Originally released in 2025, CloverPit brought the Balatro roguelite style to its next logical location: slot machines and their spinning reels. But did the game survive its port to a portable console intact? Is it worth playing for those not yet familiar? Read on in our CloverPit review to find out.
CloverPit certainly makes an impression at first sight. The game’s world is dirty and grimy, with only the glow of a lone slot machine bringing the player’s holding cell to life. Once the lever is pulled and the reels start spinning, things come to life, and players have to balance out multiple resources and the pursuit of stacking bonuses in order to stay ahead of a moving score target.
The title’s bite-sized potential and the ability to play one quick run or settle in for several makes it an ideal fit for the Nintendo Switch 2, and it’s almost a wonder that the game wasn’t ported over sooner.
The Good:
- Roguelite structure is effectively translated to tense slot machine gameplay
- The game’s low-fidelity horror theme works well with its high-stakes foundation
- CloverPit is a great fit on a portable console
The Bad:
- Even with the roguelite additions, playing the game’s slot machine is still light on interaction
Review Details:
- Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch 2
- Platforms available: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox, Mobile
- Official release date: August 13, 2026
Spin these reels right round
CloverPit is a pretty simple game at its base, and it’s easy to pick up and understand. Players are tasked with repeatedly spinning the reels of a single slot machine. A certain score must be met by a deadline, and each deadline is preceded by three playing opportunities. Each play involves a number of spins dependent on whether the player is primarily going for coins or tickets (typically either seven or three spins, respectively).
There are a few ways in which this core requirement is made more interesting. Tickets can be used to purchase special items with unique effects, and those effects will certainly be required if the player hopes to meet the game’s increasingly high scoring demands.
But playing for more tickets means getting fewer spins, and it’s the spins that award the coins needed to meet each deadline’s scoring requirement. Already, there’s a bit of decision-making tension in the air.
Deciding which bonus items to purchase, or whether to spend precious coins in rolling for a new set of items to choose from, is probably the game’s most important strategic consideration. Items can have an immense impact on the game, whether by increasing the value of certain symbols, showing more of a particular symbol across the reels, or just making the player luckier.
Additional effects can be introduced thanks to a mysterious stranger on the other end of a red telephone. This opportunity is made available after each deadline successfully met.
It may sound like a lot, but it’s ultimately pretty straightforward. The most interaction required on behalf of the player after making their choices is occasionally pressing a big red button to make certain items active.
But CloverPit really isn’t about active gameplay. It’s about making a few tactical choices and hoping to get lucky from there, as opposed to the more active tactical choice-making of roguelite peer Balatro.
Whether or not that’s going to sound exciting is really up to the individual player. In our review of CloverPit, we definitely felt the tension of the last few spins of each round while trying to hit a fresh deadline, as well as the excitement of seeing our collection of items roll together and generate immense scores, blowing a deadline away.
But even when those big scores were coming in, we weren’t actually doing much. That’s the nature of CloverPit, for better or worse.
The game’s presentation does go a long way in enhancing its impression. Players are stuck in a dirty jail cell with a rusty fan spinning overhead. It’s a retro-tinged horror setup, and it makes sense in combination with the desperate spinning of the reels the game entails.
That being said, this too has its limits. The atmosphere might seem thick at first, but there isn’t much more to it than is initially laid out.
CloverPit stands out on Switch and Switch 2
Our review found that the translation of CloverPit to the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 was a great success. This is a game that really works well as a portable experience. A quick round of play is easy enough to wrap up during a spare moment on the train or bus, while longer sessions are also easy to slip into for players who have the time to chase just one more spin… again and again.
The only potential downside here is that looking around between the different features of your slot machine prison is a little less smooth with gamepad controls than it was with a mouse, but that’s almost nitpicking. This is really a strong port, and CloverPit arguably makes even more sense on the Switch than it originally did on the PC.
The Bottom Line: While CloverPit isn’t the most interactive game, it does present interesting strategic choices and ramping tension.
Score: 7.5/10
