it's pretty fun but maybe not as much as i was expecting. leading up to the moment before i found out i owned this through library share i was watching some streamers play this and it looked like tons of fun, and it definitely is! i like how much variety is in this game that allows for different ways to manipulate your odds of making poker hands to get high scores. it's a super satisfying concept and once you've figured out a deck and a set of joker cards that start to pop off the game becomes super investing. but also the way i see streamers hop on and play this for like 5 hours a day is something i just cannot do. i don't really have the same addiction for this game that i see other people have. what usually happens when i play this is i get one run that gets like halfway through and just doesn't really take off and feels like its running on fumes and once i lose at like round 5 i dont really have any desire to keep playing and close the game. or, i get straight doodoo runs and play until i get one that gets off the ground that ends up in a win and im having a great time. then you go into endless mode and the number of chips required for each blind scales significantly higher than the base run and your really cool fun shiny strategy that initially worked for a while gets thrown out the window. while the incentive to keep playing and discover new things to make your runs play better more consistently is there, i just don't really care that much. im here to have fun for like one good run at a time then im checked out afterwards. i only have about 10 hours put in and im willing to play more when i just need a game to throw on and have some fun with, but i dont think i'll be caught trying to craft perfect runs to hit 4.26 * 10^79 chips for 8 hours a day like some people do

About 20 hours into the game as of writing this review, and I can kinda tell where this one will fall for me in the pantheon of rougelike deckbuilders.

It's great, but the runs can feel WAY to dictated by rng (especially in the early stages of a run) because of the games design around poker mechanics. There are tools in the game to let you stack the odds in your favor, but I have had countless runs so far where I just died in the first few rounds due to bad rng when I didn't even get the chance to access any of those tools.

What elevates this game above others I have disliked for the same reasons is the variety and ease of getting into each run. There are so many different variations of jokers (cards that provide unique abilities), enhancements and powerups that each run can feel unique even when you are playing the same few poker hands. And when you do lose, it's so quick and easy to jump back in. I've found myself in the "just one more run" mindset basically every time I sit down when I have time to spare.

And once you are past the early stages of a run, choices start to matter more and you can mitigate rng with careful planning. Every round comes with a dozen or so different choices, all of which can impact your run in various ways. The strategy is quite deep in these moments, something I love in a deckbuilder.

> select 5 King with glass, polychrome and red seal
> 5 good jokers

> Flush Five lvl.xx
> +10 chips 2x Mult x1.5 Mult (Retrigger)
> +10 chips 2x Mult x1.5 Mult (Retrigger)
> +10 chips 2x Mult x1.5 Mult (Retrigger)
> +10 chips 2x Mult x1.5 Mult (Retrigger)
> +10 chips 2x Mult x1.5 Mult (Retrigger)

???????????

Score: 1.3583e21

GAME OF THE YEAR 2024

This game is crack for your "ok lemme try that again" brain. An incredibly hard to describe game, but very easy to understand from its simple tutorial. It's the binding of isaac but you're playing poker and your mom is a joker. It suffers from a lot of the same problems as other deckbuilder roguelikes like the fact that RNG can just screw you with nothing to do against it. Almost every build has a boss that can just completely counter you and end your run if you have no way to circumvent it. However when it does work out, it makes you feel like the smartest person alive. Joker abilities comboing into something greater than the sum of their parts makes it all worth it. That's what I'm here for in a roguelike.