TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 1,957
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
From pushing coins to sweeping mines, developers are still trying to capture LocalThunk's magic.
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Steam Next Fest is in full swing, and when I'm not sailing the high seas in search of pirate survival adventures in Windrose, I'm diving headfirst into the big pile of Balatro-like deckbuilders that are showcasing new demos.
As always, there's a bunch of developers hoping to strike Balatro-sized jackpots by twisting well-known games using magic morphing multipliers: I've played demos that use chess, billiards, pachinko, roulette, slot machines, coin pushers, gashapon… even a few that are just doing poker again.
If you're looking for some ideas on which to try first (because we still don't know how far off Balatro 1.1 is), here are the seven best Balatro-likes I played at Steam Next Fest. And if I've missed a few, please let me know in the comments.
I was dubious for a second because Gambonanza's main menu is so deeply Balatro-fied you can even drag the chess piece around the screen, same as you can the ace of spades. But the game quickly establishes its own style and personality and I wound up replaying it a whole bunch of times.
On a tiny chessboard you face off against the computer with just a few chess pieces that move in the standard ways. But after each mini-match you can spend money to enchant tiles and purchase gambits that will change the rules. Create phantom pieces, make pawns move like kings, even duplicate a piece when it gets captured… after a couple hours, I'm still finding new ways to enchant my board and arsenal. The bosses I've seen are distinctive and fun, like one that makes several of its pieces uncapturable for most of the match (that's him at the top of the page). The experience is hurt a tiny bit by how dumb your CPU opponent sometimes is, but I frankly needed all the help I could get.
Published by Playstack (same as Balatro!), Raccoin replicates an arcade game even a gambling enthusiast like me would never stick a quarter into: the coin pusher. Pump coins onto the playing field, hoping it'll get crowded enough to push more coins into the basket, and increase your abilities between rounds. Add special coins to the mix: some stick to other coins creating a huge lump of value, some crawl around mating with each other to make duplicates, some explode knocking others into the basket.
Raccoin bills itself as "a coin-pushing dopamine machine," and I sure can't argue with that. It's satisfying as heck seeing those coins pile up and drop, and there's tons of amusing powers that can spawn UFOs, laser beams, and black holes. ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
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Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Steam Next Fest is in full swing, and when I'm not sailing the high seas in search of pirate survival adventures in Windrose, I'm diving headfirst into the big pile of Balatro-like deckbuilders that are showcasing new demos.
As always, there's a bunch of developers hoping to strike Balatro-sized jackpots by twisting well-known games using magic morphing multipliers: I've played demos that use chess, billiards, pachinko, roulette, slot machines, coin pushers, gashapon… even a few that are just doing poker again.
If you're looking for some ideas on which to try first (because we still don't know how far off Balatro 1.1 is), here are the seven best Balatro-likes I played at Steam Next Fest. And if I've missed a few, please let me know in the comments.
I was dubious for a second because Gambonanza's main menu is so deeply Balatro-fied you can even drag the chess piece around the screen, same as you can the ace of spades. But the game quickly establishes its own style and personality and I wound up replaying it a whole bunch of times.
On a tiny chessboard you face off against the computer with just a few chess pieces that move in the standard ways. But after each mini-match you can spend money to enchant tiles and purchase gambits that will change the rules. Create phantom pieces, make pawns move like kings, even duplicate a piece when it gets captured… after a couple hours, I'm still finding new ways to enchant my board and arsenal. The bosses I've seen are distinctive and fun, like one that makes several of its pieces uncapturable for most of the match (that's him at the top of the page). The experience is hurt a tiny bit by how dumb your CPU opponent sometimes is, but I frankly needed all the help I could get.
Published by Playstack (same as Balatro!), Raccoin replicates an arcade game even a gambling enthusiast like me would never stick a quarter into: the coin pusher. Pump coins onto the playing field, hoping it'll get crowded enough to push more coins into the basket, and increase your abilities between rounds. Add special coins to the mix: some stick to other coins creating a huge lump of value, some crawl around mating with each other to make duplicates, some explode knocking others into the basket.
Raccoin bills itself as "a coin-pushing dopamine machine," and I sure can't argue with that. It's satisfying as heck seeing those coins pile up and drop, and there's tons of amusing powers that can spawn UFOs, laser beams, and black holes. ...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?