
Great review! I've never played it, but it looks like an enhanced version of the Balloon Trip mode from the NES game.
"Hip" Tanaka also did the music for the original Balloon Fight game. I think the president of Nintendo, Iwata, also worked on it.
I heard that there is a version of Balloon Kid that Nintendo made that stars Tingle instead!
As much respect as I have for Balloon Fight, it's really just a poor man's Joust.