Balatro Mobile is available now, bringing the deck-building roguelike to the perfect platform

• Cult-classic deck-building roguelite Balatro is out now
• If you're an Apple Arcade subscriber it's included in that too
• Jimbo says download it now

Balatro Mobile, the simple-yet-complex masterpiece from LocalThunk, has now officially launched on Google Play, the App Store and Apple Arcade.

Popular deck-builder/solitaire/poker hybrid Balatro has become somewhat of a cult-classic since it first launched. It's got a killer compulsion loop based entirely around building ridiculous multipliers and combos through refining a classic card-deck using jokers, booster packs, tickets and more, all to beat increasingly difficult target scores.

Well, following on from teases back in March, it's now out and available across (most) of your favouite mobile devices.

If you're thinking, 'wait, that just sounds weird' then you're right. It doesn't sound that compelling on paper. That and it's incredibly hard to convey the core loop. The gist of it is that it's got the 'just get through this one situation' rush of run-based games, while also having approachable play-pieces in the classic 52-card deck and poker hand scoring system.

Then, after that it all gets messy. However, it gets messy in a way that you control and define... it's essentially powerups. There's a mass of clown cards which play out as you hand in a hand, twisting and turning your scoring depending on suits, numbers, positions or... other modifiers.

Add to that that you can get full-deck upgrades, and use tarot cards or other post-play purchases to completely destroy your fifty-two card deck into something else, and everything starts to feel weird, wonderful and incredibly hard to pull away from.

Soon enough you have a 30-card deck where almost everything is a heart, and half of them are diamond, or have other modifications on them - you're scoring flushes almost constantly and flushes are worth 30-40-50 times more because of the clown and the scorechart modifiers that you boug... phew.

Anyway. Balatro is out now on mobile. It's great if you love numbers, planning things, replanning things, failing for no reason, winning for no reason, and losing many, many hours of your day. Came here thinking Balatro was a digital board game? Not quite the case buddy; You're better off checking out our list of the best Digital Board Games for Android in which case.