Balloon Brigade

In the spirit of the classic balloon-popping flight game.

Flappers float down over the water, each carrying one to three balloons, and every balloon wears a character. Type it and the balloon pops.

The one to start with

Nothing here hurries you. A flapper takes almost half a minute to drift from the top of the screen to your perch at level one, and it carries a single balloon, so the first levels ask for about a dozen characters a minute. If you have just learned a script and every character still takes a second or two to recall, this is the game to play first; the shooters will still be there afterwards.

Lift

Balloons are what keep a flapper up. Pop one of its two and it sinks noticeably faster, so a flapper you half-deal-with becomes the urgent one. Pop the last balloon and it parachutes into the water, where a fish is waiting. A flapper that reaches your perch bumps you off it and costs a life.

Coming back up

From level twenty-one, a downed flapper that lands on one of the platforms pumps up a fresh balloon and rejoins the flock — but only once. Leaving one half-popped has a price.

Six skies

A morning lake, a summer coast, a sunset bay, a starry night and a thunderhead sky, one per tier, with an aurora over the water for the word levels after fifty.

Explosive Ink → · Fire Force →