Balloon Fight was developed by Nintendo together with HAL Laboratory, produced by Gunpei Yokoi, designed by Yoshio Sakamoto, and programmed in part by a young Satoru Iwata in one of his earliest collaborations with Nintendo before he went on to lead the company as its president. It debuted as the arcade cabinet VS. Balloon Fight in 1984 before the Famicom console version followed in Japan in 1985 and internationally the next year. The game is often compared to Williams Electronics’ 1982 arcade hit Joust, sharing its core idea of flying characters trying to pop each other’s balloons to send opponents falling into the water below, but Balloon Fight adds its own hazards, including electrical sparks that bolt down from storm clouds if a stage runs too long and bouncing flippers that launch any balloon-flyer who collides with them out of control. Players flap a pair of arm-mounted balloons to stay airborne, popping enemy Balloon Fighters’ balloons to send them plummeting while dodging sparks, flippers, and hungry fish lurking just beneath the water’s surface, in single-player and simultaneous two-player modes that made it a popular quick multiplayer pick on the NES.