Joust

I used to watch my dad play Joust a lot when I was a kid, but a large majority of my gaming experience from that time in my life was Nintendo-centric. That trend continues even today, although to a much lesser degree, and those experiences really shape the lenses through which I view the games that I play. It's because of this that I had two prevailing thoughts while playing Joust. Those being, it's a lot like Balloon Fight, and Balloon Fight is better. This isn't to say that Joust is a bad game, just that I found the NES classic feels like a more refined iteration of the same formula.

Both games provide you control over a character that can really only move by flapping through the air (although Joust does let you run while on the ground). Repeated button presses help you gain elevation, with steering requiring both patience and good timing while in flight. This system of navigation was a real sticking point for me in Joust, thanks to how floaty it is. In Balloon Fight, the physics still makes turning take a moment, but I still feel like I'm in control. In Joust, I hardly felt like I could turn in the air at all, making vertical navigation through the narrow gaps in platforms significantly more frustrating than I would have liked.

Beyond that, the gameplay really syncs up between the two games. Enemies follow the same rules of physics as you, and you defeat them by hitting them from above while they are flying and then running into them again once they've landed on the ground. If you get hit on the head instead, you lose a life, and if you fail to hit them on the ground, they eventually get back in the air, becoming even more dangerous than they were before. The bottom of the stage also has a hazard in the form of lava, killing you upon contact, or sending a monster up from the depths to drag you in. Again, your opponents are subject to the same threats, so you can use this to your advantage, which I found to be pretty neat.

All in all, both games play almost identically, save for some nuanced differences in navigation that make Balloon Fight the more enjoyable experience in my mind. It's somewhat unfortunate that I can't play Joust without this comparison constantly repeating in the back of my mind, but it just goes to show that video games are part of an iterative industry, and sometimes it's hard to look back. I'll probably have to replay Balloon Fight to make sure I'm not just making all of this up, but for now, I feel like that is the better alternative to Joust.

Although the game is no longer being distributed, you can learn more about it here (as of 8/26/21): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joust_(video_game)

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