Balloon Fight | |
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NES cover art
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Developer(s) | Nintendo Research & Development 1 |
Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
Designer(s) | Yoshio Sakamoto |
Programmer(s) | Satoru Iwata |
Composer(s) | Hirokazu Tanaka |
Platform(s) | Arcade, NES, PC-8801, X1, Sharp Zaurus, Game Boy Advance |
Release |
Arcade NES/Famicom NEC PC-8801
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Genre(s) | Action |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Cabinet | Upright |
Arcade system | Nintendo PlayChoice-10 hardware |
CPU | Z80, N2A03 |
Display | Raster, 256 x 480 pixels, 320 colors |
Balloon Fight (バルーンファイト Barūn Faito?) is an action video game developed by Nintendo. The original arcade version was released for the Nintendo VS. System as Vs. Balloon Fight, and its Nintendo Entertainment System counterpart was internationally released in 1986. The gameplay is similar to the 1982 game Joust from Williams Electronics. 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.
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.
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.