Balloon Boy Ride: Fake; These Five Balloon Games: Totally Real
Like the rest of America, we've followed the adventures of Balloon Boy from the moment we discovered his helium-filled contraption speeding across Colorado to the tense balloon landing -- only to discover that he wasn't inside, but had decided to take a nap in his parent's attic. Then he follows up that performance by yakking on national TV. We suddenly felt inspired to pull together some of our favorite balloon games in the little guy's honor. Way to make our week, kid.
Bloons
In this simple, but addictive game, the goal is to pop as many balloons as possible with a limited number of darts in each level. Bloons starts out simple, but then progressively gets more difficult as the game continues. Bonus: this game also stars a tiny monkey, and monkeys + balloons = awesome.
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Poppit
The goal of this game is to pop matching balloons -- in pairs of two or more -- until you clear the entire screen. Along the way, you'll pick up powerups, such as a thumbtack that will let you pop a single balloon. Once you run out of pairs, the game ends, so it takes some strategic thinking to end the game with a clean slate.
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Helio Adventures
You star as Helio, an adventurous balloon who travels perilous environments -- filled with spikes, fans, porcupines, flying pineapples, etc -- to rescue trapped balloons over 16 levels. Also: collect stars along the way to unlock special levels of the game. Just don't touch anything spikey or your helium-filled hero will go boom.
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Higher
Just like the Disney movie Up, this game stars a house that is set afloat by helium balloons. With your humble abode in flight, the goal is to add more balloons to the bunch, flying higher while avoiding floating bombs. Note: The game uses a combo of the arrow keys and the mouse, so it requires a little extra dexterity to master the fine art of piloting structural objects.
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Nudge
In this puzzler, help Nudge push balloons to hot spots to pass each level. Of course, it's not that simple -- the little blue guy must move blocks and avoid Baddies along the way. Pop a balloon. Game over. Get hit by a Baddie. Game over. You get the picture. Once you've mastered all of the levels, you can try your hand at creating your own. The moral of this game: this is one time it's OK to be a nudge.
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Did we miss your favorite balloon games? Sound off in the comments area below.
