Here's an arcade gem that I'm sure even many hardcore gamers haven't heard of!
Namco has made many arcade classics: Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Galaxian and many others that can easily be recalled off hand. But how many can recall "King & Balloon" (1980), one of the earliest arcade shoot em ups? Despite Namco's notorious rep for porting their vast library of arcade games ad nauseum to EVERY conceivable piece of hardware, this game has seldom seen any such ports. Until recent times, you'd be lucky to find any gamers who knew that it even existed, much less played it. I wasn't even aware of it until I saw a review of it by the Indie Gamer Chick blog. Which is a shame, because it's truly one of the 'Hidden Gems' in Namco's old school lineup. Thankfully, Hamster ported this gem to the Arcade Archives lineup on Nintendo Switch, and it's well worth the $8 it goes for.
Like many an early arcade game, there's not much story or context for what's going on, not that'd it help much because the premise is quite unusual even by the standards of 80's arcade games: you're a duo of guards dragging a cannon around a castle as an army of evil sentient balloons cascade down from above to try and kidnap your king! Your goal: hold the line and save your bosses butt! Not as iconic or straightforward as "Aliens are invading, save the earth!" but it's certainly playful and creative.
The presentation of King & Balloon is rather sparse due to its minimal graphics and sound effects, but thats perfectly understandable since it's a very early arcade game. That said, this game is historically important for being one of the first games to feature voice acting! The King will yell "HELP!", "Thank you!" and "Bye Bye!", depending on the circumstances. (NOTE: The Arcade Archives release uses the Japanese version of the game--the English arcade release used different voice clips)
The gameplay looks like a typical Space Invaders/Galaxian style shoot em up on the surface (it's built on the same hardware/game engine as Galaxian, complete with similar sound effects)--shoot the enemies as they descend from the sky above for as long as possible--but the game has a surprisingly clever spin on the formula that has helped it age rather gracefully. The best way I can describe it is that it's kind of a mix between SI/Galaxian and Midway's DEFENDER (which came out a year later). See, the challenge doesn't merely come from you picking off enemies and surviving as long as possible--your cannon infinitely respawns--but from protecting the King walking around right below you! See, the Balloon enemies aren't just a fun visual gimmick--they float down and will carry off the King away! This simple twist adds a surprising amount of strategy to what otherwise could have easily been a vanilla SI clone (a fate that befell Nintendo's infamous Radarscope arcade game). The gameplay gets surprisingly frenetic as it goes on and you're trying to pick off all the balloons while also keeping your monarch down to earth--especially when the balloons merge together Voltron style (naturally, shooting em that way earns you more points)! Considering that arcade space shooters were a dime a dozen even back then, this games little creative touches and playful fantasy setting is a breath of fresh air!
King & Balloon is flawlessly emulated on the Switch, and it's simple yet engaging, fast-paced nature makes it perfectly suited to short play sessions on the go. Its especially fun in Caravan mode, where the goal is to get as many points as possible within a five minute time limit. So if you're looking for an arcade deep cut that's a little more novel than the norm, be sure to give this one a shot.
