The Nintendo Famicom Game Review: Balloon Fight!

Balloon Fight for the Nintendo Famicom was released in 1985. This game is fun to play and has a simple premise: go pop the bad guys' balloons! This simple idea is a great start to the game. The player doesn't have to read a manual, or worry about which buttons to press. This is 8-bit retro gaming at its best.

You can press the A or B buttons to make your character fly up and down. Press left and right on the arrow pad to go, well, left and right. Balloon fight is similar to Joust, but in Joust you are trying to kill your enemies, here you just want to pop your enemies' balloons. Don't be turned off by the simple premise of this game. That's part of the magic! It's easy to understand at first glance, but hard to master.

There are three modes of play: single, 2 player, and Balloon Trip. The main goal for the first two modes is to pop all of the balloons while keeping your own player aloft. In Balloon Trip, you must traverse through an obstacle course and test your flying skills. Be careful of the lightning and other baddies waiting to knock you out of the sky.

The controls in Balloon Fight take a little practice to gain proficiency. If you flap to hard going up, it's difficult to slow your momentum down and you may crash into an enemy and lose a balloon. The same goes for going right and left. If you go to fast in any direction, slowing down becomes a problem and you may find yourself heading into trouble.

The graphics in Balloon Fight are great. Very vibrant and colorful. Even in 8-bit, it looks good, and the sprite animations are well done so Mario's movements are believable and the enemies and balloons are recognizable as such.

If you've just purchased a used Balloon Fight cartridge, make sure to clean the contacts with ammonia using a q-tip. If it hasn't been cleaned, it will certainly need to be. Always make sure your game carts are not dirty before sticking them into your Famicom. Inserting a dirty cart into your working FC is a retro-gaming foul. Don't do it!

All in all, Balloon Fight is one of those games in the vast Family Computer game library that should definitely be in your collection. It's got the retro, 8-bit game mix down just right: a simple premise, which is easily understood at a glance, followed by excellent gameplay.

Click the link to view and buy Famicom games. Retrogamerjapan.com has a great selection of Family Computer games and consoles, as well as Super Famicom games and consoles as well. All RetroGamerJapan games and consoles are guaranteed to work and come clean and ready to go!


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