If a glance at most of our Nintendo Switch Year in Review stats is anything to go by, then more than a few of us have spent a good bit of time with Balatro this year. We’ve spent so long with it, in fact, that its iconography is pretty much burned into our minds by this point. It sure would be a shame if one joke tweet made us see the whole thing differently, huh?
Well, we’re sorry, but that’s exactly what has happened. It all started with a tweet by @JacobJanerka, who shared that he sees the game’s mascot, Jimbo, not as a clown wearing a blue ruffle collar but as a guy with a giant head wearing a blue jumpsuit — it’s the KFC Colonel all over again
Yep, we had to see it, so we’re putting you through it too. Here’s the mock-up that started it all:
We Nintendo Lifers had a chuckle about this when we first laid eyes on it this morning, amused by the idea that someone could possibly see it as anything other than a clown in some fancy neckwear. A reply from Balatro developer LocalThunk that simply read “Delete this” made us smugly assume that we were in the right — after all, nobody else could possibly think the same thing, right?
Wrong. A closer inspection of the thread reveals that the original poster was not alone in his point of view and, after a swift poll in Nintendo Life Towers, there are even some among our rank who have long seen the mascot in the same tiny-bodied way.
We were agog. We were aghast. But now we’re starting to wonder if we on Team Ruff are the ones in the wrong. When we saw Ben Starr take on the role in a recent ‘Friends of Jimbo’ trailer, he certainly opted for the collar look, but who’s to say that’s the ‘correct‘ interpretation?
Help us settle this, dear readers — is the Balatro mascot a clown in a ruff or a dude with a giant head and tiny body? You can cast your vote in the poll below. Please, we need to know.
Ruff or tiny body? Which side are you on? Let us know in the comments.