Every so often I'll be sitting on my couch playing Balatro on Steam Deck and have an unwanted thought: I should really play something other than Balatro once in a while.
So, I take a look through Steam to see what other games aren't Balatro but are still pretty much Balatro so I don't have to stop playing Balatro even when I'm not playing Balatro.
And there are quite a few! Balatro introduced us all to the magic of a poker roguelike last year, and since then we've seen a bunch of other efforts to combine a traditional game with the deckbuilder formula.
There's Balatro but it's blackjack, Balatro but it's pachinko, Balatro but it's solitaire, even Balatro but it's Scrabble. And arriving on Steam this week in early access, it's Balatro but it's Mahjong—and it has an actual name, too: Aotenjo: Infinite Hands.
Of the various Balatro-likes I've played so far, I think I like it best. It's not trying to be Balatro in the most obvious ways: it's not slick or flashy, there's not a ton of animation, and visually it looks like it'd be right at home next to Solitaire on Windows 95.