While starting up Balloon Race, you get the feeling that you've seen this kind of game before. Especially if you are like me and you used to have an Amiga.
The graphics are clear and colorful and the overall look of the game gives you that nostalgic feeling of the good old days. But the real question lies in the game's playability.
When you start the game, you are presented with a nice title screen filled with floating balloons where you can choose some basic options like start, exit, help and the high score. All these options are presented in a pretty basic way, but it suits the game perfectly.
The main goal of the game is hitting colored balloons with your race car before the time ends. Doing this in a certain order gives you an extra bonus. At the start of the game there is a choice between 4 tracks, namely Arizona, London, Cairo and Sydney. Arizona is the only one which isn't locked. Achieving a score of 8000 points unlocks the next track. When you drive the car you'll get a lot of debris on the tracks that you need to avoid. Arizona for instance is placed in the dessert, so you'll have rocks, trees and bushes scattered all over the road.
The controls suit the game just fine. The best way is to put the gas button down and slightly move the car to the left or right, while avoiding the debris with the left and right key. If you do this well before the time runs up and gather enough balloons in the right order, you'll be playing the next track in no time.
The music of the game is really basic and is the only real down point I could find in a for the rest enjoyable game.
This game seems suitable for all ages and if you like racing games with bright and colorful graphics and don't want to be bothered with too much hassle, then this is the game for you. It's really easy to get into it and it can get addictive after awhile.
