The gameplay is just NOT fun, or at least it is not for the main game mode. In that mode, you try to pop everyone else's balloons before they pop yours while you fly with extremely floaty controls and experience auditory torture. It's fine at first but after a while it gets really stale and no amount of bonus stages to pop actual balloons with the best music track of the game playing in the background will alleviate that. I honestly get more enjoyment out of the side mode Balloon Trip, an endless runner mode where you use the flight mechanics to dodge until you die, with the aim to go as far as possible. It's not that much more fun though I do not really enjoy how slippery the controls feel even if it's clear that it's designed to be that way. Overall, quite disappointing considering this was apparently one of the better early NES games according to the consensus.
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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.
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