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Balloon Fight
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1[1]
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Composer(s)	Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka
Platform(s)	Arcade Game, MSX, NES, PC-88, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, Sharp X1, Virtual Console, Zaurus, Vii
Release date(s)	1984 (arcade)
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single-player, up to 2 players
Input methods	8-way Joystick, 2 Buttons
Cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	Nintendo PlayChoice-10 hardware
CPU	Z80, N2A03
Sound	Nintendo, DAC

Balloon Fight (バルーンファイト, Barūn Faito ^?) is a 1984 video game developed by Nintendo. The arcade version (Nintendo VS. system) was released in 1984 and the Nintendo Entertainment System version was released in 1985. The gameplay is similar to the arcade game Joust by Williams Electronics.

Gameplay

The player controls the unnamed Balloon Fighter with two balloons attached to his back. Repeatedly pressing the A or B buttons causes the Balloon Fighter to flap his arms and rise into the air. If one of your balloons is popped, your flotation is decreased, making it harder to rise. You lose a life if both of your balloons are popped by enemy Balloon Fighters, if you fall in the water, get eaten by the large fish near the surface of the water, or if you get hit by lightning.

There are two modes of play: the 1-player/2-player game where the goal is to clear the screen of enemies, and Balloon Trip where the goal is to avoid obstacles in a side-scrolling stage. Balloon Trip is not available in the arcade version.

1-player/2-player game

Defeat all of the enemies on screen to clear the stage. You can play alone, or co-operatively with a second player. Each player starts with three extra lives, and once these are lost, the game ends.

Enemy Balloon Fighters float around on the screen. Hit their balloons to pop them. The enemy will try to float back to safe ground on a parachute, inflate a new balloon and fly away again. Hit the enemy a second time before they inflate a new balloon to defeat them. The enemy can also fall into the water or be eaten by the fish while flying close to the water's surface, although you do not get points for defeating enemies in this way. If an enemy is defeated or falls into the water, a bubble will rise up the screen which can be hit for extra points.

As you progress through the stages, the number of enemies and platforms increases. A spinning obstacle called the Flipper (Propellor in the game's North American instruction manual) appears on later stages.

Every three stages is a bonus stage, where the goal is to burst all of the balloons that float up the screen from the chimneys at the bottom. Hit all twenty balloons for an extra bonus score. If you only have one balloon when you reach the bonus stage, your second balloon will be replenished.

Balloon Trip

A single-player game where the goal is to avoid the lightning sparks and collect the balloons, aiming to move up the ranks and compete for the high score. The screen scrolls from right to left, and you only have one life.

Aside from the starting platform, there is no ground in this mode. You can find both stationary and moving lightning sparks. If you collect twenty balloons without missing one, you will get bonus points for every balloon you collect thereafter. Hit bubbles to temporarily stop the stage from scrolling.

This was not originally in the arcade version.

Ports, sequels, and references

The game was ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Japan-only NEC PC-8801, the Sharp Zaurus, the Game Boy Advance as Balloon Fight-e for the e-Reader and part of the Famicom Mini Series in Japan. It can also be played in Animal Crossing for the Nintendo GameCube.

Nintendo also released a Game & Watch version of the same name, it is based on the NES version's Balloon Trip mode. The protagonist of it is a Balloon Fighter, "Balloon Man" (according to the manual). Unlike Balloon Fighters, Balloon Man uses a rocket suit instead of flapping his hands to elevate while holding balloons.

A sequel to Balloon Fight called Balloon Kid was released on October 1990 in North America and on January 31, 1991 in Europe for the Game Boy,^[2] which expands from the game's roots and revamped it into a full platforming adventure. This title was not released in Japan on the Game Boy, but colorized versions titled as Hello Kitty World (developed by Character Soft) for the Famicom and Balloon Fight GB for the Game Boy Color were only released in Japan.

Caltron Ind Inc. released a 6-in-1 multi-cart featuring a conspicuous game titled Adam and Eve with game play suspiciously similar to Balloon Fight, essentially a generic version of Balloon Fight.

Balloon Fighter and Flipper trophies are obtainable in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the Flipper is also a usable item, replacing the Bumper from the previous game. The Balloon Fighter was considered for a playable role during the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee, but the Ice Climbers were chosen instead.^[3] The original background music for the Balloon Trip in Balloon Fight can be heard in Melee's Icicle Mountain stage as alternate music.^[4] The giant fish makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It appears on the Ice Climber-based stage, the Summit, in which it tries to attack the players from the sea.^[5] In addition, a remixed version of the main theme, titled "Balloon Trip" is available for the Summit stage as well.

In the WarioWare, Inc. series, some of 9-Volt's games are based on Balloon Fight. In WarioWare: Smooth Moves, there is also a minigame functioning as a three-dimensional version of Balloon Trip; player use the Wiimote only for the microgame version, and also use Nunchuk in the complete 3D Balloon Trip.

The original tech demo for Yoshi Touch & Go was called Yoshi's Balloon Trip. Balloon Fight is the theme for Touch Mode in Tetris DS, although the mode itself has almost nothing to do with the game other than the music and decorative graphics.^[6]

Tingle's Balloon Fight DS, Club Nintendo's exclusive game featuring the Zelda character Tingle was released in April 2007.

On June 8, 2007, Balloon Fight was released in Europe on the Wii Virtual Console available for 500 Wii Points. It was later released in North America on July 16, 2007, and Japan on November 12, 2007.

The Piranha Plant boss in Mario Party DS used the same gameplay principal as Balloon Fight except that Mario drops bomb seeds instead of popping enemies balloons and then kicking them.

List of Balloon Fight games, ports and sequels

See also

• List of NES games
• List of Famicom games

References

External links

• Balloon Fight guide at StrategyWiki
• Vs. Balloon Fight at GameFAQs
• Balloon Fight at Classic Nintendo Wiki

Coverage

• IGN's coverage of Balloon Fight (Famicom Mini Series)
• Balloon Fight at MobyGames
• Balloon Fight at NinDB
• Balloon Fight at the Internet Movie Database

Reviews

• IGN
• NES Central
• Nintendojo

From StrategyWiki, the free strategy guide and walkthrough wiki

Balloon Fight
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Japanese title	バルーンファイト
Release date(s)	January 22, 1985  June, 1986 Wii Virtual Console  June 8, 2007  June 8, 2007  July 16, 2007  November 13, 2007
Genre(s)	Action
System(s)	NES, Game Boy Advance, e-Reader, Virtual Console
Players	1-2
Rating(s)	PEGI: Ages 7+ OFLC: General ESRB: Everyone CERO: All ages

Title screen.

Wikipedia has an article about:

Balloon Fight

Balloon Fight is a later first generation Nintendo game released for the Famicom. It arrived in the U.S. shortly after the NES launched. Balloon Fight can best be compared to the classic arcade game Joust. The player and his enemies float about the sky, holding helium balloons. Just as in Joust, in a game of kill or be killed, it's height that determines the winner.

Balloon Fight's core game play may borrow much from Joust, but there are enough wrinkles added to the game to make it interesting. There are different stage layouts, a wide open lake in the middle with a very hungry fish waiting for anyone, friend or foe, to get too close, and in later stages, clouds let loose bursts of lightning which launches an electric spark that bounces around and kills instantly. After every three rounds, you were treated to a bonus stage. And if you ever got bored with the Joust-like gameplay, there was an alternate game on the cartridge called Balloon Trip that had you collecting balloons while avoiding sparks along an automatically scrolling scene over the ocean.

Balloon Fight is fondly remembered as a fun title by many NES aficionados. It was released in the arcades as part of Nintendo's Vs. arcade series, entitled Vs. Balloon Fight where it featured levels that were twice as high which scrolled vertically. The console game also inspired a handheld Nintendo Game & Watch version. An off shoot of the series was released on the Game Boy entitled Balloon Kid. Balloon Fight was later released on the Game Boy Advance as part of the e-Reader card series, and then once again in Japan as part of the Famicom Mini series. It is also used as the backdrop theme for the Touch mode in Tetris DS.

Story

Your player is in a fight for survival and dominance over the sky. Pop the enemies balloons before they pop yours and live to fight in another round. The enemies are determined to rid you from the night sky, and employ their entire army against you.

Table of Contents

Gameplay summary

• You control the player with the control pad. Press to flap your arms once, and press to flap your arms continuously.
• When the player and an enemy collide, the person who is highest pops the balloon of the other.
• Popping an enemy's balloon causes them to open a parachute. Hit the parachute for bonus points.
• If an enemy successfully lands on the ground, kick them off or they will launch with another balloon, potentially faster and smarter.
• You must eliminate all enemies in order to advance to the next stage.
• Avoid having both of your balloons popped by the enemy, as well as dropping in the water, getting eaten by the fish, and touching a lightning spark.
• Every fourth round is a bonus round. Collect all of the balloons for bonus points.
• In Balloon Trip, the screen scrolls left automatically. Stay in the air, collect all of the balloons, and avoid the sparks.

American box artwork.

Game Boy Advance Famicom Mini.

Game Boy Advance e-Reader.

From Wikia Gaming, your source for walkthroughs, games, guides, and more!

Balloon Fight
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date	Famicom: January 22, 1985 (JP) NES: June 1986 (NA) March 12, 1987 (EU) e-Reader: September 16, 2002 (NA) Virtual Console: June 8, 2007 (EU) July 16, 2007 (NA) November, 2007 (JP)
Genre	Action
Mode(s)	Single player 2 player Cooperative
Age rating(s)	N/A NES ESRB: E e-Reader Virtual Console
Platform(s)	Nintendo Entertainment System
Media	Cartridge NES
Input	NES Controller
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

Balloon Fight is a game that was released as an arcade game in Japan in 1984. The game was later ported to the Famicom and the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The game has a sequel known as Balloon Kid released on the Game Boy.

Gameplay

It is similar to that of Joust. You and another player take to the air flying balloons and landing on the enemy fliers' balloons to pop them, causing them to land where you can capture them. Be careful not to let them land on your balloons to pop them.

Gallery

Famicom Boxart

NES Boxart

NES European Boxart

Screenshots

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