Balatro on mobile is the perfect way to play one of the best games of 2024

I said I wouldn’t download it.

At the beginning of the year I was obsessed with it Balatro. The successful poker roguelike quickly captivated me; I racked up 40 hours in no time. I snuck another round every chance I got, and it was pretty much the only thing I took on flights for months. I knew that developer LocalThunk would one day bring it to mobile devices, and I was afraid of what that might mean for me. But when the announcement finally came, I felt a surprising moment of reluctance. I had already spent a lot of time on it and just didn’t feel the need to start it again on a new platform. I was free.

Until I gave in and downloaded it just a few days after it was released. Now I’m playing again, but I can’t say I’m mad about it. As I suspected, Balatro is the perfect mobile game, one that has become my trusty companion on football Sundays. It’s a simple recommendation for anyone who enjoys gaming on their phone – just make sure you don’t have anything important to do for the next few weeks before hitting the download button.

Balatro is a deck-building poker roguelike that launched in February to immediate critical and commercial success. In the core loop, players play poker hands to earn chips. A run is divided into several antes, each of which has a chip total that must be reached in a few hands. Each hand has its own base chip value and multiplier, with games like Royal Flushes being incredibly lucrative. The twist is that players can purchase upgrades between each ante, from planetary cards that improve the base value of hands to tarot cards that can strengthen certain cards.

The big catch comes in the form of Jokers, purchasable passive cards that completely change a run and unlock Balatro’s roguelike depth. A joker could give you more chips if your hand contains a pair. Another gives you a 3x multiplier for your last played hand in a round. This is where the fun of deck building comes into play. With smart planning and spending, you can build an entire run around playing only simple pairs or high cards. There are a wealth of synergies to discover, and you’ll have trouble putting them down once you discover them.

Unsurprisingly, this hook is great for mobile devices. The Nintendo Switch version was already the best way to play thanks to touch controls that made selecting cards and purchasing buffs easier. This works just as well, if not better, on a mobile screen. Perk cards are now purchased and used by dragging them to specific parts of the screen instead of clicking buttons. This effectively improves the quality of life as I often press the wrong button on a controller and accidentally sell cards I want to use.

There are few, if any, downsides to playing on mobile devices. I was worried the interface would be too busy on a phone screen, but it’s all perfectly readable. Perhaps the only “problem” is that it’s a game that eats up your battery before you even realize it, considering how easy it is to get sucked into a multi-hour session. I mostly play it while watching football games in the background and constantly have to stop to charge my phone. However, this is something of an “I problem”.

If you haven’t played yet Balatrothe mobile version is the perfect excuse to get started. It’s more or less a definitive version of one of the best games of 2024, and a roguelike that’s sure to be influential. You can download it on Android or iOS for $10 and it’s included as part of Apple Arcade at no additional cost (that’s the version I play, but be warned that you’ll likely lose your data if it ever does leaves the service). . You can both thank and curse me later.