Balloon Fight is a fun and interesting game, but don't expect to find yourself playing it for hours on end.
First up, the game's background. You are basically a kid, (dubbed "Balloon Kid" by SSBM), who is going around on balloons, either killing enemies or going on a trip. There are three different game modes, but I'll talk about them after talking about the game's graphics.
The graphics in this game are pretty good considering this was an early NES title. The two protagonists look pretty good, the enemies look nice, the clouds look nice, and the balloons are pretty detailed. So I would say the graphics are good, but could be better. The background is all black and very undone, as there is usually no scenery except for a cloud or two.
Next up, we have the game modes. There are three game modes, single player (A), two-player (B), and Balloon Trip (C). Modes A and B are pretty much the same. This mode has you going to the next by knocking balloon-floating birds out of the sky and onto the ground, while finishing them off on the ground. A is fun, but B can be very annoying to play, as since there are two Balloon Kids in the sky, you end up knocking each other out of the sky. It is also frustrating because if you go all the way to the left, you will go to the right of the screen, which is annoying because the enemies will use this to their advantage. The enemies are also occasionally cheap, but the grow more and more as you beat more and more levels. They will go very fast, will move between screen, and do not get hit lightning, which is a one-hit kill for you.
The other mode is Balloon Trip. This is a single-player mode in which you float between the aforementioned lightening obstacles. You basically float until you get hit by the lightning, and then the mode is over. That's it. No extra lives like in A or B, just death. It is also odd how you don't get two hits until death even though you're floating by two balloons.
Next up is the controls. You control your character with the control pad, press start to pause, and use either A or B repeatedly to float in the air, while letting go will make your character fall. The controls are easily manageable. The only problem I had was that as you move, you gain momentum, so it becomes very hard to stop your character.
The music for this game is pretty dull. There is the Balloon Trip music, the A and B music, and the main theme. The main theme is good, but the others are pretty lame. It is also kinda hard to hear the music.
My only main gripe with this game is how quickly you'll go through each of the modes. This is because the difficulty of this game jacks up pretty quickly, so you'll be seeing the game over screen repeatedly. It also goes by so quickly because of the many amount of obstacles on the screen, whether they are enemies or lightning.
My other gripe is over the fact that you're doing only two things in this game, popping balloons, and avoiding lightning. It gets stale fast.
Overall, the game is an enjoyable, albeit quick, experience that you'll have fun with.
Pros
+ Good graphics
+ Easy to learn game-play
+ Charming background
+ Good amount of game modes
Cons
- Stale game-play
- Dull music
- Controls can be frustrating
- Annoying multiplayer