Sparks

Spark
The Spark's Animation.
Type	Hazard
Effect	Electrocutes the player.
Appearances	appears in Vs. Balloon Fight appears in Balloon Fight for the NES appears in Balloon Fight for the Game & Watch appears in Balloon Kid and and Balloon Fight GB appears in Tingle's Balloon Fight

Sparks, sometimes also called lightning, appear in most Balloon Fight titles. They instantly pop both of the player's Balloons when touched.

Appearance

In both Vs. Balloon Fight and NES Balloon Fight, sparks are flashing balls of lightning. They flash yellow and blue, and for the most part are rotationally symmetrical. In Tingle's Balloon Fight DS, sparks look the same as in the NES game, although now fully yellow. In place of the blue in the original, there is now a darker shade of yellow.

In the Balloon Fight Game & Watch, Sparks are depicted as being almost as tall as the player, as well as being more geometric and pointed. On the box art, they are shown to be yellow, although in-game and in the manual they are black and white due to the limitations of the LCD display.

Art from the Balloon Kid manual

In Balloon Kid and Balloon Fight GB, the sparks are blue and black balls of electricity, as well as being slightly smaller than those seen in the original game. In the manual for Balloon Kid, a Spark is depicted as being fully yellow in the section showing the enemies.

Function

Sparks first appear in Vs. Balloon Fight, and act as motivation to keep players from staying on one Phase for too long. If the player stays on one phase for a certain amount of time, a cloud will begin to flash and then shoot out a Spark in a random direction, bouncing off of platforms and the edges of the screen. They will not interact with Balloon Birds or Propellers, but if the player touches it, they will be electrocuted and lose a life. They function the same way in Game A and B of NES Balloon Fight. In the Balloon Trip mode of the NES game, the sparks at the beginning are stationary, but after the arranged area they will bounce up and down randomly. There are occasional breaks in the Sparks, but when the next section starts the sparks will move horizontally as well for a brief period.

In the Game & Watch game, sparks are the main obstacle. In the regular phases, the Sparks stay in place as the screen scrolls. However, in some later Bonus Stages, there are Sparks which will move and bounce around the screen. In the boss fights with Oiram Repus, he will throw Sparks which have to be dodged.

In Balloon Kid and Balloon Fight GB, they appear only in the Sea B and Secret Base stages. In Sea B, they will be shot out of clouds similar to the first two games. In the Secret Base, they are contained in Light Bulbs but will be shot out when the bulbs break.

In Nintendo Land: Balloon Trip Breeze, Sparks do not appear, but Balloon Breakers take the same role. Although they normally only pop one Balloon instead of electrocuting the player, Rain will cause them to become electrified and act like Sparks normally do.

In other languages

• Japanese: スパーク (Spark)

Trivia

• The Bonus Stage is the only area in Balloon Fight where Sparks cannot appear in the NES game and Vs. Balloon Fight.
• Sparks use the same palette as the Balloon Fighter in Balloon Fight.
• The colors the cloud flashes before creating a spark actually change depending on the level's color, because it just cycles through the other background palettes. It will cycle through gray, orange, blue, and the color of the ground.