Genre: Arcade
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Balloon Fight's vaguely carnival-like and definitely surreal premise of helmet-donning children and goblins, floating about levitating islands while being shot at by lightning is painted with excellently contrasting shades of red, green, blue, and yellow. The characters are well animated, and the stage layouts have an appealing symmetry.

Like many early Nintendo arcade titles, Balloon Fight's catchy title music and vibrant sound effects are not just aesthetically appealing-- they are functional too; falling enemies, piranha leaps, and lightening strikes all trigger combinations of musical motifs, letting the player focus on his character at all times.

Nominally, Balloon Fight is nothing more than a Joust clone. Unfortunately for it, the lateral movement's parabolic curve is too pointy, so it's tough to accurately change direction. The stage islands often have vertical elements, so there isn't quite enough space to maneuver. Yet mechanically, objects like bubbles and spinners are nice additions to the formula.

Balloon Fight's hypnagogic circus world is enrapturing, and the game's graphical and aural direction is excellent. The floaty and somewhat imprecise controls are a shame, but are at least offset by some practical new mechanics, and a carpal tunnel-saving "hold B to flap" input scheme. Years after this title, the NES received a port of Joust-- but in the system's early days, this latex-busting was as close as players could get.