to play more than white difficulty on any given deck. It made me lose all motivation to play further, knowing my progress can just disappear like that. i hope the devs resolve this.
This game is very original and a lot of fun. However, I am annoyed by a bug that affected me recently where out of the blue, most of my progress was lost and I was reset to white stakes on every deck. This is apparently not an uncommon bug and there's seemingly no way to get your progress back. Completing the stakes on the various decks is a big part of what gives the game replayability and purpose, and given that all my progress vanished for no reason it really discourages me playing.
I played this game for hours and hours, just for my save file to be deleted! This has happened once before, and I've followed the advice religiously ever since: only play on one account, on the same network. I had beat gold stake on multiple decks, not an easy feat! I'm absolutely gutted and won't be reinstalling the game. Be aware, the hefty price tag doesn't guarantee your progress will still be there when you open the app, no matter how good you are at following the dev's advice!
The description is right on the mark, extremely addictive! Every run is different. Every game, called a run, is different. When you beat a run, you get the seed code. You can play the exact same run again, but play it completely different. This helped me figure out how to plan and build my deck. This game has one of the highest replay values I've ever seen. I cannot recommend this game enough! Try it!
Addicting, well designed game. No micro transactions is a huge plus as well ***Edit:*** One update I would LOVE to see is the ability to start a run you just completed, at a specific save point (For example from the last hand, ante, round, etc. you played before you died). Being able to play runs again using a seed code is great, but having to go all the way through the run again to get to a specific point is tiresome, and sometimes impossible remembering all the moves. would love a save point!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this game! Rarely do I bend anyone's ear talking about video games, but since this game came out, it's all I've ever talked about! The concept is spectacular, the mechanics are very well thought-out, and it's the perfect balance of easy-breezy and a challenging affair. My only gripe with this game is there being a challenge based around drawing cards face-down (which I absolutely hate). Please add multiplayer to mobile, too! Thanks, LocalThunk! Worth the 10 bucks!
5-Star Game, But Missing One Big Feature Balatro is a fantastic game ... addictive, polished, and worthy of five stars. But it really needs cross-platform account support in 2025. Progress and achievements should carry over between Steam, Switch, Android, and iOS. Right now, you're stuck with separate saves on each device, which kills the flow for players who bounce between platforms.
4.7 Star ratings, so overall, the game is amazing, with a legendary Indie dev. My issue with the game so far is that if I beat a deck to unlock a new stake or another deck, sometimes progress doesn't save. I had just beaten Green Deck on purple stake and went to go take a break by closing out the game for a bit. However, coming back, I see that my Green Deck purple stake is still needed to be beaten. I'm not necessarily disappointed at that, more anyyoed if anything, especially for later runs.
Phenomenal game! This is by FAR the most polished game I've ever played. The graphics, gameplay, balancing, and variety are amazing, and there are literally no bugs. Not a single one! The game even controls better than on PC, which is frankly ridiculous. The only improvement I could think of would be making undiscovered tags look different, because you can't actually tell. An absolute must-play!
I played this game on Xbox Game Pass, really enjoyed it, and decided to get it on mobile to have a fun downtime game. Its very much a game of strategy, and some (a lot) of luck. I haven't even unlocked challenges yet, but it's so fun to build a strategy out of early cards, or try to focus on a strategy you want to try out. It really helps to verbally process out loud what you are going to do, it's very easy to misplay in this game, lol.
Awesome game, but not optimized very well for a cell phone. I'm running a galaxy s23 ultra and it gets really hot and eats the battery like crazy. Would give this a 5 if it didn't feel like it was going to kill my phone. I tried turning off everything graphical in the settings and it didn't make a dif. Searching online, this seems to be a fairly common problem. In comparison, i can play civ 6 on my phone for much longer and don't see any issues with that, which should be much more demanding.
Exactly the amazing addictive rougelike everyone says. I've loved my time, and think I'll eventually buy it on PC too for the mods. I've just got 2 little issues. 1. Sometimes the sell or use button pops up on a card like if you hold it, but doesn't go away. 2. I'm not sure if it's intentional, buy unlike the PC version no matter the game speed moving the jokers while the hand is active does not seem to be working for me.
Way too addictive! I was skeptical when my friend recommended it, but it deserves all the awards that it has won. Don't be fooled by the ESRB rating suggesting it's gambling because it isn't. Money resets every game and is not the goal to win. It merely borrows a lot of poker terminology and redefines it all. There are no in-app purchases. This is a classic buy-to-own solo game. Score big to defeat the minimum points limit before you run out turns. It's as simple as that, while very complex too.
Five stars well deserved. I wish there were more games like this. Just a fair price for a real game and not an ad that you pay money to feel like you are good at something. This game is an original take on a one player card game. The longer you play the more layers emerge regarding possible strategies and combinations of cards/playing strategies to win. It's like a mix of Magic the Gathering and Solitaire.