Is Balatro Still 2024’s Game of the Year? ► Ludology Now!

There was a time about eight months ago when I could not stop playing Balatro and was convinced it would be Game of the Year 2024. Even while working, I would either have the game open on a second screen and be contemplating moves in my brief moments of downtime, or else I would be unable to stop thinking about different possible Joker combinations, stone deck possibilities, and whether or not Plasma was the best deck of all time (it is). I love poker, and I love pushing the limits of combined mathematical truths. For me, Balatro was the closing thing to video game cocaine since Loop Hero.

If you haven’t played Balatro, the elevator pitch is that it’s a roguelike card game about making the best-scoring poker hand. You obtain modifiers while playing which affect your score in various ways, and the combinations can get exponentially larger rather quickly. It’s got the vibe of a classic casino video poker terminal, and honestly just describing it here makes me want to turn it on again. Balatro is even on phones now, which I have refrained from purchasing because I don’t want to put my family through that.

When Balatro came out, I thought to myself, “THIS will be the game of the year, surely.” Over the next eight months, that feeling has only been shaken a few times. I finally started playing Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth a month ago, and that’s really hooked me, but it’s not quite it. Animal Well was cool, but it wasn’t quite it either. Astro Bot came close, but there are some curious choices (which I think we’ll discuss in a future column) that keep it from being true Game of the Year 2024 material. 

Shadow of the Erdtree is DLC and that doesn’t count. Helldivers 2, Skull & Bones, meh. FF7 Rebirth, probably good, didn’t play it, same with Metaphor: ReFantazio and The Plucky Squire (although our Plucky Squire review says its fantastic). Dragon’s Dogma 2 might be in the running. I liked Silent Hill 2 and Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, but if DLC doesn’t count then remakes definitely don’t either. Scratch the FF7 comment from earlier, then. Pizza Tower? Was Pizza Tower this year? [Editor’s Note: Pizza Tower released on January 26, 2023.]

I know we have Indiana Jones, and Mario & Luigi: Brothership, Slitterhead, Rise of the Golden Idol, The Axis Unseen, and Marvel Rivals to go. But, come on. There’s only one other contender. Unless something unforeseen happens, Balatro only has one true opponent for the Game of the Year 2024 title – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. 

Echoes of Wisdom Is My Favorite Zelda Since Twilight Princess

Yes, Echoes of Wisdom Is Better Than BOTW (To Me)

To really see where I’m coming from, it may be beneficial to read my Echoes of Wisdom review on Screen Rant. I won’t attempt to summarize it here, suffice it to say I gave the game a 4.5/5 and loved pretty much everything except the simplicity of some of the dungeons and how it stuttered in the overworld. These are small conceits in the grand scheme of things, and overall it was the most fun I had playing a Zelda game in roughly eighteen years. If my Zelda drought was a person, it could have enlisted in the military by now, but Echoes of Wisdom saved it from making such a poor life decision.

Having trouble making your way through Zelda’s newest adventure? Check out our massive The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom walkthrough!

I don’t want to waste too much time justifying why I enjoy EOW more than BOTW and TOTK. I’m old. I’m blinded by nostalgia. Echoes of Wisdom had me smiling for pretty much my entire playthrough, and it’s hard to argue with that kind of emotional result. But does that mean it should be Game of the Year 2024 over Balatro? If remakes and remasters don’t count, then, at this point in history, does Zelda deserve to remain in consideration for such an award? I didn’t think so when the Zelda in question was Tears of the Kingdom, but I feel differently about Echoes of Wisdom. While it’s true that many, many Zelda games feel more like reimaginings than true sequels, it’s undeniable that there is something new, something worth celebrating, in Echoes of Wisdom, even though it’s basically the TOTK version of LTTP.

But in this year stuffed with Remakes, Remasters, and now Reimaginings, is it more worthy of Game of the Year 2024 than Balatro? My childhood wants to say yes, but my adulthood says no. Echoes of Wisdom, for all of its Zelda goodness and original “clone all of our game assets” concept, is still not bringing enough “new” to the table. That’s why I can’t include remakes, really – if the game is just a copy of another game’s homework, it can’t count. That’s why my past Game of the Year choices have included titles like Pentiment and Inscryption. Risk and innovation should be rewarded, especially at this point in time. So, no, Zelda won’t steal Balatro’s crown this year.

Then something unforeseen did, in fact, arrive. UFO 50 happened.  

Is UFO 50 Game of the Year 2024?

UFO 50 Makes Me Angry I Didn’t Make It First

There’s really nothing like UFO 50. It’s almost like an ARPG inside a video game made up of other video games. If you are unfamiliar, the basic concept is this: There was an old company in the 1980s called LX Systems, later UFO Soft, that put out a bunch of games between 1982 and 1989. You play through their entire game catalog and see their development style change and evolve. These are 50 fully realized games in classic 8-bit style (think Commodore 64 or the Amiga) and some of them are incredibly addictive and fun. Just like any real-life game company, not every title will be for every player, but even if you find 3/50 games to be what you fancy that’s still a better deal for your money than most products. 

I highly recommend everyone read Digital Trends’ UFO 50 review, which is one of the best pieces of, for lack of a better term, “gonzo games criticism” I have seen in a long time. Like UFO 50 itself, I wish I had thought of it first. And that’s why I can’t stop thinking about the game – if nothing else, it’s inspired so much creativity. Creativity from its developers has forced creativity onto the people who reviewed it, and having played it myself I can tell it’s now been forced onto me. I don’t know what playing UFO 50 in 2024 will lead to, but I think my creative tanks are more filled now than they were before I played it, and that’s important. That means something. 

Does it mean that UFO 50 is 2024’s Game of the Year? Maybe, if we’re ranking games on vibes alone. Balatro, for all its good qualities, is addictive to a worrying degree. Multiple announcements about the previously mentioned mobile release for Balatro were peppered with “I’m sorry” and “Try to still get things done,” messages, and while that’s cute in a corporate way, it’s also true. Balatro can be nearly as addictive as the poker games it emulates, and that creates a bad taste in my mouth. I opened Balatro while writing this article, telling myself “Just a few minutes to remember everything, just to be comprehensive.” Then two hours passed before I came back and wrote this paragraph. 

What Game of the Year 2024 Means

I Know October Isn’t Over Yet

Everyone has their own different classifications for what Game of the Year should be. To some people, it means the game that sold the most, and to others it means the game was the most innovative. To publishers, sometimes it feels like they consider it to be a whole genre to aspire to, in the same way some movies are called “Oscar bait” movies (looking at you, Naughty Dog). To most people, I think, Game of the Year just means “What game did I enjoy the most this year?” That’s why you see these games that come out in November and December either struggle to get GOTY awards or get all of them without any thought to the 10 months before. Recency bias works both ways.

Maybe we should start doing a Game of the Month and then, at the end of the year, only consider the 12 games that won previously, bracket-style, but somehow that seems even less fair. We have a few months left before the end of the year, so I’ll think on it and get back to you. For now, I think it’s important to say that, more often than not, I find myself struggling between “GOTYs need to be innovative” and “My GOTY is just whatever I played the most.” Fortunately, this year I won’t have to choose.

There’s no question that I enjoyed Balatro and put more hours into it than any other game in 2024 up to this point. It’s also a great game for the industry – an original IP from a small developer that took the community by storm for months. The video game industry is better off for Balatro existing. But if that’s true for Balatro, which is only one game, then what about 50 games, all original IPs from a small developer, that sparks the creativity of everyone who plays them?

I’m not so sure Balatro’s Game of the Year position is secure anymore… but, what do you think? Do you already have a pick for Game of the Year 2024, or are you waiting to see what the holiday season brings us? Let us know in the comments below!

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Christopher J Teuton

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