Balloon Kid was not my Xth Game Boy game; instead, it belonged to my sister, who undoubtedly bought it based on its cute premise. A game starring a little girl floating around and collecting balloons had to be adorable and heart-warming, right? Heck, NO. A million times no. Forget Balloon Kid's lovely gameplay proposition: this is an exacting and nerve-racking Platformer that packs all the nastiness and viciousness of Nintendo Hard NES games and sneaks it into the Game Boy under the most misleading kawaii guise imaginable. Just like her namesake, Alice is in for a most unpleasant trip — and so is the player who controls her. Or tries to; but more on that very soon.
 |
| Die, you stupid fish. |
|
|
"Platformer" is too simplistic a term to describe little Alice's aerial adventures, actually. Just like fellow 1990er Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle, Balloon Kid is a game that blends several playing styles and is unafraid to experiment with gameplay mechanics. If there were ever such a thing as a hardcore Platformer without platforms, then BK is that game: it requires an insane amount of focus, sangfroid and precision to be navigated properly, which ironically makes it a somewhat unfit proposition for its kiddy target audience. It's also a weird floating/hovering simulator that requires constant player input. Alice doesn't fly on her own and sinks like a stone lest the A button is diligently pressed; then, constant height and speed adjustments must be made to make her go beyond obstacles. The game's physics are extremely consistent and cohesive and are actually quite stellar for the time; but they are also really hard to master, all the more so as they can be counter-intuitive even to the most seasoned Platformer aficionado. Alice is floating around, which means that there is a certain inertia at work in all her moves; and that parameter must be taken into account at all times, which generally involves a high degree of move planning. BK also packs a distinctive Die-and-Retry flavour: level layouts are always the same, down to enemy placements, and they must be learnt by heart to be navigated safely. There are also more random and outlandish gameplay elements at work, such as the highly unusual right-to-left scrolling (I don't think I ever encountered another Platformer that makes the player crawl levels that way, and that scrolling sometimes feel downright counter-intuitive), the fact that screen boundaries act like physical objects and can be used to rebound or the fact that bosses must usually be beaten by resorting to Alice's seldom-used ground move pool, whose physics are downright wonky.
Balloon Kid is also the most striking illustration ever of the "Perfect And Encompassing Level 1 That Makes All Subsequent Levels Pointless" (a concept that can also be found in the original Sonic and its lush Green Hill Zone); in fact, I seriously suspect that BK single-handedly created that very concept. The first level of that game is a monument of wholesomeness and heart-warming perfection, with whimsical graphics, a lovely and highy evocative theme track and a pitch-perfect balance between challenge and fun. This first level is the one that draw me back to the game time and time again as a kid; had BK started right with its gloomy second level, I'm not sure I would have bothered replaying it even once. Now obviously, that first level is also a big fat lie, because it's in no way representative of the game as a whole; and yet, it somehow feels more perfect and fulfilling than all the other levels combined. Talk about burning all your ammo before the fight even starts.
Although BK is a very good game for its time and the hardware it was
released on and still holds up pretty well to this day, it suffers from a
variety of shortcomings that prevents it from reaching a cult classic status.
For one thing, it's painfully linear and streamlined, with little room for
gameplay variety and improvements. I blame this linearity solely on the
automatic scrolling; the presence of such a feature implies that no
matter how well the player masters BK, playthroughs will
always last roughly the same amount of time and unfold in the exact same way.
Player performance has virtually no impact on the game beyond making sure that
the last boss will be reached, and that destroys most of BK's potential
replay value. Then, there is the burning issue of the gameplay
being skin-deep only: once you peel off BK's difficulty, which is
sometimes so insane that it makes the game look like a parody of Nintendo Hard
NES games, you're left with very little to sink your teeth into. At its core, BK
is really nothing more than a giant, glorified QTE: you're at the game's beck
and call, floating around in a virtual gameplay void and trying to stay alive
by working your way around a vast array of fixed hazards. And once again, there
is very little replay value to be found once you've successfully learnt to
circumvent said vast array of fixed hazards.
Despite BK's lack of depth and infuriating difficulty, I found myself
purchasing it not once, but twice over the course of my gaming career: the
first time was when I was a teenager and wanted to own my own copy of the game
and try my hardest to finish it (for the record, I failed), and the second time
was a couple of years ago for collection's sake. I can polish off Balloon
Kid without too much hassle these days, although it's far from being a
personal cult classic; but I still deem it highly valuable as another snapshot
of 1990s gaming with an interesting potpourri of gameplay features and a widely
unusual gameplay premise. Thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!
Is this a
sequel to balloon fight? *checks wikipedia* Why, it is. Never knew that game
had a sequel. It's available for the 3DS' virtual console BTW, just in case you
want to buy it a third time. But it's the non-colour version, so I think your
version is superior.
While reading through your comments of the game's difficulty, all I could think
off is how glad I am to be playing the Spyro trilogy right now. Games so
relaxing you can 100% complete them with no frustration. At this moment those
are the exact type of games I want; I'll go back to frustrating platformers
when the Crash remake comes out next month (frustrating to 100% complete
anyways. That trilogy is easy too, but those darn time trials and secret gems
are time-consuming).
You seem to be returning to the gameboy a fair bit lately, so if you want a
good RPG for it, I recommend the first two Harry Potter games. They're short
but really good turn-based RPGs, especially the second one. I recently went
back and finished the first one again, and it was a nice distraction. Just be
careful to play the original gameboy versions, the GBA remakes are very poor.
Yes, I've been
through a bit of a retro rampage lately. :p Overall, I feel inclined to play
short and/or already known games these days; I'm going through a phase of
extreme gaming indolence, and I just can't muster the courage to start
brand-new games. So, replaying stuff I already know like the back of my hands
keeps me connected to gaming while allowing me to rest and indulge in this
temporary laziness. As I'm writing this, I'm replaying my beloved Avalon Code
and enjoying it immensely. ^^
Thanks for the advice regarding the Harry Potter Gameboy games, I'll look into
that! Short RPGs are a favourite gaming delicacy of mine, a delicacy that's
unfortunately much too rare.
Oh my....
That game is such a baaaaaad memory !!!! ;)
So so hard, nothing cute in these damned balloons that would pop too easily.
I prefer, by faaaar, Tetris, which is my ABSOLUTE classic <3
Isleif17 January 2021 at 15:29
And that FISH,
that cursed fish that eats you if you come too close to the water. I hate that
bloody fish so much that I actually go out of my way to kill a couple of them
every time I get an invincibility balloon. Yeah, that's petty of me, but it
just feels so vengefully good. ^^
Overall, this is just a game in which you can absolutely never relax and rest.
Not only does the automatic scrolling constantly push you towards new hazards,
but there are just no safe areas at all. Come close to the water, the fish
gobbles you. Get on the ground, you get burnt by a fire. Fly high, spikes are
waiting for you there. And so on and so forth. Really, the only safe place in
Balloon Kid is the Pause button. :P
Oooh I forgot
about the damned fish...! Definitily will have nightmares about it this nigt :D
I wonder what the conceptors of such games haved in mind. It was supposed to be
targeted for kids, who clearly didn't that much stress in their lives !! ;)
Isleif17 January 2021 at 15:54
True, it's not kid-friendly at all... Although few games of the time were, if you think of it. Cue Super Mario Land :P
No comments:
Post a Comment