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Balloon Fight[a] is an action video game developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The original arcade version was released for the Nintendo VS. System internationally as Vs. Balloon Fight, while its Nintendo Entertainment System counterpart was released in Japan in 1985 and internationally in 1986.
The gameplay is similar to the 1982 game Joust from Williams Electronics.[13][14] The home Nintendo Entertainment System version was ported to the NEC PC-8801 in October 1985, the Sharp X1 in November 1985, the Game Boy Advance as Balloon Fight-e for the e-Reader in the United States on September 16, 2002, and as part of the Famicom Mini Series in Japan on May 21, 2004. It was later rereleased through Nintendo's Virtual Console and NES Classic Edition. It was released on Nintendo Switch Online in 2018.
The player controls an unnamed Balloon Fighter with two balloons attached to his helmet. Repeatedly pressing the A button or holding down the B button causes the Balloon Fighter to flap his arms and rise into the air. If a balloon is popped, the player's flotation is decreased, making it harder to rise. A life is lost if both balloons are popped by enemy Balloon Fighters, if the player falls in the water, gets eaten by the large piranha near the surface of the water, or is hit by lightning.[15]
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. The original arcade game does not include Balloon Trip, but all the level layouts are completely different so as to take advantage of vertical scrolling in addition to some minor gameplay differences.
Defeat all of the enemies on screen to clear the stage. This mode can be played alone or co-operatively with a second player. Each player starts with three extra lives. The 3DS Balloon Fight port comes with the Download Play option, that allows you to play along with a friend that has another 3DS system.
Enemy Balloon Fighters float around the screen and the player must hit their balloons 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. 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 play progresses through the stages, the number of enemies and platforms increases.
The home Nintendo Entertainment System version was ported to the NEC PC-8801 in October 1985, the Sharp X1 in November 1985, the Game Boy Advance as Balloon Fight-e for the e-Reader in the United States on September 16, 2002, and as part of the Famicom Mini Series in Japan on May 21, 2004.[5] It can also be played in Animal Crossing for the GameCube.
Nintendo released a Game & Watch version of the same name, based on the NES version's Balloon Trip mode. The protagonist is "a Balloon Man". Unlike Balloon Fighters, Balloon Men use rocket suits instead of flapping their hands to elevate while holding balloons.
A sequel to Balloon Fight called Balloon Kid was released in October 1990 in North America and on January 31, 1991, in Europe for the Game Boy,[17] 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 (published by Character Soft) for the Famicom and Balloon Fight GB for the Game Boy Color were later released only in Japan.
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 Melee, but the Ice Climbers were chosen instead.[18] The original background music for the Balloon Trip in Balloon Fight can be heard in Melee's Icicle Mountain stage as alternate music.[19] The giant fish makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It appears on the Ice Climber-based stage, the Summit, where it tries to attack the players from the sea.[20] In addition, a remixed version of the main theme, titled "Balloon Trip" is available for the Summit stage as well. Stickers of the Balloon Fighter and the Balloon Fight Enemy can be collected in Brawl. In addition, the Villager from the Animal Crossing series uses the Balloon Fighter's helmet as one of his special moves in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. In the 3DS version of the same game, a stage based on Balloon Fight appears with the original 8-bit graphics; the same stage returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Balloon Fighter appears as a Spirit in said game.
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; players use the Wii Remote only for the microgame version, and also use the 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.[21]
On April 12, 2007, Club Nintendo released Tingle's Balloon Fight for the Nintendo DS, an exclusive game featuring Tingle, a Nintendo character who originated from The Legend of Zelda series. The game is a remake of the home version, featuring the "Balloon Fight" and "Balloon Trip" modes. The levels are expanded slightly to utilize both screens, similar to the arcade game except based entirely around the NES levels. A gallery that contained concept art was also included, where each piece could be unlocked by completing specific in-game tasks.[22]
Balloon Fight has been re-released as part of Nintendo's Virtual Console. The game was released in Europe on June 8, 2007, followed by a release in North America on July 16, and Japan on November 12. The game was released on Virtual Console for Nintendo 3DS as part of that system's Ambassador Program in September 2011.
The game was released on the Wii U Virtual Console service on January 23, 2013, in North America until February 23, as part of a promotion celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Nintendo Famicom.[23] Balloon Fight became the first Wii U Virtual Console title to be released. In November 2016, the game (alongside 29 other games) was included in the NES Classic Edition (Nintendo Classic Mini in Europe).[24]
Similar to other early Nintendo titles, the exact date of the console release is difficult to pinpoint. It was first scheduled for June 1986,[27] was later changed to August,[28] but very likely came out in September.[4]
2. Game & Watch: A line of handheld game devices with LCD screens, each of which contained one game. The first game was released in Japan in 1980, and the line went on to sell a total of 43.4 million devices worldwide.
Sakamoto: The arcade game Vs. Wrecking Crew6. Back then, my boss Gunpei Yokoi7 believed that if you can draw, you can make games. So I would continue drawing as I designed games. Of course, I had to consult Yokoi-san about many things.
7. Gunpei Yokoi (1941-1997): During his time at Nintendo, Yokoi-san worked on game devices such as Game & Watch and Game Boy, and he was an integral figure in development of such products as Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) and Dr. Mario.
Sakamoto: Right. So I drew some pictures and became responsible for the game design. SRD Co.9 was in charge of programming for the arcade version, and Satoru Iwata10, who was at HAL Laboratory, Inc. at the time, was in charge of the NES version.
9. SRD Co., Ltd. is a company established in 1979 that develops video game software programs for other software companies, and develops and sells CAD packages. Their headquarters are located in Osaka, and the Kyoto branch is located inside the Development Centre at Nintendo headquarters. The company president is Toshihiko Nakago.
Sakamoto: Your balloon turns orange. I liked Balloon Trip the best, so I enjoyed challenging myself to see how far I could go. It feels great once you clear the highest score to see the numbers shooting up every time you move. At first, the controls are a bit difficult, but once you get used to them, you can move however you want.
Sakamoto: For me, it was the second video game that I had been deeply involved with. At first, when I worked on Vs. Wrecking Crew, I got the chance to do various visuals, and while drawing is also challenging, putting a game together was a great challenge. But I learned quite a bit from all the obstacles I had the first time, so Balloon Fight was much easier.
Sakamoto: Perhaps. But there was, of course, a lot of trial and error. Having a character hang from two balloons was an integral element of the game design, so I had to figure out how to manage that. And I was thrilled when I pulled off the movement of the enemies on platforms who use pumps to blow up balloons. (laughs)
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There was a sequel called Balloon Kid that was released on Game Boy in the US in October 1990 and Europe in January 1991. It is a side scrolling platformer game instead of a single screen arcade style game. It was later released on Famicom in March 1992 rebranded as Hello Kitty World. The game is more or less identical to the Game Boy game but with Hello Kitty and other Sanrio characters in place of the original characters. Japan would later receive Balloon Kid in the form of Balloon Fight GB for the Game Boy Color in 2000.
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