2024 is unquestionably the year of Balatro. It came out of nowhere to fill our heads with dreams of flush fives and legendary Jimbos. But I think what put it really over the top was when it launched on iOS and Android earlier this fall. That’s because even though I don’t have the numbers to prove it, Charlie Brooker — as he so often does in his show Black Mirror – made a particularly prescient prediction during an interview with Deadline when he said that after Balatro comes out on phones, “humankind’s activity is going to drop about 25 percent.” That said, I don’t think people were prepared for the mobile version of Balatro to be an almost flawless example of how to properly translate a game from desktop to small screens and foldables.
To start, on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, the mobile version of Balatro costs $10, which is actually $5 less than the desktop edition on Steam or the console ports on Switch, Xbox and PlayStation. But what’s even better is that in a world where seemingly every phone game is crammed full of microtransactions, there are zero intrusive ads or other extra purchases to take away from the game. This includes all the crossover cardbacks (like the ones featuring characters from The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 and more) and the big forthcoming update due out at the beginning of next year.
On top of that, there’s essentially no difference in features between the mobile and desktop/console versions. Granted, that’s due in large part to the game being a relatively simple title (at least in terms of graphics). But even so, you’d be surprised how easy that is to mess up. The game boots up nearly instantly and even when you’re smashing antes while pushing your score deep into scientific notation, the game doesn’t get bogged down.
It gets even better though because developer LocalThunk paid attention to nearly all the little details. Balatro mobile features cloud saves, multiple profiles and tons of languages. The game also supports achievements while making it easy to unlock everything with a single option in case the phone version is more of a secondary platform for you. And I can’t forget to shout out the High Contrast Cards option, which is not only a great accessibility feature but a generally useful tool for making it faster and easier to tell hearts and diamonds or spades and clubs apart.
I also appreciate how Playstack tweaked the game’s UI and interface to make it easy to drag and drop objects wherever you want. I can’t speak for everyone, but there’s just something inherently satisfying about using touch controls to move cards around like in Hearthstone and Marvel Snap compared to relying on a keyboard and mouse or a controller, to the point where I prefer the mobile version over the original desktop release.
But perhaps the thing I like the most about Balatro mobile is how well it plays on pretty much any device, but foldable phones most of all. I’d argue that handsets like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are the perfect joker-hunting devices. Their large screens feel like a perfect match for the title’s UI without ever feeling cramped, which happens sometimes on older gadgets with less roomy displays. Text is generally easy to read (though sometimes less so on tiny devices) and there’s plenty of open space to push things around without getting in your own way.
That said, if I had to nitpick, my complaints boil down to two (maybe three) things. The first is that on foldables, Balatro doesn’t take full advantage of the extra vertical screen space. But since there’s already plenty of room, it’s not a huge deal. I also wish the Skip button when opening packs was in a different place, because I’ve accidentally fat-fingered it more times than I’d like to admit, resulting in not picking a joker or Spectral card that I really needed. But perhaps the biggest issue (or not) is that when I’m playing the game outside, when people who aren’t Balatro fans see my screen, they probably think I’m a true dirtbag that just can’t wait till I get home to make a bet. And in many respects they’re right, but since I’m not actually gambling, it’s still the wrong impression.
Regardless, the mobile version of Balatro has basically everything I could want in a phone port. And in a world where more and more portable titles feel like low-effort cash grabs than projects meant to delight and entertain, Balatro is something I’m going to get more than my money’s worth out of for years to come.
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