This won’t be the first game I compare to Balatro, taking a classic game and adding some sort of quasi-deckbuilder to score points element to it. In Ballionaire’s defense, pachinko was already kinda that to begin with.
Comparisons aside, it’s also a well polished game on it’s own, with a number of different ways to build your machine to synergize with everything you’ve accumulated so far. Some of the bonuses you can place are food centric, where you’re looking to make a meal, cooking it before it hits bottom. Stuff a whale full of extra balls till it bursts out it’s blowhole, create balls of stone or water or fire and trigger extra effects when you hit certain triggers.
It’s hard to wholly describe the wild number of things you can do, there are so many different triggers for your balls to hit, ball types, and other passive board effects. The full release is coming up in a few days on December 10th. It was one of the breakout hits of this next fest and worth wishlisting and checking out then.