Balloon Busters is a 4-player Mic minigame which appears in Mario Party 7 and later returns in Mario Party: The Top 100. Due to its nature as a Mic minigame, it uses the Mic, although if the Mic is not plugged in, the players can just select whatever they plan to do.
Gameplay[]
Mario Party 7[]
When it is a character's turn, they must inflate the balloon up to a point. The player can have their character inflate the balloon by saying "Bigger" into the Mic and "Stop" to end the turn. If the Mic option is off, the player can press to open a menu and select either "Bigger" to inflate the balloon or "Stop" to end their turn. A character cannot skip their turn without performing at least one blow. Each turn takes up to 15 seconds, and if the time runs out during a character's turn, they automatically blow into the balloon five times, the maximum number of times possible, before returning to the back of the line.
When the balloon is about to burst, the characters are shown to be nervous, and when a character's turn is over, they move faster when returning to the back of the line. Whoever is the last character to inflate the balloon without bursting it is the winner.
Mario Party: The Top 100[]
Balloon Busters received some changes. There are instead three rounds, each in which the balloon eventually bursts on a character, eliminating them from the round. After this, another balloon inflates in its place, starting a new round, until the last character remaining is the winner. All of the controls were also changed to accommodate Mario Party: The Top 100 being a Nintendo 3DS game (For example: players pull the L trigger or blow into the 3DS system's microphone and press B when they want to pass the turn.).
Ending[]
In Mario Party 7, the balloon explodes, causing the losing characters to fly offscreen, then the winner does their victory animation. This ending scene is truncated to just the balloon exploding with only the character who was pumping air into the balloon getting eliminated the minigame's Mario Party: The Top 100 iteration, with the remaining characters continuing to move unless only one player is remaining, with the game's actual ending being the results screen showing up.
Controls[]
Mario Party 7[]
- : Say "Bigger" or "Stop" accordingly.
- : Open a menu to select either "Bigger" or "Stop" (if Mic is turned off)
Mario Party: The Top 100[]
- Blow into Mic / : Pump air
- : Pass
Trivia[]
- This minigame's gameplay is similar to the Balloon of Doom minigame from Mario Party 4.