Crashout Crew
Crashout Crew
Game
Game2026
Gambonanza
Developer Blukulélé
Gambonanza is a 2026 turn-based chess roguelike video game developed by Blukulélé and copublished with Sidekick Publishing and Stray Fawn Publishing. The game's goal is to capture every single rival piece instead of just putting the king in checkmate. The game was chosen as part of the SXSW Sydney 2025 Game Festival official selection and was shortlisted for the festival's Game of the Year. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
312 reactions from 4 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy) · newest Nov 3, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
65
Fresh
164 positive · 87 negative
95% range 59–71%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 164 | 87 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 17 | 1 | 33 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 3 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
578 of 772 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
65% recommend · 157 yes, 84 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 241 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mostly Positive (1,319 of 1,742 positive).
Many players compare it to Balatro with chess, but opinions differ on how well that works. [1][2][3][4] Some reviewers praise the game as fun and addictive, especially for fans of roguelikes. [5][6][7][8] Others criticize the AI, balance, and lack of polish, calling it unfinished or overpriced. [9][10][11][12]
Liked
Representative posts
- [10]
I thought I'd really love this game - I love roguelikes/lites, I love chess, I love the Balatro aesthetic. I didn't really like this game. It has POTENTIAL, the CONCEPT is great, but the execution leaves something to be desired The 'enemy AI' is generally terrible and will often blunder pieces for no reason.Combined with the permanent loss of pieces across stages, the 'best' move is often to just burn turns and wait …
- [11]
TL;DR: Game needs more polish and features to justify the price. Either the price needs to come down or the devs need to flesh the game out more. There is fun here, but it's not enough to justify the current price. Wait for a sale and a few updates. The default price is too high for what's on offer. The price (at least for my country) is a dollar higher than Balatro; which is absurd when you compare the two - and …
- [5]
Gambonanza is a very good game. Here's what Gambonanza is, in ranked order: (1) a synergy builder (2) chaotic (3) a chess game/puzzle If you get mad because it's not chess, you're forgetting that it's a chaotic synergy builder! If you get mad about the chaos, you're forgetting that it's a synergy builder! If you're mad because it's a synergy builder, well, you didn't check the reviews before you bought this but …
- [6]
After playing the rival chess-balatro game "Gambit", I have to say... Gambonanza is addicting and the music is incredible for an indie game. There are unique bosses and difficulty unlocks. If you like chess, indie games full of fun references (Zelda, Rambo, there must be dozens) or roguelikes like Inscryption (ESPECIALLY INSCYPTION and you will learn why lol) Gambonanza is a must-play.
- [1]
Yes, but not at full price. This *really* wants to be a Balatro-like but for chess, but the ingredients don't work. Chess is not poker. It is not, in any way, a game of chance. Every move on the board is strategic, and even a pawn's placement can decide the outcome of a game. Poker, in contrast, is largely chance, with room for skilled play in certain areas. Balatro was able to make poker compelling by adding in new …
Summarised from 34 of the 305 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 12, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
65% of the 241 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Gambonanza. The complaint that keeps coming up: enemy AI is poor and makes blunders. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
Two weeks after Gambonanza's release on May 1, 2026 the game sold over 200,000 units across all platforms. This was a massive hit for Blukulélé as their previous two games failed to sell over 700 units combined. Blukulélé sayid that they personally earned roughly $220,000 USD after fees, which they describe as "a life-changing success". The PC version of Gambonanza received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received fair approval, being recommended by 57% of critics. The game was chosen as part of the SXSW Sydney 2025 Game Festival official selection and was shortlisted…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 312 · most liked firstOverall, an enjoyable but deeply flawed experience. Death by a thousand cuts. * The game has unskippable animations constantly, 7 seconds for a gacha item to open, 15 seconds boss cutscenes (5 times per game), weird delays with every actions * Lots of bugs that should've been ironed out with QA * Very unbalanced systems A) Queens are default the best unless you get a special relic that says otherwise B) infinite duplication is an intended mechanic and can be done from the first shop, if you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yes, but not at full price. This *really* wants to be a Balatro-like but for chess, but the ingredients don't work. Chess is not poker. It is not, in any way, a game of chance. Every move on the board is strategic, and even a pawn's placement can decide the outcome of a game. Poker, in contrast, is largely chance, with room for skilled play in certain areas. Balatro was able to make poker compelling by adding in new variables which broaden the potential for skilled play. Discards, jokers,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I thought I'd really love this game - I love roguelikes/lites, I love chess, I love the Balatro aesthetic. I didn't really like this game. It has POTENTIAL, the CONCEPT is great, but the execution leaves something to be desired The 'enemy AI' is generally terrible and will often blunder pieces for no reason.Combined with the permanent loss of pieces across stages, the 'best' move is often to just burn turns and wait for the AI to inevitably make a huge mistake, which it will. I'm not a fan…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR: Game needs more polish and features to justify the price. Either the price needs to come down or the devs need to flesh the game out more. There is fun here, but it's not enough to justify the current price. Wait for a sale and a few updates. The default price is too high for what's on offer. The price (at least for my country) is a dollar higher than Balatro; which is absurd when you compare the two - and this game is begging to be compared to Balatro. The art, ui, music and premise…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →3 weeks ago, I released Gambonanza Since then the game has reached: - 200k+ sales (135k on Steam - 75k on mobile) - 300k+ wishlists I wanted to share the real numbers, what helped the most, and the things that genuinely surprised me as an indie dev 👀 Thread 🧵 1/15
positive · AI labelView post →As a background I have Balatro 100% completion c++ I cannot currently recommend the game, but I want to be able to. There are a few core issues when you make it out of the first strain. Multiple reviews will say the same thing, the economy in this game is not well balanced. On the first "strain" this isnt completely evident, but immediately on Strain TWO out of 6 it increases all shop prices by 20% in ADDITION to making your income threshold 1 per 15 instead of 1 per 10. On top of this the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun game, but don't buy it here. You can get it on the app store/play store for $6 and it comes with a copy for PC.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I hate to say this, but "Chess Balatro". That's not an insult... this is a really fun game. Nicely presented and with a good interface.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is like chess balatro but instead of starting with the whole deck you start with 5 cards that you have to hope include at least a pair and you lose the cards you play. chess works because you are able to reason that your opponent is trying to win the game. The AI in this game doesn't try to win the game it tries to take your pieces which are a constantly dwindling. So all that is a left is a butchered chess experience where you can't sacrifice (you cripple your econ) you cant pin (no…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Honestly, for a Balatro-inspired game (but with chess), this just isn’t very good. Worse, it feels unfinished and poorly balanced, and the gameplay loop gets boring way too quickly. I say “inspired,” but the UI and art style are so close to Balatro that it honestly feels copy-pasted at times. It even made me wonder how much real effort went into it. There’s definitely potential here. With more content and proper polish, it could become a great game. But in its current state, at this…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →as someone who rank 2000 in chess.com. i should say 95% AI player moves is worse than "bad" in chess.com but i think if it does the right move players wont survive more than three turns in most late games. but sometimes it acts like it doesnt know the rules at all and keeps sending its stuffs to die for no reasons, that takes away the joy to beat it. A game learn from Balatro CANT be a 2/10 game cuz the core is good enough, but this game lacks the blood-pumping moment to see your points go…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Lost my progress 10h in, so leaving a review here of what I saw before being forced to restart: it's bad chess + bad balatro Fundamentally, the concept doesn't work. Losing a piece loses it for the whole run, so you're always disincentivised to trade. The end result is that games devolve into making waiting moves until a free capture shows up or crumble randomly wins the game for you. Speaking of crumble, it's a horrible bandaid to fix the fact that you're always just waiting for pieces…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →game has a lot of promise but is brought down by a couple things: 1. the gambits (equiv. of jokers) you can buy just are not well designed. Most of them feel like they do nothing and they just don't lend themselves to that exciting "oh, I bet I could make a combo/build out of this" feeling at all 2. the enemy AI is very bad and will often randomly make blunders. The game seems to be balanced around this, too, so a lot of time is spent shuffling pieces around, waiting for the enemy to make a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bashing this game for not being Stockfish is like bashing Balatro for allowing five Aces...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gambonanza is a very good game. Here's what Gambonanza is, in ranked order: (1) a synergy builder (2) chaotic (3) a chess game/puzzle If you get mad because it's not chess, you're forgetting that it's a chaotic synergy builder! If you get mad about the chaos, you're forgetting that it's a synergy builder! If you're mad because it's a synergy builder, well, you didn't check the reviews before you bought this but great news Steam is good about refunds. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gambonanza masterfully combines Balatro and chess and it's out now #Gambonanza #IndieGames #PCGaming #Linux
neutral · AI labelView post →Many other reviewers have posted long explanations, but ultimately this game is trying to capture the Balatro hype and fails to do so. Unlike real chess your strategy is extremely limited by the format and pushes you towards a very unfun playstyle.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love Chess and Balatro but this game is super repetitive. Once you play a game or two you will figure the most OP gambits(items) and go for them every time. AI is trash and blunders constantly. If nothing happens the board starts to crumble. The AI will move back and fourth until it falls in a hole and dies. This eventually becomes the core game play. AFK and wait for victory. If you want to beat the hardest difficulty its pure RNG. You need to get the right items and defense tiles…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not an easy game at first, but once you learn the way the tiles, enemy special abilities and gambits work, the pieces fall into place (hehe) If you're a fan of Balatro, and naturally Chess, definitely give this one a go :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game loop is repetitive and contradicts with rogue-like core. Every run should have unique powerspikes and playstyles. Gambonanza does not offer it. Here are my reasons: - Despite knight having it's own advantages queen is still the most powerful peace on the board and you will eventually find yourself picking only that. - Power ups balance is bad. Most of the time you'd want to pick all the same things instead of discovering other options, since they are much weaker. - Bots are not quite smart…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As a roguelike enjoyer this doesnt cut it . There are too few variables to play around. No interesting pieces no interesting tiles. Some bosses were fine but still a roguelike should be replayable as possible. But I felt like ı have seen everything this game has to offer even though I didnt saw half of the bosses. It needed more gambling and more pieces. I enjoyed it but I dont think it would worth the price after I play couple hours more and get bored.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I came into this game super excited, because it seems super addicting, but I feel like there's a lot of things that need reworked. Having to gamble for pieces that could make your entire build is really irritating and I've often found myself being in desperate need of a piece and constantly losing because I'm not able to get it. It's almost impossible to win without any gambits that skip turns, which ultimately ends up leaving the gameplay super unsatisfying. All in all, the shop prices feel…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[Discussion] Which Soulslike will you be playing this weekend and do you think anyone can beat any Soulslike they set their mind to?. Whoops! Long weekend - lost track of time, sorry. I'm stuck in a perpetual vortex of League of Legends and watching Death Note when I'm not playing League. I also haven't played TUNIC in over two weeks T__T I suck at sticking with new games. I have tried out Gambonanza tho, but it's not a soulslike. 🤷🏻♂️ Soulslikes are notorious for their difficulty, often…
neutral · AI labelView post →GAMBONANZA, the turn-based chess roguelike adventure JUST LAUNCHED on Steam and Mobile! 🔥♟️ Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3509230/... 🔃 Repost and comment for a chance to win a game key
neutral · AI labelView post →What if Balatro was chess but weird? And not in a great way, unfortunately. It's a fun concept, but it feels very rough around the edges to me. The core gameplay loop feels undercooked; it's hard to get a run going where all your pieces coordinate together. It's also very easy to enter a slippery slope where one single mistake spirals into a lost run when you were very comfortable otherwise. Permadeath chess pieces are very hard to wire your brain to remember when you're even marginally…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is interesting but has a lot of problems. My main gripes with this game are the following: 1. The AI is stupid af. It doesn't feel strategic to just move around until a piece is hung. 2. As someone who likes chess, it doesn't feel like chess enough for me. The whole appeal of chess imo is always having to play around your and your opponents weakness, which is the king. Taking all pieces doesn't feel too gratifying. Also, in situations where I can take a queen with a lesser…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →On paper this game checks a lot of boxes: Chess, roguelike, Balatro-esque, very decent price. neat graphics, smooth gameplay, it's all there. In practice, honestly I just didn't find it all that fun. And that's coming from someone who likes Chess, roguelikes, and Balatro quite a bit. Props to the devs though, it's a neat idea (if not maybe a little too similar to Balatro...)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Losing pieces permanently after rounds end results in just a simply less fun experience. For context I have a 1700 rating on chess.com and Completion++ in Balatro. The idea of this game is fantastic. But how it's executed (at least for now) relies too heavily on RNG for it to be worth enjoying.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A few good words first: The concept is really fun, the UI is slick, animations are smooth, the music slaps, overall the game's presentation is done very competently, what can I say Unfortunately, the game is really poorly designed and balanced. My criticism can be summed up with 1 sentence: As a player, you don't get much agency over what is happening in a run. Most of the gambits (this game's version of Balatro's jokers) are bad: they either reward you for bad play patterns like losing your…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Balatro copycat, doesn't understand what makes Balatro fun and dev is one of those 80 IQ people that think Balatro has anything to do with gambling and made a sloppy cashgrab with Balatro's entire aesthetic, from the CRT filter to the psychedelic backgrounds, except he also chooses to put some Reddit-tier "le eldritch horror" bosses, if anything this makes me glad Balatro is as good as it is.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After playing the rival chess-balatro game "Gambit", I have to say... Gambonanza is addicting and the music is incredible for an indie game. There are unique bosses and difficulty unlocks. If you like chess, indie games full of fun references (Zelda, Rambo, there must be dozens) or roguelikes like Inscryption (ESPECIALLY INSCYPTION and you will learn why lol) Gambonanza is a must-play.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gambonanza is flashy and has some interesting ideas but is ultimately not very deep or fun. I would say it's overpriced for what it is. Fundamental design issues: - The AI playing randomly unless it can capture isn't interesting and often results in stalling being the best play. - The crumble mechanic is necessary to prevent indefinite stalling for the opponent to misplay, but it's frustratingly random. - Builds lock in too quickly, so shops become irrelevant except for tiles. Queen+…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →🎉Gambonanza playtest is live right now on Steam🎉 If you’re curious to see what the game looks like and want to join the adventure, your feedback is more than welcome! #indiegame #gamedev
neutral · AI labelView post →So I realize now why this isn't great. This is likely a android app ported to PC. Because playing the app version feels a lot better and makes a lot of functions make more sense. Touch screen and short bursts feel much better. As a PC game though it feels too slow; in general game speed and general flow. Needs a game speed option at least.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chess roguelike GAMBONANZA out now on Steam, mobile.
neutral · AI labelView post →After 14 hours and completing the game's 2nd-hardest difficulty, I'm giving this a mild recommend. It's a simple package, similar to Balatro's vibes with the music and graphics, with a chess-inspired puzzle game as its core gameplay loop. The gameplay is straightforward enough to anyone who knows how chess pieces move and can recognize basic patterns (discovered attacks, forks, etc.). The AI operates very quickly and usually prioritizes captures, followed by attacks, but there's enough…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I won the game in first try, there is no challenge. Many mechanics was copied from game ,,Balatro,, . 3/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Super proud of my friend Blukulélé who just released Gambonanza!!! The game is insanely good and he absolutely nailed the development. Even if you suck at chess (like me), this one’s a gem 💎
positive · AI labelView post →I made a tiny – cozy – COSMIC - fishing game in 48h with 3 friends for the Spooky Game Jam! 🌌 I needed to recharge creatively before jumping into the last big feature of Gambonanza! It was such a blast, but vacation’s over… let’s go!! #indiegame #gamedev
neutral · AI labelView post →A nice balatro-chess game. It looks good on paper, and it actually works quite well in practice. However, there are some balance issues and AI problems. I’m giving it a 7/10. I’d like to dive deeper into the game with updates and QoL improvements.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had really high hopes for this game. Checks a lot of boxes I enjoy. Chess, roguelike, strategy, Balatro-esque. The "tutorial" is bait as you get a LEGENDARY gambit to aid you on your way. You get barely any money per win, compared to the cost of goods in the shop. Your pieces are permanently removed if you lose one, and if you fail to capture enemy pieces enough turns in a row, the board falls from under you. You're able to upgrade the amount of pieces you can play, but the cost always feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →My silly game reached 60.000 Wishlists on Steam! Gambonanza has been shaping my life for over a year now, and I can't thank you enough for the support. It still feels unreal, thank you so much! 🙏
positive · AI labelView post →It's not really like Balatro like these other reviews are saying, Its just a really fun rougelike. The only real parallel I see with it is that the gambits are like jokers. I genuinely have so much fun playing this game, and I even got my boyfriend into it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played about 4 hours sadly i think thats to much for a refund but the game keeps gliching out. When i go to get a piece it just doesn't show up that i clicked it. Hard to play a game like this with those kind of issues. Horrible and i do no support this bad game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good game, just wish it actually had more to do with chess (like a better ai or something)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tries to emulate Balatro too much, to the point where it implements poker philosophies into a rogue-like about chess. It's an interesting idea, but not fleshed out in a unique or very fun way.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been waiting for this game to come out since it's demo, and it's worth buying, Ive only done a run or two but I want to boost it's outreach since it is so new. I love the mechanics and it's worth buying even if you only vaguely know the rules to chess. The devs did a great job and I like it a lot :)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I started Gambonanza alone in my room as a quiet little project and now it’s been shortlisted for SXSW Sydney 2025 Game of the Year 😱 I’m overwhelmed, thank you to everyone who believed in it, it means so much to me❤️ #gamedev #indiegame
positive · AI labelView post →Hard to get a run going. Does not snowball like other roguelikes. Sometimes you just get unlucky and your pieces fall off the board. Has potential but definitely not recommended in its current state.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Chess, but breaking the rules is part of the rules.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A chess Balatro wannabe. Except chess is extremely different to poker so it kinda doesn't work. It's not all terrible, but definitely not great either. I'll play it every now and then but honestly I don't think I'd recommend it. Unless you're really itching for any chess game out there. There's no "mixed" button so I'll have to go with no.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I feel like a lot of the reviews that mention the Ai being bad or there being no actual deck building haven't actually gone past stage 3. The further you go into the game the harder it gets, but there a bunch of synergies you can make with gambits etc. in which a lot of players ignore (the first run I won had me basically mass producing pieces and skipping turns constantly). The game is like balatro, but chess, and I do like the mechanics of the game. Though the game does not function as proper…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →the game is a good idea, but losing pieces permanently means this is a game of attrition. the games difficult, not in the chess aspect, but because you have to hope the AI is overly passive. it ruins the game for me. this is worsened by the fact that some of the boards have invincible queens that cannot be killed until you kill the other pieces, meaning you HAVE to take sacrifices to win. i dont like being railroaded into relying on the gambits that give me more pieces.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gambonanza masterfully combines Balatro and chess and it's out now https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/05/gambonanza-masterfully-combines-balatro-and-chess-and-its-out-now/ #Gambonanza #IndieGames #PCGaming #Linux
neutral · AI labelView post →Gambonanza is the best Balatro-like version of chess yet and you have to try the demo https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/02/gambonanza-is-the-best-balatro-like-version-of-chess-yet-and-you-have-to-try-the-demo/ #Gambonanza #IndieGames #Linux #Demo
neutral · AI labelView post →An okay concept tthat dooes not translate well into a full game. It follows the standard game you know bu roguelike formula, but very quickly runs out of ideas beyond make it random. Too many different gambits and the random tokens makes crafing a plan very annoying and maximizing your chances usually means wasting your ime in the early levels waiting in hopes of triggering luck based gambits or trying to create specific board states with only a few available pieces.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I LOVE when players surprise me with my own game 😭 Tonight, I watched XandyPants turn a Gambit I intentionally designed to be weak into a completely broken build. We’ve reached the "the players are smarter than the dev" phase of Gambonanza 👀
positive · AI labelView post →Losing your pieces forever ? The game incentivizes extremely passive gameplay. Chess is about using your advantage to make good trades so I dont know what this game is supposed to be.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I spent ~$40 at McDonald’s this morning for me and my kids. I was on the toilet most of the day. I spent ~$9 on this game and can’t wait to get deeper into it and it hasn’t made me waddle-rush to the bathroom.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Balatro, but chess! Really fun, but admittedly I get frustrated when I lose a run. Also is lowkey teaching me chess.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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