Almost exactly a year ago, Balatro stormed onto the scene as a surprise standout of 2024. The game features an utterly addictive gameplay loop that takes the familiar game of poker and turns it up to 11 with a unique assortment of decks, cards, and combinations to chase higher and higher scores. Since its release we’ve seen both unofficial and official mobile ports, as well as versions of the game that are playable on handhelds from the likes of Anbernic and similar. This would however be the first Nintendo DS port.
Posted by Haynster on GitHub towards the end of last week, the Balatro DS port is built using the MicroLUA library and offers a cut-down version of the full game. Though lacking music and unique decks, and only being limited to 12 Boss Blinds and 15 Joker cards, the project stands as a really fun effort that looks great given the limitation of the platform, still maintaining that core gameplay loop.
Installation instructions can be found over at the project’s GitHub page.
