It is a rainy Saturday afternoon in early 2002 and I am barely 3 years old. I sit atop my father's knee, watching as he plays the version of Spider Solitaire that came pre-installed on the family computer. I watch cards move across the screen and stack on top of each other as they make a satisfying sound akin to a deck of cards being shuffled. Some twenty-odd years and dozens of different card games played later and I now have Balatro, a game whose developer names Solitaire as its most important inspiration. It's almost as if Balatro was made for me... is what I would say if I had a delusional level of self-importance.

The aim of Balatro is simple: play a combination of poker hands in order to score enough points to meet an ever-increasing threshold each round. The reward for beating a round is some $$$ and the chance to shop for packs, tarot cards, planet cards, and the famous Jokers which you can purchase to empower your run. Each run is comprised of 8 levels or 'Antes' each with ending with a 'Boss Blind', a high scoring round with an additional stipulation such as "all heart cards are de-buffed". This all culminates in one final boss blind that you must complete to win the run. From there, you can keep going in endless mode to get high scores or play again with a new deck or at a higher difficulty or 'Stake'.

Balatro achieves the singleplayer experience of Solitaire that inspired it but it also feels like a hybrid of a card game and an autobattler at times. Both Balatro and Teamfight Tactics, for example, require the player to manage their economy, take direction from what appears in the shop, use currency to reroll the shop, and know how and when to pivot their build. Just imagine that you replace all the units with cards and the PvP rounds in TFT with a Hearthstone lethal puzzle and you basically have Balatro.

Balatro invokes in me the experience that the critic from Pixar's Ratatouille has when he sits down at Gusteau's and takes that first bite. He is served a common peasant's dish, one that reminds him of his earliest years, and yet it is executed on so masterfully that the dish, to him, feels fresh and new. This game serves me something that is familiar on the surface; a standard deck of 52 cards accompanied by a series of snaps and clicks that throw me back to sitting atop my father's knee. Beneath the top layer lies a court of jesters and fools that breathe life into the humble playing card and I am invited to taste and savour all of the game's possible combinations. What I am left with every time I put Balatro down is a feeling of satisfaction yet a yearning for more. This game is what any hungry card game enjoyer's palette ought to crave. It is, for me, a game that I will always come back to. The one you boot up when there's nothing else to play, or on a rainy Saturday afternoon in early 2025. It is endlessly replayable with so many card and Joker combinations, unlockables, challenges, and difficulties. It can be as relaxing or demanding as you like; as simple or difficult as you require.

Buy Balatro and call your dad or perhaps someone else's dad. Tell him about the greatest game you've ever bought for just $15.