Balloon Kid retrospective: 99 kinder ballons | Game Boy Works

[@Jayce_Alexander]

I remember a fall day in 1991 when I begged my mom to drive to the toy store after school just so I could see what the Game Boy looked like, after a kid in class told me they had Game Boy displays where you could actually play Tetris. So my mom took me to the toy store, and....no display. Luckily the store owner was a really friendly fellow who had his own Game Boy lying in the back and let me have a try. The game he had in his GB was Balloon Kid, and I instantly fell in love with both the system and this game. The fact that there was a system out there that you could carry around and it had all these great games that were even better than most of the games we had on C64 back at home just blew my mind. About a month later, Christmas morning, my parents gave me my Game Boy, with Tetris. I played all day, and after I went to bed my mom played all night. On December 26th, we would always go to my grandma, and celebrate Christmas at her house. And she always had presents too. That's when I got Balloon Kid. It was the best Christmas ever. And I still get most of my physical releases of console games from that very same toy store, now a full fledged game store, still owned by the same fellow who let me play Balloon Kid on his Game Boy 30 years ago.

[@bruna.brandt0303]

Loved the story, thanks for sharing it 😊

[@johnsimon8457]

Pencil-vania. Wow. Just. Wow. That’s a pun you have to sit down for.

[@Cidjaz]

The Balloon Trip mini-game in Nintendo Land is pretty cool too.

[@jeffcorry1]

I am glad you mentioned that. I was thinking about it also.

[@WrathOfNolla]

That background art is absolutely gorgeous.

[@JOEmega64]

This game is one of the most delightful I've ever come across. I absolutely adore the new rendition of the "Balloon Fight" song in the first stage, too. The whole game has this surreal, dreamy atmosphere that takes me right back to childhood for whatever reason.

[@papagodzilla5465]

wow. one of the gameboy game i played the most. because i didnt have much else to play. and i loved it ! i still remember the bosses faces when you smacked them hahaha

[@philmason9653]

The Nintendo Land Balloon Trip game is probably my favourite iteration of this concept, kind of surprised it didn't get a mention, but you've got enough arcana in there to make up for it. Watching this, I'm thinking Alice would make a great Smash Bros. character. Some of the official artwork for her has a lot of personality.

[@kabutops87]

Been waiting for this one for awhile since ive always had a soft spot for Balloon Kid, its challenging but fun and the music as per Tanaka standards is excellent. Great episode as usual.

[@fluffychouchou1388]

found your channel the other day and i absolutely love all the work you're doing for my favorite old piece of hardware. cheers~

[@1983parrothead]

Alice is the main character. Jim is her brother she must save. Jim leaves his balloons behind one by one to create a trail for Alice to follow him. There is also Player 2's character Samm.

[@diebesgrab]

I was playing this just the other day, and I’m half convinced that it served, in a purely visual sense, as a sort of inspiration for Super Mario Land 2. So many visual elements in this game remind me of SML2, the whale level in particular; and then there’s the floaty water bubbles, bunny ears, and space zone levels that seem to share at least a few mechanical ideas. Come to think of it, the final space zone level in particular feels a lot like Balloon Trip.

[@CAPMAX_Gaming]

One of my favorite Game Boy games! I'll have to hunt down that Sanrio cart.

[@Dracalis]

I've played Balloon Kid! It's definitely a Game Boy gem. Nice work, Jeremy, as usual.

[@littlemissnintendofan6558]

One of the 1st games i ever bought back in the day for the Game Boy. Simple, fun to play and pretty easy to finish as it is a short game. I still play today if i have a spare half hour. Very underrated game!

[@IgoSplashman]

I'd love to see a Balloon Kid 2 some day instead of Nintendo pretending that only NES Balloon Fight exists... but given its odd release history, that's probably as likely as ever seeing a proper Donkey Kong Arcade VC port.

[@thestripedmenace]

IgoSplashman You know about the legal fuss involving the original arcade DK and Nintendo, do you? Not the Universal Studios/King Kong one - the Ikegami Tsushinki one?

[@IgoSplashman]

I know about the Ikegami Tsushinki story. Maybe something similar was going on with Pax Softnica? I mean there has to be a reason why Balloon Kid got a US/EU GB release, a Hello Kitty rebranding for Famicom and a JP download-kiosk only GB Color version.

[@thestripedmenace]

Possibly? I mean, MOTHER/Earthbound Zero was also co-developed by Pax Softnica, and it did get rereleased on the WiiU VC...

[@rwiseart2269]

IgoSplashman Well, now there will be a DK Arcade port on Switch! Will they ever make Balloon Kid 2, though, not so sure..

[@rezterralico4369]

Man that mole mania on the VC is a steal for only 2.99. Miyamoto worked on that game during his block pushing prime. Think Ocarina of Time bloc goodness.

[@beauwalker9820]

I only first played the game years ago via the 3DS Eshop ($3 worth the price) and "Balloon Kid" is a very underrated GB gem. It's got a good challenge without being too hard, a great 8-bit soundtrack, good bosses, and nice level design. It really does feel like a progression & great sequel to the "Balloon Fight" cult-classic game.

[@LuckyHit]

There was also the great miniature touch screen based version of this of sorts on NintendoLand on the Wii U, one of my favorite mini games on that disc. :)

[@SatoshiMatrix1]

As with Parish, I've been searching for a Nintendo Power Data Cassette with Balloon Fight GB on it since the early 2000s without any success. The game must be extremely rare. Luckily, the original grayscale version isn't, and is well worth owning. I loved this game as a kid, and was something I played before I went back and played the NES game. Even when I was a kid I also loved the original character Nintendo came up with. I mean, this is a game where you play as a little girl and it's not a game intended solely for the female audience. That made it _cool_ to my childhood mind.

[@duffman18]

Emulation. I pulled up the game within my gameboy color rom set and was playing it within 15 seconds of seeing it in the video

[@seanspear6224]

One of my favourite game boy games. I Double dipped for the game on 3ds Vc.

[@Saxcat20]

First game I ever owned on gameboy.

[@mariusamber3237]

Interesting - I only owned the bootleg version of that Hello Kitty World game, but I never realized it was related to Balloon Fight for some reason... then again, I had no idea this game came out on GB in the first place. Not a bad game in any iteration.

[@rj54x]

Had this as a kid. The late game difficulty spike wrecked me every time.

[@PapiFed]

Loved this game as a child.

[@duhdeedee]

Balloon Kid is probably the best GB game before a certain other one that came out a few years later and was a sequel to a series that-- oh screw it I'm obviously talking about Link's Awakening.

[@fraudcakes]

Balloon Kid is a stone-cold classic in my eyes, and deserves to rub shoulders with a lot of Nintendo's better-known and more appreciated games. I never played it back in the day, but there aren't that many Game Boy games I like more than it. Grrrrreat music in the first stage, too.

[@fraudcakes]

I also see it as a partial sequel to Gumshoe too. They do play pretty similarly despite the radically different inputs and there are the obvious cosmetic similarities too (balloons for collectibles) - plus Sakamoto was involved in both. If I had the time and talent, rom-hacking Mr Stevenson and a cursor-based shooting system into the Balloon Kid course designs would be a fun project.

[@fraudcakes]

Haha, of course you bring this up right after I unpause the video - should have watched to the end before I posted.

[@dcashley303]

Always loved this game. A perfect fit for the early Game Boy that is addictive in short bursts and always nice to come back to. Glad I'm not the only one who really likes it!

[@DrewberTravels]

Does this mean this is a Pencilvania style game? 9:20

[@Redfoxe]

one of the first game boy games i played as a kid :).

[@TanookiSuit]

Not mentioned but given it still is Gameboy, they did on the GBA in the extended Famicom Mini line of 8bit ports converted Balloon Fight for the handheld.

[@BenCol]

1:31 I see what you did there!

[@jenetikitty]

Balloon kid was my favorite game that no one ever heard of.

[@EricSmoger]

Jeremy - great video as usual. I only ever played this one briefly as a kid, and I think I'm gonna grab it on virtual console now. Also..might just be me, but it looks like there's some sort of small blob/speck/stray pixels on your lower third overlay..center-right'ish

[@piddlystains499]

Partway through this I was wondering "hm, is this on the 3DS eShop?" and you answered that! Thus I got my lazy bum on the eShop and gave Nintendo my money. Good job.

[@JeremyParish]

Piddly Stains Enjoy! It's really fun.

[@luisguillermojg]

Same here.

[@AirshBornely]

My only complaint is they don't give you the option for colors on GB VC. It's either monochrome or a the green filter. If I can find this game for cheap online, that would be great

[@davemarx7856]

I wonder if a revamp would be acceptable to newer gamers on the switch or 3dsig2dLiteXL... or just a straight up phone game.

[@gabrieleriva651]

Dear, Jeremy, Ballon Fight GB is compatible with the Super Game Boy, with custom palettes and background.

[@pentelegomenon1175]

It wasn't really RD1 and RD4 splitting up to develop for different consoles, so much as RD4 using its pull to push RD1 into the background developing for a less prestigious console. Also from what I recall the Super Mario Land games were absolutely considered part of the series, with the "side story" narrative getting pushed later to de-emphasize the RD1 connection (Nintendo didn't even consider Yoshi's Island to be a "side story" at that time).

[@mutantmecha]

I love love love this game. One of my earliest gaming memory is of playing this game lent from my cousin one boring day at my nans house sitting on a curb. I remember beating this game and coming to the realisation that games where made by people shocking i know. i think i decided then and their that i would grow up to develop video games. So i think i owe this game for my obsessive career later in life. Thanks balloon kid

[@hansamurai]

Never even heard of this game, honestly sounds pretty good.

[@Kwright001]

Game looks good would love to download it on my Switch :(

[@MrToothrot]

Fond memories, thx Parish.

[@massivepileup]

Kinda odd that you need to land to inflate a new balloon when there's hundreds of balloons just floating in mid air that you grab all the time...

[@zackschilling4376]

Great video as always.I never played Balloon Fight/Kid back in the day but I love them now. I find it much better than Joust

[@DrMrProfessorPatrick]

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but "balloons" is spelled incorrectly in the title.

[@Seafoamgaming]

This was a really fun game I enjoyed a lot when it hit the 3DS VC back in 2011. Well worth the price indeed. I will say though, is the next GB works episode not launching until DEC, or was that a typo? :O Seems to be a really long hiatus

[@njdevs1987]

A Streetcar Naked Desire

[@KuraIthys]

Ah, the things we take for granted in computer games... XD 'Hey little girl. Over here. Just... walk into this whale's mouth. Just... Do it. Don't think about it...' XD

[@zackschilling4376]

Internet Historian changed my mind on the "Balloon Boy" thing. C heck out his video about it on his main channel and theres a companion video on his 2nd channel where Richard Heenee goes thru the issues one by one. From my perspective hes the only on in the investigation that wasnt a proven liar unlike most of the detectives sheriff and DA. Definitely worth a watch

[@berniepodwyer]

No new GBW until December? Bummer.

[@jetisbae2164]

This was my favorite Game Boy game as a kid and I still own it, it's really underappreciated sadly

[@yakovhadash]

You neglected to mention the great Nintendo Land Wii U stylus based version.

[@GameBoyGuru]

Good overview and review of this game. I have only recently scored a copy, but am looking forward to putting some time into this one. I quite enjoyed Joust as a kid, but none of my friends had Balloon Fight, so this being the evolution of that formula is a cool idea.

[@jorgecatalan788]

I could almost never beat that water level😂

[@ohiasdxfcghbljokasdjhnfvaw4ehr]

TIL you're supposed to drop your balloons and grab them again for the bosses.. I always just dropped them at the beginning and did it all with jumping

[@ctochtli2964]

I love Balloon kid, too sad isn't never got a secuela, I asume is up to the fans make a proper spiritual sequel, alongside Mach Rider or a Payable Ashley like character. 🤔

[@Geno746]

There's a Hello Kitty version of this game for the famicom which is pretty fun but I'm pretty sure it's basically the same game.

[@Radeo]

Balloon Kid was my third game on GB. Warning: This game gets really hard.

[@giovannieich7487]

99 Luftballons fliegen über‘n Horizont...

[@jamesmoss3424]

I will get balloon kid and play it. 😀👍🎮

[@stevenman013]

It was soooooo hard

[@rezterralico4369]

Actually it's 2.99 on the eSHOP. I remember playing this title back in 1993.