Balloon Fight (NES)/Balloon Kid (GB)

[o.pwuaioc]

Best 2 player competitive NES game ever/serious underrated GB game?

I mean, Joust doesn't have a single player "story" mode.

[Frerix]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL5Q4GybKWc

[J T]

I like Nintendo's early arcade-style NES games like Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew, Ice Climber, Excitebike, Urban Champion, Mach Rider and several others from the VS series. They strike that nice balance between simplicity and depth where they are easy to pick up and play, but difficult to ever truly master. I wish more modern games understood this gameplay approach and applied it to the gameplay of games made to highlight impressive visuals. These are some of the most forgotten games in Nintendo's history, but there's a purity to their gameplay that draws me back.

[dogman91]

I love the original Mario Bros. (the arcade version, and not "Super")... I think I actually like it better than Donkey Kong and DK Jr.! Yeah, I really love the simplicity of those games and especially how difficult they are while strangely being able to withstand being frustrating... shame Miyamoto makes everything to be much easier nowadays, especially with the Super Guide stuff. I always thought it would be kind of cool to see what'd it be like if he made another game like those early 80's arcade games again. I'm wondering if Gunpei Yokoi had a lot to do with the style/design of these?

[cheftendo]

I like Nintendo's early arcade-style NES games like Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew, Ice Climber, Excitebike, Urban Champion, Mach Rider and several others from the VS series. They strike that nice balance between simplicity and depth where they are easy to pick up and play, but difficult to ever truly master. I wish more modern games understood this gameplay approach and applied it to the gameplay of games made to highlight impressive visuals. These are some of the most forgotten games in Nintendo's history, but there's a purity to their gameplay that draws me back.

Agreed,

I honestly think that the easy to play hard to master style is the reason i still love the nes. With modern day games i no longer wonder, will i beable to complete a game but how long will take. With most of the time it is mearly just the time it takes just to get through the storyline, i usally die less then a handfull of times and rarely have to do boss battles more then once. How ever i still can't beat ghost and goblins 20 years later.

[Anapan]

I second that "Agreed". My brother and I logged many hours on Balloon Fight for NES when we were playing it at my dad's friend's house on his 150-in-1 Contra Function 16. The gameplay is as smooth and responsive as it gets. As JT mentioned, nearly all of the first-run first-party Famicom titles are still relevant today for their easily obtained goals but impossible mastery. They're a 1-up on the earlier Atari and Colecovision arcade clones that were lost in the cloud of the first reboot of the console gaming wars. I still feel that a lot was lost from the scanline-controlled no-lag gaming of the first-gen consoles when the focus left behind a single screen. It's part of the reason my favorite game is Seaquest for the Atari 2600.

edit:
Well, if you play Bubble Bobble as a competitive game, It is a lot more involved, but the slowdowns... I still played it a lot more.

[kiteJargon]

This game (Balloon Fight, never played Balloon Kid) is one of my favourites of all time. As Frerix mentioned the soundtrack is so f'n good, it would get stuck in my head for days...Who am I kidding it still gets stuck in my head for days.

The modes are amazing in their different play styles. My favourite one was Balloon Trip I think it was called, basically just keep going and going. I spent hours on this game back on one of those 99 in 1 multi carts (or maybe it was 80 in 1, can't remember). Great times had solo, then I got my brother to jump on and it was basically a whole new game!

[o.pwuaioc]

This game (Balloon Fight, never played Balloon Kid) is one of my favourites of all time. As Frerix mentioned the soundtrack is so f'n good, it would get stuck in my head for days...Who am I kidding it still gets stuck in my head for days.

The modes are amazing in their different play styles. My favourite one was Balloon Trip I think it was called, basically just keep going and going. I spent hours on this game back on one of those 99 in 1 multi carts (or maybe it was 80 in 1, can't remember). Great times had solo, then I got my brother to jump on and it was basically a whole new game!

You definitely need to play Balloon Kid, which is just a fleshed out version of Balloon Trip. And of course the soundtrack is equally amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBTBnFBipB0

Skip to .32 to hear the soundtrack goodness begin.

[kiteJargon]

This game (Balloon Fight, never played Balloon Kid) is one of my favourites of all time. As Frerix mentioned the soundtrack is so f'n good, it would get stuck in my head for days...Who am I kidding it still gets stuck in my head for days.

The modes are amazing in their different play styles. My favourite one was Balloon Trip I think it was called, basically just keep going and going. I spent hours on this game back on one of those 99 in 1 multi carts (or maybe it was 80 in 1, can't remember). Great times had solo, then I got my brother to jump on and it was basically a whole new game!

You definitely need to play Balloon Kid, which is just a fleshed out version of Balloon Trip. And of course the soundtrack is equally amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBTBnFBipB0

Skip to .32 to hear the soundtrack goodness begin.

Wow, thanks. I never had an original Gameboy growing up. Started on the GBC. Thanks for telling me about this game, I just booted it up on my PSP and you're right, it is amazing and everything I loved about Ballon Fight. I wasn't really sure what to do at the first boss fight and then I realized you had to let go of your balloons! That's a pretty novel idea, actually letting go of the balloons and then hopping back on them (or blowing a new one up).

Now I remember why I love retro gaming!

[AppleQueso]

I like Nintendo's early arcade-style NES games like Balloon Fight, Wrecking Crew, Ice Climber, Excitebike, Urban Champion, Mach Rider and several others from the VS series. They strike that nice balance between simplicity and depth where they are easy to pick up and play, but difficult to ever truly master. I wish more modern games understood this gameplay approach and applied it to the gameplay of games made to highlight impressive visuals. These are some of the most forgotten games in Nintendo's history, but there's a purity to their gameplay that draws me back.

I really like a lot of those games, but Urban Champion?

That one might be a strong contender for one of the worst Nintendo developed games ever.