Outstanding.

Edit: I've had to come back to this review as a single word clearly doesn't do it justice. This game genuinely stands on its own atop a pile of "just one more run" games that, whilst all good in their own right, don't come close to Balatro.

Every run lends itself to individuality and strategy as it truly captures the feeling of playing the hand you are dealt, be that with the Joker choice, which deck you chose, the planet cards you've been fed etc.

Sometimes all hope is lost and then you pull that X mult joker that perfectly fits what you were trying to go for and all of a sudden the build goes from just scraping by to "To the moon!".

Other times, you've put together a build with an idea and the Jokers you pull punish your hubris and you stall out at Ante 7 like a melon, annoyed at yourself for not grabbing that rare Joker you could've built around back at Ante 4.

All that is just to say, Balatro is a fantastic game and will be a mainstay for me for a long time to come.