Balloon Breakers

Balloon Breaker
An indestructible Balloon Breaker
Type	Hazard
Effect	Pops one of the player's Balloons when touched.
Appearances	appears in Balloon Trip Breeze

Balloon Breakers are a common obstacle that appears in Nintendo Land: Balloon Trip Breeze.

Function

If the player touches a Balloon Breaker in any way, it will pop one of their Balloons and then break. However, these do not have fully solid collision like a Block or a Rest Island, allowing the player to fly past or through them if they recently took damage. If there is rain, all Balloon Breakers will become electrified. In this state, they will instantly pop both of the player's Balloons, similar to Sparks. There are also two different varieties: red and black. Their color determines whether they can be broken by a shockwave. Balloon Breakers can be safely destroyed in several ways:

• If the player collects an Eraser, all Balloon Breakers on screen will break. No points are granted for Balloon Breakers broken in this way.
• If the player currently has invincibility granted by an Invincibility Star, then every Balloon Breaker they touch will break without causing damage.
• All Balloon Breakers can be broken with a Spike Ball. This also will not earn any points.
• If the player taps the touch screen to create a shockwave, any red Balloon Breakers caught in it will break. The player will also receive one point for each Balloon Breaker.

Patterns

There are many distinct movement patterns that Balloon Breakers can use.

• Stationary
  • First seen in Day 1: Afternoon
  • Although they don't move on their own, they can be nudged by the outer edge of a shockwave.
• Vertical bouncing
  • First seen in Day 1: Afternoon
  • With this pattern, they move up to the ceiling, bounce back down toward the water, and then begin going up again once they're near the water. There can also be slight horizontal movement, but they do not bounce off of the sides of the screen. Similar to the movement of the randomly placed sparks in NES Balloon Fight.
• Screen-locked bouncing
  • First seen in Day 2: Morning
  • These Balloon Breakers will move at a diagonal angle, bouncing off of all four sides of the screen. These will stay with the player until they are broken, either by the player or at the end of a level.
• Circular orbit
  • First seen in Day 2: Evening
  • These will move in a circular path. The size and speed of the circle can vary, and these can go either clockwise or counter-clockwise.
• Diamond-shaped path
  • First seen in Day 2: Night
  • These will move in a continuous loop through a diamond-shaped path.
• Bouncing arcs
  • First seen in Day 6: Evening
  • Seen in long chains, these Balloon Breakers move in unpredictable rounded arcs which bounce off the top and bottom of the screen.
• Waves
  • First seen in Day 6: Night
  • These will move back and forth between two points in a wavy motion.

Appearance

Balloon Breakers are small cubes with spikes protruding out of the center of each face. The central cube can either be red or black. The spikes are either surrounded with a blue border if the cube is red, or with a red border if the cube is black. Regardless of how they move around the screen, they always rotate slowly around a slightly tilted axis.

Description

Balloon Breakers are one of the many prizes the player can win for the Nintendo Land plaza. If the player interacts with it in the plaza, Monita will give this description:

"After closing time, the spikes retract for the safety of the park staff. Here's a helpful hint: you can actually smash the red ones. Give it a try!"

Gallery