tepidsnake | Arcade Archives: Crazy Balloon

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This week's Arcade Archives release is... Crazy Balloon (Taito, 1980)

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Only the one ROM version here. Preference Settings allow players to lower the volume of the popping sound of the balloon, in case you get jumpscared easily.

A real vintage Taito classic this week! Crazy Balloon is an example of Taito being ahead of the curve and trying out new concepts in arcade games way before anyone else- this is a maze game quite unlike any other from the era. As the titular Crazy Balloon, you've got to make your way through the mazes of deadly spikes- oh, wait, I mean rose bushes according to the manual. The balloon sways to the left and right, so it's not just a simple case of rushing to the exit, you have to carefully move, taking into account the swaying, to squeeze through crevices and safely make it to the goal. Hang around (or should that be float around?) in the same spot for too long though, and a horrible face will appear to blow your balloon into motion (it even laughs at you if it kills you, which is a nice impish touch) so don't dawdle. While there's only three courses, variations keep getting added- the balloon will sway faster, some rose bushes will start moving, even the maze itself will start shifiting direction in an effort to pop your balloon. Attack as many mazes as you can! Well, the stages all start with the text LET'S ATTACK! so I'm just going with what they're saying.

I quite like Crazy Balloon, and I promise it's nothing to do with the fact that The NewZealand Story, my favourite Taito game of all time, started life as a proposed sequel to it (that's probably why it has that mysterious 'this game is dedicated to all maze game fans' message- it's referring to Crazy Balloon). It's a very simple concept but it's effective at what it does, and there's a lot of tension when you have to make a tight move taking the balloon's swaying into account. You might think digital controls would make it difficult to be as precise as you need to be, but I think they work well enough for what the game asks of you, and it's easy to get sucked in- it says a lot that I actively jump whenever I die, just like when you pop a real balloon! If you don't like high-tension arcade games, this might not be for you, but if you live dangerously, give it a try. There were a few home computer ports but otherwise this has only shown up on some of the Taito collections on PS2 and PSP (and a remake both on the PSP set, Crazy Balloon 2005, and a PS1 remake I didn't even know existed until this week, Crazy Balloon 2000) so it's nice to see it get a modern rerelease. I particularly recommend LordBBh's Push to Reject segment on Crazy Balloon just so you can see how tense and stressful it is.