It’s hard to think of a recent game that’s made the same splash in the market that Baltaro has, especially one from a solo developer. In the first hour of its release the game started turning a profit. Within eight hours, it had generated its first $1 million in revenue. Less than a month after its February 20th launch date, the game surpassed a million units sold. Around the same time, Balatro’s publisher, Playstack,announced during a Reddit AMAthat the game would be coming to Android and iPhone sometime in the unspecified future. So what is this Balatro game, and what can we expect when it shows up on ourfancy smartphones?
What is Balatro, and how does it play?
It’s a roguelike, offering tons of replayability with a poker theme
Described simply, Balatro is a poker-inspired deck-building roguelite. The core gameplay involves making the best five-card poker hand out of a draw of eight cards from a full deck. Points are awarded based on the hand played, the cards used, and any bonuses you’ve accrued. Each round (called a Blind in-game) requires more points to win. Every third round is a “boss” round that will nerf you in some way.
Between rounds, you can spend money in the shop to augment the cards in your deck with various effects, which can be activated by playing them, discarding them, or keeping them in your hand. This is also where you get jokers, which are kind of the heart of the game. The jokers give you bonuses and are the only way to survive the higher rounds. Some bonuses are based on which cards you play (+4 multiplier for each face card), and others are based on which hand you play (+20 multiplier for four-of-a-kind). That’s only scratching the surface because there are currently 150 jokers in Balatro to find or unlock, each with unique effects.
17 best roguelike games on Android in 2024
Android games that will scratch your itch for roguelike gameplay
Our Balatro Android wishlist (and some pitfalls we hope the game avoids)
You’re gonna need a bigger boat screen
The first hurdle any game ported to Android needs to overcome is the UI. Although most smartphones and computer monitors hew closely to the 16:9 aspect ratio, the real issue is going to be the physical size of the screen. Balatro’s not overly complicated, but there are a lot of things on the screen, so merely shrinking everything could make the game cumbersome to navigate its menus or select its cards.
You can get a taste of this experience by playing Balatro on your phone with Steam Link. The interface is still usable (if a bit cramped), but the UI text is uncomfortably tiny. This lack of legibility could be a real problem on mobile, since being able to read the effects of a joker is vital to gameplay, particularly to new players. Hopefully, this won’t be an issue; after all, the game plays fine on both Switch and Steam Deck (between 6.2 and 7.4 inches), but we’ll have to see how it plays on smaller screens.
Getting control
Speaking of Switch and Steam Deck, we’re hoping that Balatro mobile ships with controller support. This would be a great way to mitigate the problem of fat fingers when the game is played on smaller touch screens, and it’s already proven to be an effective input method for Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam Deck.
Of course, most people don’t play games on their phones with a gamepad, so we also have our fingers crossed for solid touchscreen controls that will allow the game to be played anywhere without feeling like a compromise. The Steam version works well with mouse input, which is a good indicator that touch input shouldn’t be too hard to implement, especially if LocalThunk and Playstack can nail the UI.
Slay the Spire brings its deck-building roguelike action to Android
Humble Games delivers again — this studio is on a roll
To free, or not to free
If you want to play Balatro right now, it’s going to cost you $15 whether you purchase it for your Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, or PC. That kind of price on the Play Store isn’t unheard of, but it’s definitely an outlier. The vast majority of premium mobile games cost less than $5, and anything beyond that threatens to limit its potential audience. The flip side of that is, Balatro has a lot of content, and everyone involved in bringing it to market deserves to get paid. What we don’t want to see happen is a freemium release augmented by heavy-handed ads and pay-to-win mechanics, as these would ruin the game.
Playstack currently has 11 games on the Play Store and every one of them includes either ads, in-app purchases, or both. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it could be a warning sign. In his Reddit AMA, developer LocalThunk talked about wanting to implement a daily challenge, which is often a hallmark of a title that puts monetization ahead of gameplay.
The worst-case scenario in our minds would be a freemium release with ads between each round of play and the top-tier jokers locked behind a paywall. If the game is released for free, the best-case scenario would be a model based on Vampire Survivors, which includes ads but makes viewing them completely optional. The best course of action will probably be to charge a premium price for the game and ship a port that’s as faithful to the original as possible.
When is Balatro coming to Android?
It’s anyone’s guess
We still don’t know when Balatro will come to Android (Playstack ain’t talking), but we’re hopeful it will be here before the end of the summer. While you wait, take a look at these other awesome roguelike games to keep you busy.
