Balloon Fight (Game & Watch)

Balloon Fight is a Crystal Screen and New Wide Screen Game & Watch game released in 1986 (CS) and 1988 (NWS). The games are based off of the NES classic Balloon Fight. The gameplay is the same in the two. The model number for the Crystal Screen version is BF-803, while the model number for the New Wide Screen version is BF-107. The BF in the model numbers obviously stand for Balloon Fight. The New Wide Screen version of the game is easier to come by.

All Game & Watch units have a clock with an alarm and this game is no different. To set the alarm, use a pointed object and push the alarm switch. Once you do so, a character by the name of Alarm Sparky will come on the screen with a watering can. If he doesn't appear, then you must press the switch again. After this you can adjust when the alarm will go off. When it does go off, an alarm will sound if you're not playing and Alarm Spark will start to poor water out of his watering can. If you are playing, the alarm won't sound, but Alarm Sparky will still poor water out of the can. After the alarm goes off, it will continue to sound for a total of 20 second or until you press the time button.

Story
In the game you control a character named Balloon Man, who is a sky patrol. In the game he battles and defeats the pirate boss Oriam Repus (interestingly spelling Super Mario backwards) and put him and his henchmen all in jail. The boss managed to escape and free all of his henchmen, who tore the map up into small pieces and spread them across the land in balloons. The balloons all floated up to Trip-Sky, and now the sky patrol must find them all and gain the contents within so that they can recreate the map and find the boss to place him back in the Federal Prison.

Characters

 * Balloon Man (not to be confused with Balloon Fighter) - The Balloon Man is the main character in the game. He works for the Federal Police Department in the Sky Metropolis, and plans to take the main enemy Oriam Repus down by finding all the pieces to a map that his minions destroyed.
 * Oriam Repus - The main enemy of the game and the boss of the Sky Pirates. His name deliberately reads Super Mario when read backwards. In the game he escaped from jail and the Balloon Man vows to send him back.
 * Sparks: The Sparks aren't alive, but rather are just objects that drift through the sky. If you touch one, it'll result in a lost life.
 * Balloons: The Balloons, like the Sparks, aren't alive, but rather are the objects you want to grab in order to find pieces of the map.

Gameplay
Balloon Man is controlled with the d-pad and the eject button. The eject button will send him up in the air. When the button is not pressed, he'll go downwards. The left and right button control the direction he goes. The game scrolls from left to right, and the goal is to collect the balloons that are scattered in the stages. After collecting twenty five balloons in a stage, you'll progress to the next stage. Between each stage is a blinking platform that will warp you to a bonus phase if you press up or down on the d-pad. During the bonus phase, you are asked to collect as many balloons as you can within the given time limit.

After every eight stages, you'll enter a boss phase. During these stages, you're goal is to dodge all of the Sparks that the boss throws at you. If you do so successfully, you can nab him and put him into prison.

The goal of the game is to both beat it and acquire as many points as you can. You can get points by doing various things, including:


 * 1 Point: Fly into a balloon before getting 20 consecutive balloon hits.
 * 2 Points: Fly into a balloon after getting 20 consecutive balloon hits.
 * 3 Points: Fly into a balloon after getting 40 consecutive balloon hits.
 * 4 Points: Fly into a balloon after getting 60 consecutive balloon hits.

Consecutive hits can be acquired by not passing any balloons by.

It should be noted that if the player wants to start automatically at phase 17, then he should hold down the accelerate button when pressing the game key.