Review: Luck be a Landlord (Nintendo Switch)

Is there a growing trend to combine casino games with roguelike elements? With Balatro already a smash hit, and now Luck be a Landlord making its way to the Nintendo Switch, the short answer is: yes. Is it a good idea? Also yes.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate gambling. Not a fan at all. But I love the idea of taking the sad premise of losing real-life money and completely turning it on its head in a fun way. In the case of Luck be a Landlord, the developers have taken the addictive concept of slot machines and applied roguelike and deck-building elements. The reason? To earn enough money to pay your greedy landlord. And we all hate those, right?

In this way, Luck be a Landlord is all about fighting “the man”; those fat cats who rake in the money while you scrape together your rent each week. Or something like that. It’s not as dark as I’m making it out, but there’s a narrative of sorts that rolls out via email correspondence with your landlord. When your rent is due, you’d better believe the landlord is coming to collect. 

The catch? When you moved into your new apartment, you were given a slot machine to earn your rent. Talk about a stroke of luck! While it seems like a terrible thing to gamble your way to pay rent in real life, you’re not actually spending money here, only earning. Each time your rent is due, you’re given a number of spins to earn the next amount. While the goal is to collect enough money within a set number of spins, the fun is in collecting the various items that come up on your spinner.

Every spin generates coins. Every. One. It’s just a matter of how many. And that depends on your items. After each spin, you can choose one of three items to add to your collection. While it’s tempting to add one each time, once you’ve gathered more than 20, you won’t see them all appear on a spin. This adds a tactical side to things since you’ll want to ensure your highest-earning items are more available. You can remove them periodically with special bonuses, but these aren’t common.

Most items give off a coin or two (or more), but the real satisfaction comes in combos. For example, a miner icon only gives you one coin. If he lands next to some ore, though, the ore will become a stone and the miner gifts you 20 extra coins. Another example is an arrow that spins and doubles the amount of coins from anything in its path. There are many, many combos to have fun with, too, like a farmer next to fruit, a cat next to milk, or even a bounty hunter next to a thief. In fact, there are over 200 items to choose from, ranging in rarity from common to special.

I love that the items are cartoony and cute. My favorite is when a baby chick randomly pops out of an egg. Cows might generate milk, fancy ladies might admire a diamond. Fish pop bubbles, bees make honey, seeds sprout. It’s well designed and helps take you even further from that concept of gambling.

The goal of each run is to get through every round, with your final rental payment being 777. Once you hit that milestone, you can continue in endless mode or restart, and a new floor is added to your apartment. The landlord retreats to this higher level, opening up harder runs during which you’ll have to pay higher rents. It adds to the game’s longevity.

The music is a standout feature. There’s something about the pulsing beats that compliments the simple graphics and adds to the whole experience. The blocky visuals are a treat, too, with deliberately stark colors and pixelated images that give it an old-school feel. No complaints from me.

Overall, Luck be a Landlord takes slot machines and makes them, well, fun. There’s a lot of strategy crossed with a bit of luck as you work your way through run after run to defeat your greedy landlord. With a huge number of icons to discover, excellent music, and a simple retro aesthetic, Luck be a Landlord is an addictive game that’s easy to recommend.