Black Jacket first impressions: A stylish spin on a classic 

Improving upon a classic game is never easy, no matter whether you’re looking at video games, card games, or something that sits in between. An upcoming title called Black Jacket seems to have done just that, though, offering a stylish spin on blackjack.

Below, you’ll find The Escapist’s full review of Black Jacket in its playtest format, looking at the upcoming title’s take on the classic card game. I’ll be going over the core gameplay, the aesthetic, and the overall quality.

The Escapist recaps

• Black Jacket is an upcoming roguelite game from the teams at Mi’pu‘mi Games and Skystone Games, with a release window of 2026. I got the chance to check it out in its playtest format and was impressed with what I discovered.
• Black Jacket follows the “gamble for your life” format that’s storming the gambling roguelike and roguelite world, offering a sleek roguelite iteration on blackjack where you need to gamble your way out of hell. 
• The game is incredibly fun and moreish, with multiple realms to battle through that all culminate in a boss round. 
• The addition of special cards and power-ups makes the standard blackjack format feel exciting, encouraging repeat playthroughs. 
• Visually, Black Jacket is a treat, with a painterly aesthetic and lively designs that have heaps of personality. Other than a few tiny flickers, I didn’t find any notable quirks or performance issues when playing through the game.

A classic game with bags of extra charm 

Black Jacket places you in the hellfire-dusted shoes of a gambler attempting to game their way out of hell. With nothing but a deck of cards at your disposal, you must play against a slew of souls and work your way through the realms, one game at a time. 

The core gameplay loop in Black Jacket is essentially just blackjack: pull cards, try to get to 21, and avoid going over 21. Coins are wagered with each turn, with the aim being to take all of your opponent’s coins.

The real flair comes with the addition of enhanced cards, special items, and card interactions. You can purchase power-ups with coins when visiting the store on your travels, and some cards have special abilities, like letting you discard an opponent’s deck or take a peek at their cards.

The addition of these enhancements added mountains of replay value to the game, as did the presence of the bosses at the end of each realm’s path. 

Boss fights in Black Jacket are high-stakes matches where you’ll need to deal with an extra debuff or challenge applied by your opponent. If you win, you claim their Soul coin and can move on to the next realm. I found these matches to be the highlight of my time with Black Jacket, testing both my skills and my ability to plan ahead.

Subtle, stylish, and smooth

Something that stood out about my time with Black Jacket was how stylish it felt. The art style was painterly and had plenty of character, yet each menu felt easy to navigate, and the screen never felt cluttered.

The shop was a real highlight; I looked forward to seeing new decks and items whenever the option to visit the store came up. I’ve dipped into plenty of playtests over the years and found this particular playtest to be one of the most visually appealing overall. 

The sound design was also high quality, with voice acting that added to the lively animations and well-designed bosses nicely. 

In terms of performance, Black Jacket didn’t throw up any notable issues during my time with the playtest build. There were a few visual flickers with the opponent hand animations, but on the whole, the game performed well.

Black Jacket’s playtest build pointed to a bright future for the full game release; it felt comprehensive and well-made, with plenty of personality and charm. It’s a sleek twist on a classic game, and fans of games like Balatro or even CloverPit are sure to fall in love with its moreish gameplay loop. 

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