Balloon Fight is Nintendo at its peak when it comes to a mindless, fun arcade like game. A simple take on Joust but with more lively sprites, the game sees you as a balloon man floating his way through the sky attempting to pop the balloons of rival flightless birds (cruel flex btw) while attempting to avoid both their beaks as well as various hazards that pose a threat to your balloons. The game certainly gets the floaty part of balloon sky combat right, (as wacky and unrealistic as that sounds) with your character feeling very buoyant, which can definitely add to the tricky nature of controlling him as you float towards the center of the screen and into oncoming danger. Certainly an addicting game that still holds its charm.
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It kills me that this game doesn't have more to it, because this has some of the most satisfying controls of any NES game. Balloon trip mode is a fun challenge, but it only lasts so long, and the 1-player Joust mode gets old pretty quick. You could do so much with this system; actual level design, boss fights, more multiplayer modes, the possibilities are endless. Really bizarre that Nintendo didn't expand on this formula more - or at all, really.
It feels like they could have done more in hindsight, but for a game using base NES hardware before they pushed it to it's limits in Super Mario bros, it's the expected amount of content for the time using base hardware. None of the special chips such as the MMC's that made more complicated games on the NES work existed yet. An NES could not run Mario 3 with base hardware. The MMC3 chip in the cartridge expands the consoles capabilities and makes a game like that possible. The base NES hardware was made purely to play a decent port of donkey kong if that gives you any perspective on how limiting that hardware is. The original Super Mario Bros. is sort of a miracle, haha. Anyways, hope you find that interesting.