Flying

Flying is one of the key features of the Balloon Fight series.
== Description ==
In all Balloon Fight games, the player is able to fly as long as they have Balloons. Generally, the controls are based around either rapidly pressing or holding down a button to ascend, and then holding left or right to steer.
=== Vs. Balloon Fight ===
Vs. Balloon Fight set the controls for flight set the baseline for most of the rest of the series. Due to the control layout of the Vs. Dualsystem, each player's side is given two sets of standard controls. Both control sticks work interchangeably, and all four buttons can be used to flap the Balloon Fighter's arms. Unlike the NES version, none of the buttons are mapped to auto-flapping, so the only way to ascend is to rapidly press the buttons. The player can use multiple buttons at once, since holding down any single button will not prevent the player from pressing the other buttons.
In order to move horizontally in the air, the player must either gain or maintain horizontal velocity. While in the air, pressing left or right while also pressing a button to fly will cause their character to slightly accelerate in that direction. The player cannot immediately turn around unless they bounce off of a platform or Balloon Bird. Any momentum gained by running on the ground is also maintained when they first take off. There is no air resistance, so the player will maintain their horizontal velocity indefinitely until they choose to accelerate, decelerate, or land.
==== Arcade Archives ====
The Arcade Archives re-release of Vs. Balloon Fight has practically the same controls as the original. However, due to the way controls are mapped, the player can only use one of the four buttons, even if they map several of the Switch controller's buttons. Because of this, holding down any button will prevent all of the others from functioning. This re-release also introduced the ability to designate any button as a turbo button, essentially acting like the auto-flap present in the later entries.
=== Balloon Fight (NES) ===
For the NES version of Balloon Fight, the A button acts similar to all four buttons of the arcade release, but the B button is now used for auto-flapping. If the B button is held down, the Balloon Fighter will fly as if the player were rapidly tapping the A button. Other than this, the general controls are identical to the arcade original. However, players may notice a difference between the speed of flying between the two games. In Vs. Balloon Fight, the physics tend to be heavier, making it harder to ascend and easier to fall compared to the NES game.
=== Balloon Fight (Game & Watch) ===
The Balloon Fight Game & Watch has fairly different controls compared to those in the previous games, due to the hardware limitations inherent with the system's LCD screen. The player could only be in one of 20 different locations on-screen, being a grid with five columns and four rows. The player can move horizontally by one space at any time by pressing the left or right control buttons. In order to ascend, they must repeatedly press the "eject" button. The first time the player presses the button in a given location, Balloon Man's jetpack will create a plume of smoke. If the player presses the button again while that smoke is visible, they will go up by one space. 
While in the air, the player can also either hover by carefully timing their button presses, or immediately dive down to the space below by pressing the down "warp" button.
=== Balloon Kid ===
In Balloon Kid, Hello Kitty World, and Balloon Fight GB, the A button is now used for auto-flapping, and the B button is now only used for dropping the player's Balloons. Otherwise, the controls are very similar to NES Balloon Fight. However, unlike in previous games, if the player loses both Balloons, they will simply be able to walk along the ground or jump and will not lose a life. In this state, the A button will be used for jumping instead of flying.
=== Balloon Trip Breeze ===
In Nintendo Land: Balloon Trip Breeze, the controls are completely changed from all of the previous entries. Now, instead of being controlled by buttons, flight is controlled by sliding or tapping on the Wii U GamePad's touch screen. Whenever the player slides the stylus across the touch screen, a breeze will be created which moves in the same direction, carrying the player's Mii along with it. Because of this, the player is no longer restricted to accelerating upward and can also accelerate horizontally or downward.
Category:Techniques
Category:Game Mechanics