It’s kind of comical just how obvious 2024’s video game of the year is for me. As many games as I ended up playing (and reviewing!), only one is a title I’ve continually returned to, even now: Balatro.

A poker-themed roguelike, Balatro is a game that’s won numerous industry awards and has been on countless ‘best of 2024’ lists. I even chose it as Card Gamer’s favourite digital card game of the year, to the surprise of no one.

I’ve played well over 200 hours of Balatro this year, despite not even picking it up until a few months after release; though that’s a fairly scary number of hours, it’s a game that can be picked up and played in bite size chunks, though you’ll often end up playing it for much longer than you planned for!

So yeah, with my gaming time dominated by the crazy combos made possible by Balatro’s Jokers, even my second most played game (the brilliant Brotato, which came out last year anyway, so doesn’t qualify!) didn’t come anywhere near the time I spent playing LocalThunk’s amazing poker roguelike.

With the approach to DLC being refreshingly restrained, Balatro is a fantastic example of a simple concept, brilliantly executed – and, impressively, by a single developer too. It’s these kinds of indie experiences that are the lifeblood of the video game industry, and which are the most interesting games, in my opinion; far more so than the often disappointing triple-A releases from big studios.

Let’s see what 2025 has in store for us in terms of video games; what currently unknown, independently produced title will take over our gaming time next year? I don’t know, but it’s definitely going to be exciting finding out. Happy New Year everyone!

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