Casual games are becoming a really big trend right now, with new developers appearing at an increasing speed. Diving again into the casual games scene, I have found a little something that instantly caught my eye: Balloon Express, by Menara Games.
At first glance, Balloon Express seemed very similar to Pizza Frenzy in the sense that you fly over buildings delivering people’s requests. But after a very short tutorial, Balloon Express proved to be a little more complicated than that.
The storyline is presented in a cartoon storyboard, much like in Diner Dash. You learn that Amelia’s father is having some financial difficulties and will eventually lose their house if he doesn’t pay a certain amount of money by the end of the month. Amelia can’t just sit and let that happen, so she puts their old hot air balloon to good use by starting a delivery business.
The game mechanics are very simple, and all you need to play are sharp eyes and a quick hand on the mouse. As the balloon floats over the villages, you have to have to check each house that comes in sight by clicking the question mark. That in turn reveals the type of package they want delivered. To deliver it, select the matching package from your inventory and click the house again.
Speedy deliveries gain you extra tips while missed or wrong deliveries will cause you to lose money (however you will see little coins fly away that you can still try to pick up). Each level has a minimum money goal and an expert goal, and let me tell you, meeting the expert scores is pretty tough.
When there’s too much going on on the screen it’s easy enough to get completely sidetracked. I found it difficult to control the balloon while trying to pick up all the tips, since they float around and I ended up clicking the ground instead, moving the balloon away from the houses.
There are some power-ups to help you out with the deliveries. For each express delivery that you make (meaning you deliver the item right after the countdown) you gain a smiley face. Smileys are used to activate the helpers that are on the bottom right side of the interface. The question mark requires one smiley and instantly reveals a house’s request. The star is the free type icon, and when you use it (costs two smileys), you can deliver any type of item to that house. The blue arrow is the auto-delivery helper and it costs three smileys to use, so save it for when there’s too many delivery requests in one spot.
As you progress through the different levels (and there are quite a few countries to visit) you will have the chance to upgrade your balloon. Upgrades include speed to make the ballon move quicker, extra rope (for delivering more than one package at a time) and increasing the delivery area (which pretty much extends the rope). You can also pick different looks for your balloon, provided they have been unlocked.
Additionally, Balloon Express also has a very addictive Puzzle mode. This was by far my favorite (I am a sucker for puzzles after all) and it’s also extremely simple to play. With a few clicks and only five moves, you need to swap items around to make combinations of three. The trick is that you always have an item on your balloon that you need to switch with another. If you can’t make a match before you use up all your moves, the game ends.
Balloon Express is a simple game with cute graphics (do pay attention to the little things going on in the villages as you float by, you can see people waving, sheep grazing and other little details), funny sound effects and pleasant music. With over 60 levels of delivery service rush, it’s a casual entertaining title that should keep puzzle fans busy for quite a while.