King & Balloon

"King & Balloon" was released by Namco in the summer of 1980 and is a "Galaxian"-style shoot-'em-up, though it swaps the space theme for a pseudo-medieval setting. In the game, you control two green figures carrying a cannon and defend the king below you from being kidnapped by the balloons above you, which repeatedly invade the lower part of the screen while firing projectiles. Once all the balloons have been shot down, the game advances to the next level. A unique feature of “King & Balloon” is that you don’t lose a life when you get hit. Instead, you respawn and continue playing. The only thing that costs you a life is letting the king get kidnapped. Another interesting mechanic is that the balloons stop attacking and begin to descend as soon as one grabs the king, and they remain still until the king is back on the ground. This creates a risk-reward dynamic and tempts you to let the balloon carry the king high enough so you can take out more balloons, and then rescue the king just in the nick of time. “King & Balloon” was also one of the first games to feature voice acting and has held up better than most contemporary or even later examples to this day. The king says “Help!” when he’s kidnapped, “Thank you!” when rescued, and “Bye!” when leaving the screen. In fact, there are different voices for the Japanese and US versions of the game, with the Japanese version featuring a slight Japanese accent.