You should play Balatro

The triple-A gaming industry might be going through a rough patch, but the state of indies has never been better. It's a feat in itself that Balatro, a game developed by a single hobbyist, was up for Game of the Year, but it's somehow even more impressive that it's really, really good. The game just hit five million units sold, so I'm taking this opportunity to tell you – yes, YOU! – that you should try Balatro.

A: It's cheap. B: You can run it on anything from your phone to the beefiest gaming PC out there. C: Oh my God, it's addicting.

In essence, Balatro turns poker into a roguelike, tasking you with creating five-card poker hands to beat steadily increasing stakes. The twist? The 150 special "Joker" cards, each of which add a unique effect to the hands you play. These Joker effects range from letting you play certain cards twice to growing more powerful the more cards you eject from your deck, and can be combined for some truly ludicrous plays that'll drive your score into scientific notation territory. Even if you've never touched a playing card before, amassing billions of chips is a delight in and of itself – and one worth at least trying. It did almost win Game of the Year, after all!

Previously:
How card games became cool again