Shacknews Indie Game of the Year 2024 - Balatro

There’s something magical about a good card game. When you look at games like Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, and Freecell, there’s such an addictive puzzle and luck element to them, even though you aren’t even gambling. Games like that do not come along every day by any stretch of the imagination, but one did in 2024, and it’s freaking amazing. We’re, of course, talking about LocalThunk’s Balatro.

 For the uninitiated, first off, what are you doing? Balatro can be picked up on the cheap and it’s on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and mobile devices. Here’s why it deserves a try whether you’ve bought it or not. It’s a playing card rogue-like in which you must assemble poker hands to score chips and overcome target chip counts in a limited number of hands. Each stage of the game is separated into a Small Blind, Big Blind, and eventual Boss Blind that not only has high chip targets, but also special conditions like making cards of a certain suit not score, giving you only one hand to play, or discarding your cards on each hand played, just to name a few.

If that sounds overwhelming, don’t worry. Jimbo is here to help you. Jimbo is a joker and he has about 149 different friends. Jokers are key to surviving Balatro’s increasing chip targets, thwarting Boss Blind conditions with unique bonuses of your own, and overcoming otherwise stacked odds. They include cards like the Smeared Joker that makes spade and club cards count as the same suit and hearts and clubs act as the same suit, which is great for playing flush hands, especially if you have a joker that gives you a chip bonus or multiplier on flushes. There are also planet cards that level up hand types for more chips and multipliers, tarot cards that let you do things like change card suits, spawn jokers, and get extra money for the in-run shop, and spectral cards that give you massive bonuses often at a cost.

One of the most compelling parts of Balatro is that a run can go so wrong so quickly, but the progression feels great whether you win or lose. You might be playing level- and joker-boosted two pairs up until a Boss Blind disables your most played hand. Oops. But you’ll unlock jokers along the way, earn new decks, and even unlock new difficulties with special conditions if you can get all the way to a final round. This makes for a ridiculously addictive loop that has eaten millions of hours worldwide. This game is a productivity killer, but it’s our favorite productivity killer to come along in some time making it the Shacknews Indie Game of the Year 2024.

Balatro is available now on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Apple, and Android devices. Be sure to read over the rest of the Shacknews Awards in our Year of the Games: 2024 feature.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on BlueSky @JohnnyChugs.