This is our 3DS VC game for the week. Any opinions from someone who's played it?
Most reviews I found were positive. I never heard of it until now though.

I just played the first few levels of the main game. Unfortunately, I don't know if it saves progress (pretty sure it doesn't), so I don't want to back out of this and try the other mode — don't really remember what it even is.

As for the "story" mode, so to speak, it's fun. Easy peasy, but fun. It is like a level-based approach to Game C (Balloon Trip) in the original Balloon Fight. The screen scrolls automatically, and you flap around the screen collecting balloons for points (extra points for 20 in a row, like in the original) while you avoid enemies such as birds and crabs and occasionally an actual Balloon Fighter from the first game.

You have two balloons (not related to the balloons you collect for points). Get hit from below by some enemies and you are just bounced, but most of the time if you are hit you lose a balloon. Get hit when you have no balloons, and you lose a life and restart at a checkpoint.

You can actually manually release your balloons with the B button at any time. You don't die when you lose your balloons, you have to be hit once more. Without balloons, you can run on the ground and jump (though not particularly well). Often you will have to do this to collect extra lives. If you want to regain balloons, tap Down rapidly while on the ground. This feature is neat because it is like how the enemies work in Game A of the original, but it also contributes to the near complete lack of difficulty in the game, at least in the early levels.

There are also boss battles (!) every other level where you have to hit the boss on the head while not holding your balloons. It would have been nice for the game to hint at this somehow, but after flapping about for a few minutes, I looked it up.

There is a P Balloon that is basically Mario's starman. You become invincible and can kill enemies on impact for points. Ordinarily you can't kill enemies, only other Balloon Fighters.

There's also a versus mode and some other mode, neither of which I have tried yet.

Graphically it reminds me a bit of SML2, at least in the fourth level where you go inside a whale. The music riffs on the old Balloon Trip song, which of course is still awesome.

So far I have gotten all balloons in each level without difficulty. There are also bonus stages you can access in each level. These teleport you to a screen that looks like the bonus level from Balloon Fight, but much more cramped and the screen doesn't wrap around horizontally. The bonus stage is insultingly easy, though it may speed up as you progress through the game. You can also land on the pipes now, they aren't just background images. It's still a nice touch for Balloon Fight fans, though a bit disappointing.

If you played Balloon Trip and liked the idea and either wanted something easier or just plain wanted more, give this a try. Until I play the other modes, I can't recommend this one way or the other to fans of the Joust-like mode of Balloon Fight, Game A, as the main game is very much based on Game C.

More impressions tonight when I get the opportunity to play more.

I love this game! It's truly fun, has good music, all that good stuff.

Personally, I have never played the VS. Mode, couldn't find anyone else with the cartridge, so I don't know what that is like, but the third mode, Balloon Trip, has you dodging sparks and the giant fish, much like in Balloon Fight.

Too bad they never localized the Game Boy Color version of this game, we could have gotten it on eShop like Japan.

Update: Things get real with the second boss and the level after. And the fish and electric sparks comes back. I went through 10 lives trying to figure out how to handle the second boss. I have given up trying to get all the balloons in every level, and gotten game over twice despite getting a ridiculous number of extra lives in the first half of the game (you can continue three times, I think). It's like they tried to fool you into a sense of Kirby-level safety and comfort with the first four levels, then make it more like a real Balloon Fight sequel with the rest of the game (I hear there are 8 levels).

I really hope there is a way to skip levels for future playthroughs because it is level 5 where it really got interesting for me. Of course, I might need the extra lives gained from the first few levels to make it much farther.

I will play Balloon Trip mode tonight after I get my last game over. I expect it is much like the same mode in Balloon Fight though. Not sure what versus is. Might just be the Joust-like mode from the original but without the enemies.

I'm reviewing this.

And by "reviewing" I mean "copying and pasting Adam's post."

So if you're reviewing it, that means it's terrible, right?

I am sure the part about only trying one of the three modes will go over well. Though I don't think there is even a way to do vs yet.

Waiting for this to come in Europe.

I'll definitely be getting this, just like I get all of the 3DS VC games because I'm a retro gaming freak I'd still like to see this in color, though... sigh as well as the rest of the lineup.

Can someone please explain to me WHY people are getting Balloon Kid?
We allready have Balloon FIght free!
Isn't Balloon Kid just Balloon Fight, but portable and in black & white?

Balloon Fight was for Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors. Two-thirds of Nintendo 3DS owners bought their system after the price drop. Therefore, only one-third of Nintendo 3DS owners got Balloon Fight free.

/explanation

...And Balloon Kid is a side-scrolling platformer type of thing while Balloon Fight is a single screen action/arcade game. 2 totally different games.

So, it retains the fun mechanics from Balloon Fight and is not a straight rehash of BF? Consider me sold. I'll be sure to get when I get more cash in my eShop account.

I think I may get this. I wasn't crazy about Balloon fight but this Gameboy sequel seems better.
As a platformer I could probably enjoy this more. I have yet to find any negative opinions on it.
Guess I missed it somehow.

I actually prefer the original game from what I've played so far, but I think those who didn't like Balloon Fight would be more likely to think this one better. It's the same kind of game play in each game, but the game design in each is representative of a very different era.

Balloon Trip is so far definitely for the worse, though still fun. The controls are not as tight as in the first game. It was fun just to fly your guy around the screen for the pure joy of flight. Here it seems like I have less nuance of control. Combine this with the fact that the screen is much too zoomed in in comparison, and instead of a score of 65,200 like I have in the original, I am lucky to get a 10th of that at 36 rank. And I have given up even trying to get the 20-in-a-row bonuses because since the vertical area is not fully viewable at once, you never know if there is a balloon at the top or bottom (depending on where you are) that you may be missing.

(Oh, and for some reason they kept B as the balloon detach button even though, at least so far, there is absolutely no ground after the starting platform! Completely pointless. They should have changed it to the auto-flap button from the original, if not just disabled it in case of accidental presses.)

This is all to say that I find it a little less fun than one of my favorite games, so if it sounds like nitpicking, that's because it is. I am still enjoying it, though I mainly see myself playing the main game in the future. I'll stick to the original for Balloon Trip.

Edity edit for clarification: Complaints are just about Balloon Trip mode. The controls and screen size work perfectly for the main game, which is obviously what they were designed for.

As your de facto reviewer, I felt compelled to use restore points to finish the game sooner than I would have, and I can now attest to the game's greatness. The first few levels may get old to play through since they are very easy (though still imaginative and fun to play for the first time at least), but thankfully restore points negate the issue (though an unlockable stage select would have been better). I will probably establish a restore point at level four start and never erase it just so I can replay the latter half of the game again and again. Each level from here on out is inventive, challenging, and fun. I do wish there were more levels, but it's a Gameboy game.

I, Philip A. Reed, give this game 8 stars.

Even IGN gave this game a good review so it must be pretty worthy of a purchase.
I might as well go for it.
Downloading now!

Cant see how you weren't crazy about Balloon fight. Its the third best NES Ambassador game we got. Thats right - I went there. Ice Climber has bad movement controls and the jumping mechanic is just frustrating, Donkey Kong is short and too harsh on falling, jumping, hitting enemies, Golf is Golf, Yoshi is far too repetitive (and not in a fun way), Metroid hasnt aged well, Zelda II - Well, lets not go there and wrecking crew pretty much requires a standard path to be followed on each level.

Hopefully any one who can tick in the boxes can see what two games made the cut

After playing a lot more, I've gotten used to Balloon Trip. I still don't like that the vertical area is not limited to the screen size, and the balloon release button is still pointless, but once you get used to how big Alice is (not that there's anything wrong with that, for all you young girls out there, especially Pix) it's just a little bit harder than the original. Got to rank 20 today. Could get farther but it's too hard to get the 20-in-a-row bonuses compared to the original. Still very fun and very nearly the same game. The only real new attraction is Single Play (story mode), at least until Nintendo enables multiplayer, if that is indeed in their plans.

Well I got the game and I gotta say it's pretty nice. The music is catchy and it's always cool to try games I missed before.
I don't know what's up with the review this site gave but I like it.
Not a bad game at all.