Gets boring really fast

game wont launch. gets to splash screen and then freezes. apparently a common problem without a defined solution. seems the developer answers every query on the subject with "submit a support ticket" for the past year. trust me when i say ive tried everything to get this game to work to no avail. this may not be your experience, but buyer beware

In a world where there is a genre that might as well be called "Balatro but with <x>", Ballionaire is Balatro but with Plinko. You drop a ball and whatever it hits earns you money, and after each drop you to choose a item that changes the board state to hopefully make a build to beat the ever-increasing goal post.

The premise is good and it delivers. There is a lot more to builds than in normal games of this type. You're effectively building a deck that combos well with each other. On the bigger boards, you're often building several sections up for the most optimal plan, and that is really fun. The different gimmicks of the board also changes your build strategy too, and there are a some items, especially as of the last patch, that add a lot more interactivity. When you get something that works, it feels really good to blow past your goal.

The art is cute and vibrant, the effects of a full board are a cacophony of different rewarding effects and it overall delivers an experience varied enough between boards, items and sub-challenges to keep things interesting to a semi-short 100% completion. Most times I would play a pick-up game just to see if I could beat my own personal score.

Though I would argue not without flaws. There isn't a ton of variety in regards to the items you can place. There are a lot but they all seem to go towards a few core builds. Think of it like something like Magic where you have hundreds of cards, but they fall into 5 colors which lead to one or two potential builds in each. There isn't much push beyond getting your preferred dominant strategy and nothing pushes you to change from it other than some RNG. There is also a clear power discrepancy between certain items. When you add that to the fact that your ball can drop in a myriad of ways, sometimes entirely missing your early placements altogether, the game feels more RNG then the likes of Balatro, Word Play or even Luck be a Landlord.

It also isn't very difficult. Only one board tends to be difficult and it's more just due to how much randomness there is that makes it hard to get any build going. Otherwise, you either go big or go home. It never feels like you squeak by on a tight victory. It just overall seems like it needs a tighter balance, but I also understand how difficult it would be to manage in a game like this.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Ballionaire and it for the general asking price one sale, I got my money's worth. But it doesn't quite capture the lightning-in-the-bottle that many other games in the genre.