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Post by Boo Destroyer on Mar 30, 2016 14:06:24 GMT -5
For a while, Nintendo has always acted like lots of people have loved this game. You see them show it off and give it cameos several times in many of their games lately. For reference, here's what we've seen of it so far: - Smash Bros. 3DS stage (and more of it since Melee)
- First VC game on Wii U
- Appears in NES Remix, and with tons of challenges
- Nintendo Land attraction
- The game that 9-Volt and 18-Volt play in Game & Wario, "Balloon Fighter"
There's probably some I'm missing, but these should say enough. Does anyone know what the deal with this whole Balloon Fight influx is? It's not a bad game, but where did this whole push for it come from? I don't see many Nintendo fans talking that much about it. On top of that, I seem to recall that Iwata was the one who programmed the game back then. It must have been coming from how he really loved it and wanted the rest of Nintendo to keep pushing it. At least during his time as president of Nintendo. But now unfortunately without him, do you think we'll see Balloon Fight march on some more? |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Mar 30, 2016 14:21:09 GMT -5
Ballon Fight is also: - A WarioWare Smooth Moves minigame (It also appears as microgames in multiple iterations of WarioWare)
- One of the themes in Tetris DS (Puzzle)
- Famicom Mini
It's not a 3D Classic title, though. I suspect the reason it's everywhere is because it's a side-view action game, a genre Nintendo has been so proud of. And it has been there before Iwata (Melee, Animal Crossing); it's just that Yamauchi-era Nintendo wasn't too much into re-releasing stuff and making crossovers. It's also much more action-oriented and intuitive by modern standard than its peers like Clu Clu Land and Urban Champion. |
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Post by Leon on Mar 30, 2016 15:28:41 GMT -5
I would guess that Balloon Fight was a big seller for its time. Same way Duck Hunt keeps getting wheeled out long after its heyday.
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Post by Boo Destroyer on Mar 30, 2016 16:16:52 GMT -5
No, Balloon Fight never did that well. Most people hardly even cared for it back then.
But ever since Iwata came in, it has been everywhere. Was it really because of his involvement with it?
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Post by Leon on Mar 30, 2016 18:47:27 GMT -5
It had to be successful enough if it got a sequel, while games like Mach Rider and Urban Champion did not.
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Post by Boo Destroyer on Mar 30, 2016 18:59:28 GMT -5
They never bring up said sequel in the midst of all this Balloon Fight hype, though. And Iwata had nothing to do with that either.
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Post by Leon on Mar 30, 2016 19:56:24 GMT -5
Balloon Kid wasn't widely distributed in Japan so that's not terribly surprising. It is always the original game that gets the spotlight, same reason why Marth is in Smash and not Alm or Sigurd.
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Post by Manspeed on Mar 30, 2016 20:51:59 GMT -5
They probably did it for Iwata. Is that a bad thing?
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Post by Leon on Mar 30, 2016 22:24:48 GMT -5
I just don't buy that Balloon Fight got a push because Iwata was involved in it. A lot of the examples used like Game & Wario and WarioWare come from Yoshio Sakamoto, and he was the designer for Balloon Fight.
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Post by Da Robot on Mar 31, 2016 0:33:53 GMT -5
Some more versions. - G&W version - Japanese Club Nintendo exclusive Tingle Balloon Fight with 4 player mode! - Also given to the player in Animal Crossing on Christmas Day. - Villager recovery move in Smash. - Super Mario Maker costume. - Part of the e-Reader NES series. - Part the 3DS HOME theme for NES series. - The Famicom cartridge for it appears in Nintendo Badge Arcade. Ballon Fight is also: - A WarioWare Smooth Moves minigame (It also appears as microgames in multiple iterations of WarioWare)
More detail to this. Mega Mircogames: Microgame Twisted: Microgame and also seemed to inspire Jimmy T's boss game. Touched: Microgame Smooth Moves: Microgame and an actual minigame. Both rendered in 3d with camera viewpoint behind the balloon fighter. DIY: Microgame. Showcase: Is used as an interface for the music chart. Wow. Balloon Fight has really gone all over the place over the years. |
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Post by kirbychu on Mar 31, 2016 7:22:36 GMT -5
I don't play a lot of NES games, I find most of them really difficult to get into. Balloon Fight's one of the rare exceptions, and that's been true for a lot of people I've shown it to as well. There's a simple pick-up-and-play sensibility to it, which feels a lot more like a modern phone game than a NES game. Maybe that's why they push it now. Maybe it wasn't so successful back in the 80s because it was ahead of its time.
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Post by nocturnal YL on Mar 31, 2016 10:10:24 GMT -5
Now that you mention it, Balloon Fight does kind of feel like a landing game or a single button flight game. That's hardly modern (I saw it first as a Shockwave 5.0 game), though. I think the reason it appears frequently during Iwata's time was because the concept of re-releases and crossovers wasn't a widespread idea pre-Iwata. I don't think there's enough information to support the view that Balloon Fight's ubiquitousness has to do with Iwata specifically. |
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Post by Evie ❤✿ on Mar 12, 2018 11:21:01 GMT -5
Balloon Kid wasn't widely distributed in Japan so that's not terribly surprising. It is always the original game that gets the spotlight, same reason why Marth is in Smash and not Alm or Sigurd. I've always been a big fan of Balloon Kid and have wanted Nintendo to reference it a little more, such as an including an Alice cameo or Assist Trophy in Smash. There was even one point too I was hypothesising what it would be like regarding Nintendo remaking that game or Ice Climber. I feel Balloon Fight GB (enhanced Game Boy Color remake only released in Japan) is the best thing they have to complement Balloon Kid, or if you like Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty World seems fun as well. That makes sense though re: Marth appearing and not Alm or Sigurd. Balloon Fight I relate with kirbychu. Ice Climber and Mario Bros. were good too but there were certain factors about it like easier physics than Ice Climber, Mario Bros. (ignoring the one included with Game Boy Advance Mario games). Balloon Fight had a simple pick up and play do a little bit at a time to get points feel to it, and a Balloon Trip mode which was a simple concept that could get competitive quickly, and I personally feel it was easier than Clu Clu Land. But that's a personal bias. I wonder then whether one of the developers is a fan of the Balloon Fight series and that's one of the reasons why we didn't see more of Ice Climber or Clu Clu Land? (I think I remember hearing Ice Climbers were included into Smash Bros. because a developer liked the game does anybody hear know who was it out of interest?) I think Hirokazu Tanaka seems to like it. |
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Post by nocturnal YL on Mar 12, 2018 11:34:44 GMT -5
Nintendo has a tendency to highlight certain games and outright ignore the other, lesser-known ones. It makes sense; in addition to having a wider recognition, Nintendo also doesn't know Nintendo's past products as well as we do. They have regular jobs that concern the finer details of their current products, in the same way that I wouldn't care about the history of my own company and only want to get my current tasks done. Regarding Ice Climbers in Smash, the reason was written right there in the official site. www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/1009/index.html(Fan translation: sourcegaming.info/2015/09/09/meleeiceclimbersite/)Basically, they just wanted an NES-era fighter, and the Ice Climbers were picked over the other NES-era characters is because the Ice Climbers fit Smash's gameplay. |
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Post by Evie ❤✿ on Mar 12, 2018 11:50:12 GMT -5
Nintendo has a tendency to highlight certain games and outright ignore the other, lesser-known ones. It makes sense; in addition to having a wider recognition, Nintendo also doesn't know Nintendo's past products as well as we do. They have regular jobs that concern the finer details of their current products, in the same way that I wouldn't care about the history of my own company and only want to get my current tasks done. Regarding Ice Climbers in Smash, the reason was written right there in the official site. www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus_p_nalj/smash/flash/1009/index.html(Fan translation: sourcegaming.info/2015/09/09/meleeiceclimbersite/)Basically, they just wanted an NES-era fighter, and the Ice Climbers were picked over the other NES-era characters is because the Ice Climbers fit Smash's gameplay. Yes. Interesting they have jobs concerning that. I think too there's the point it would be tiring for Nintendo to comb through all their lesser known or lesser selling series, but on occasion there are some really obscure potential references (all those different costumes in Mario Odyssey and their origin from the Super Mario in Die Nacht des Grauens comic comes to mind) and that Fire Emblem commercial reference you posted. Oh OK, thanks.  I wonder whether what I heard then was misinformation or a false memory. |
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