The Balatro hivemind absorbs another victim as Super Smash Bros. modder is compelled to add Joker king Jimbo to Melee, and there hasn't been a new character this scary since 2001

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No, Jimbo – please don't hit me with a deck of cards, please!

Balatro Joker plush
(Image credit: PlayStack / Localthunk / Makeship)

Balatro is no doubt a virulent brain noodle, wiggling its way into the minds of unsuspecting players who quickly get hooked on its satisfying deckbuilding loop – and its influence is spreading. One Super Smash Bros. Melee modder has added Balatro's Joker narrator Jimbo to the 2001 crossover fighting game, so now not even the past is safe from Balatro's poker power.

"I put Balatro into Melee!" Mooshies announces on Twitter. "See how much mult you can stack up against your opponents with this new skin over Mr. Game and Watch!"

From a Melee gameplay clip, we see that Mooshies has fashioned Jimbo's four-pronged jester collar into a pair of little hands and legs, which he can use to smack, kick, and throw multipliers from his card deck at guys like Marth from Fire Emblem. Mooshies has also added Jimbo's characteristic way of speaking – kind of like a baby goose born in Animal Crossing – to accentuate his movements, so that he sounds like he's stepping on a rubber chicken every few milliseconds.

Melee mods like this have become more common in the past few years since Super Smash Bros. fans' Slippi emulator project reinvigorated the online matchmaking scene, so Mooshies' Jimbo is, indeed, Slippi compatible. He's available on Patreon, though Mooshies writes cryptically in an update they'll need to "assess where I want to go from here" after members of the modding community were disappointed by an initial paywall.

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Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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