Skip to main content

Balloon Fight: Joust right

Despite being a very creative company, one of Nintendo's earliest NES games was a blatant rip-off of the 1982 arcade smash Joust (which itself came to the NES in 1988). In Balloon Fight, instead of knights on flying ostriches knocking each other off their mounts, people carried aloft by balloons pop up each other's balloons.

An arcade-style game, Balloon Fight takes you through three beginner levels, followed by nine more difficult levels (which then loop). Gameplay never varies: you knock down the other balloon fighters by colliding with them from a higher altitude, then knocking them off a platform before they can re-inflate their balloon. Occasionally, lightning-generated sparks must be avoided. Bubbles come up from the water below, which can be popped for bonus points. Get too close to the water, and a giant fish may spring out and eat you! Every three levels there is a bonus stage where you try to pop twenty balloons coming out of four pipes. If you don't miss any, you score extra. One nice feature is that, while the A button flaps your arms once, holding down the B button flaps them continuously for rapid movement. Like Joust, Balloon Fight also has two-player simultaneous play.

As in other NES arcade-style titles, there is a bonus mode, here called Balloon Trip. In this, there are no other people; instead, you have to dodge sparks while scrolling right to left and popping balloons. The trip doesn't last long, but it's a nice addition all the same.

The graphics are charming, and the Balloon Trip music track is great. The main game lacks music, but a little tune plays whenever you clear a stage. It's amusing that the enemies wear bird masks.

Overall, Balloon Trip is a well remembered little arcade-style game that helped round out the NES's nationwide launch in the summer of '86. The previous fall's launch was limited to New York City, which then expanded into L.A. in the new year. For the vast majority of early adopters, Balloon Fight was a de facto launch title, which is also true of the games I'll be reviewing next.

Grade: B+

Gameplay: Fun, but perhaps not for everyone (16/20)
Theme: Compelling, fun, well designed concept and characters (20/20)
Controls: Controls are smooth and let you do what you want (15/15)
Difficulty: Little challenge (unless you're a high-score chaser) (12/15)
Graphics: Good-looking if a bit lackluster (12/15)
Sound: One solid track (12/15)

Linked Reviews
"Balloon Fight is delightful in short bouts now and then."
— Stephen Kelly, NintendoLife, 5/10

"Now THIS is how you make a clone of a game – you take the basic concept but twist it and make it your own."
— Pat Contri, Ultimate Nintendo, 3.5/5

"At a time when the NES hadn't reached its potential, and Super Mario Bros. was still the most complex game available, Balloon Fight was just OK."
— Dylan Cornelius, Questicle, B-

"There is a tendency these days for some people to take Balloon Fight for granted, but amidst its Black Box brethren it stands out as one of the most refined and entertaining, classic NES creations even now."
— Jeremy Parish, NES Works

Stats
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Action
Release date: June 1986
Extend: n/a
My high score: 198,150
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SimCity: The OG city simulator still rocks

When I ordered an Analogue Super Nt to begin collecting and playing SNES games, I knew which game I wanted to play first: SimCity. This game hasn't been rereleased since the Wii Virtual Console in 2006! Analogue Super NT SimCity was created by Will Wright as a PC game, published in 1989. Nintendo worked with Maxis to have it ported to the Super Nintendo for their new console's launch. The SNES version is a huge improvement over the original, with better graphics, pop-up advice screens from Dr. Wright, and, most importantly, gifts. But let's start at the beginning. SimCity was the first ever city-simulation video game. Your goal is to build up a city as successfully as you can. You can play however you like, as it is not possible to "beat" the game, but the main achievement is reaching a population of 500,000, at which point your city becomes a "megalopolis." The maps are fairly small (and some have a lot of water), so the only way to achieve this is to h
Post a Comment
Read more

Rock n' Roll Racing: 30th anniversary

Although not marketed as a sequel, anyone who has played Blizzard's RPM Racing will recognize Rock n' Roll Racing as its successor. They are both isometric racing games with weapons, similar to Rare's classic R.C. Pro-Am on the NES, but Rock n' Roll Racing is the superior game by far. You can enjoy Rock n' Roll Racing solo or with a second player. At the beginning, you choose your racer from six colorful, punky characters: Tarquinn, Snake, Cyberhawk, Ivan, Katarina, or Jake. Each is good at two skills from among acceleration, top speed, cornering, and jumping. Olaf, from The Lost Vikings , is secretly available by holding down L, R, and SELECT while Tarquinn is selected. Olaf is busted because he's good at all four skills! Four characters race and attack one another's vehicles with lasers, missiles, and mines. You begin with only one laser shot per lap. Between races, you can purchase additional shots and upgrade your vehicle's armor, tires, shock abso
Post a Comment
Read more

Mega Man X: 30th anniversary

Thirty years ago Mega Man X brought Capcom's beloved blue bomber into the 16-bit era, to great acclaim. In a creative twist, Mega Man X (called X for short) is a new robot, not the original Mega Man . As with Super Metroid, Super Castlevania IV , and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past , Mega Man X uses the winning formula of remaking the original NES game but with more and better. Mega Man X, like his predecessor, faces eight robot masters, now called "Mavericks." Instead of "men," they are made in the image of animals: Chill Penguin, Storm Eagle, Launch Octopus, Spark Mandrill (a kind of monkey), Armored Armadillo, Sting Chameleon, Flame Mammoth, and Boomer Kuwanger (a Japanese stag beetle). An opening stage ends with X being defeated by the robot Vile, a henchman of Sigma, who wants to destroy humanity using something called "Reploids" (the Mavericks?). Fortunately, a "Maverick Hunter" robot named Zero jumps in to save X. He encourages
Post a Comment
Read more