Balatro Meets Max Payne in Free 96% Positive Rated Steam Game

Ever wondered what you’d get if you crossed John Wick with a deck of cards? Well, other than Gambit from the X-Men.

Honestly there’s a lot of ways you could describe this one. Balatro crossed with Max Payne, Slay the Spire mixed with L.A. Noire, Superhot blended with… any other Rockstar Games title, I guess.

Thankfully, you don’t have to sit here and listen to me waffle on about all the different possible comparisons, because this newly released Steam game is completely free to download. No hidden catches, microtransactions, or limited-time offers here– it’s free to keep forever.

Project KILLDANCE is a 2D noir card battler from developer and publisher Toge Productions, and it dropped on Steam last week, on January 15.

Even though it’s only been available on the Steam storefront for less than ten days, it’s already amassed an extremely impressive review score: a 96% Very Positive rating, with roughly 58 reviews (as of writing).

Official promo image from Project KILLDANCE, Toge Productions

If you’re curious as to why it’s getting so much praise, here’s what a few of the reviewers on Steam have to say about it.

“Absolutely love the gameplay style and soundtrack. If you want to see what happens when turn-based and bullet hell are combined, give this one a try,” writes Steam user Z3R0.

“Absolutely spectacular. I only wish it was several hours longer,” commented Steam reviewer jackofspades417.

“Loved it so much, I played through it twice. It's far too short for being a good game with a good concept. Hope this was just a demo as I would very much look forward for more,” writes Steam user HereticalHeretic.

Honestly, the only complaint I can find about this one is that it’s too short, as a full playthrough will probably only set you back around 20 minutes.

For those of you wondering why the devs behind the game decided to release something so fun, but so short, for completely free, when they could have expanded it into a full-length game and charged some money for it… there is a good reason for that.

That’s because Project KILLDANCE spawned out of Toge Production’s 2023 Toge Greenhouse game jam, so it was never intended to be developed into something that the publishers would charge for.

However, given overwhelmingly positive feedback it's receiving on Steam, I can’t help but wonder (and also hope) if they might decide to expand on the game in the near future.