Ludography
Crazy Balloon cover

1980 · Taito · Arcade · Maze

Crazy Balloon

Crazy Balloon is a homebrew Atari 2600 adaptation of the 1980 arcade game, challenging players to guide a fragile balloon through narrow mazes. The gameplay focuses on careful movement and timing across arcade-inspired stages recreated for the console

Released
1980
Platforms
Atari 2600Commodore PETNintendo SwitchNintendo Switch 2PlayStation 4WindowsZX Spectrum
Genres
ArcadeMazeStrategy
Developers
Taito
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Themes
Action
Country
Japan

About

Crazy Balloon is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Taito for arcades. It was released in Japan in March 1980 and Europe the same year.

Keywords

  • unofficial
  • unofficial port

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The player controls a box tied to a floating balloon, which swings left and right continually, within a maze filled with spikes. Any contact with the spikes, either with the balloon or the box, destroys the balloon. Using a four-way joystick, the player moves the box through the maze and toward the goal, ensuring that the swinging balloon avoids the spikes.

The player collects points as the box moves closer to the goal (backtracking earns no points). Certain areas of the maze are colored green and purple, and the player will earn more points if the balloon and box pass through the area safely. While there is no time limit, the player cannot wait for a long time; otherwise, a face will appear and blow the balloon into the spikes.

Legacy

The original arcade version is included in emulated compilations such as Taito Legends 2 (PlayStation 2, Xbox and Microsoft Windows) and Taito Legends Power-Up (PlayStation Portable) in 2006. An updated version of the game, named Crazy Balloon 2005, was included alongside the original arcade release on Taito Legends Power-Up.

Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in June 2025, as well as the Arcade Archives 2 series for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in October 2026.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Atari 260031 December 2005Worldwide

Editions and related releases

Included in
Taito Arcade 3

Games like this

Collections4 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.