Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love Impressions

With the release of the fan-made translation patch for Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love, I decided to finally give the game a try, eight and a half years after its release in Japan in August 2009. I did like the the predecessor, Freshly Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, which was also made by Vanpool, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt instead of simply ignoring or mindlessly hating it without ever giving it a try.

However, a big part of the reason, why I liked the first Tingle game in the first place was the fact that underneath the silly Tingle cover was an Action Adventure game akin to the Zelda series. The fighting was different, but otherwise it had an overworld, dungeons, a town, interactions, puzzles and most of the things that you would expect from a Zelda. Pair it with some crazy humor and you get a fairly nice game - nothing on the quality of the main Zelda series, but still enjoyable for what it was.

Now, with Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love they basically threw all of this overboard to create a Point'n'Click Adventure similar to Monkey Island, but certainly not as great. I've never been a fan of the genre, probably because I basically grew up with Zelda and need Action in my Adventure. And Balloon Trip of Love plays quite slowly, a little too slow for my taste. You have to pixel-hunt for any interactions and investigate through the various screens for how to proceed. And this requires a good amount of patience.

The game also seems to be very linear. You play this on a page-by-page basis, where every page includes a small area with multiple screens and gets divided into individual chapters... (Shouldn't this be the other way around?) There is usually only the one solution for a chapter and figuring it out sometimes may take a while. I think, later in the game you will be able to travel to previous pages, probably by balloon, but early on you just follow the given set of events through them.

Still, I did like the classic Point'n'Click Adventure style in the beginning and the humor is similar to the first game. Tingle gets accompanied by a scarecrow (Kakashi), a female robot (Buriki) and a lion (who's simply called "Lion"), which is based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Kakashi can use his straw for various things and crawl in small holes, Buriki can analyze and kick things, while the Lion has super strength and can talk to animals. You also get various other items including a Bottle and a Slingshot for additional interactions on the screen. But the Bottle seems mostly for carrying water and it's not like in the first game, where you can have up to 23 bottles with many different contents. The Slingshot can be fun, though, because it lets you shoot anything on the screen for funny reactions...

There's also a strange "hero" with a red cape, who rides on a horse, which he calls via an Ocarina and Epona's Song, and who puts obstacles into Tingle's way to meet the beautiful Princess. It's kind of funny and Tingle also got to ride his own train four months before Link could, even on the same Nintendo system:

The train brings you to Page 6 and this is where my journey currently has ended. It introduces the "love push" system, which basically brings back the worst feature of the first game: the bargaining. It's not exactly the same, but probably more annoying. Women won't talk to Tingle in this game, because he looks like (and is) a pervert. So, you have to feed them with presents until they like you... (That's racist. Ding.)

Tingle also takes notes about all women, where he doesn't discriminate. Young or old, large or small, pretty or ugly. It doesn't matter, because Tingle wants all their love, where especially the underage girls feel somewhat problematic in the sense of Pedo-Tingle. It's probably harmless, but it's still weird at first and you have to do this with seemingly all the women in the game in order to proceed, whether you want to or not...

The "love push" system itself doesn't seem as bad as the bargaining from Rupeeland on first glance, but it still involves lots of trial and error, where so far no guides for the inofficial English version exist. You have to give a woman presents and then figure out the right one from her reactions. There are at least a hundred different possible presents in the game, which you have to buy from Rupees, which you can collect in the areas by performing certain (slow) tasks like kicking trees or looking under rocks.

It does remind me of building friendships in Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball (and yes, I've played that game), but the difference is that the females here are mostly ugly and you don't get any clues what you should give them at first. I did try to find presents, which might match the person, but they usually hated me for it. But then you see, what categories they might like and you can try to find a fitting present based on that. So, it really just seems to be trial and error, where you have to grind for the necessary Rupees in order to effort all those presents. At least there isn't a time limit, at least not yet...

Anyway, I couldn't muster enough motivation to continue from there, even though I would like to see, how Tingle gets the Princess in the end. I might continue this game at a later point, but for now I had enough of it.

Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love Translated

Happy New Year!

If you're looking for something weird and crazy to start the year, how about playing one of the Tingle games? Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love, specifically, because the guys over at the Tingle Translation Project have finally released their first translation patch for the game. The project started exactly five years ago, in January 2013, and they certainly put a lot of effort into it.

I did play Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland back in the day and enjoyed it for what it was, but its sequel never made it to Europe and therefore never officially was translated into English (or other languages). Also, North America never even got any of the Tingle games and probably for good reasons.

Still, I tried to play Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love a couple of years ago, in early 2012, but I didn't get far. Unlike its predecessor it doesn't really follow the Action Adventure formula of the Zelda series, it's more like a Point'n'Click Adventure. And I didn't get far due to the language barrier, because I had no clue what was going on. But with the patch available I might give it another try soon. Could be fun. Could be the most horrible game that I've ever played. Let's see.

If you're part of the .000001% of the Zelda community, which doesn't actually hate Tingle, check it out!

The Return of Macho Tingle

Breath of the Wild is getting its first DLC tomorrow with the "Master Trials" and to celebrate Nintendo published developer posts about each of the new outfits, almost as if dropping some costume pieces in treasure chests all over the map is something special. Well, at least the post about the Tingle costume made me realize that this actually marks the return of Macho Tingle, as seen in the above illustration.

Originally this was part of the intro of Color Changing Balloon Trip of Love, but Link's new costume is certainly close enough:

I guess, after they made such a big thing out of each single costume, the "Champions' Ballad" DLC will probably also have armor pieces, which are all fan service material and based on characters / things from past Zelda games.

Operation Reinfall

You've probably heard about "Operation Rainfall" by now, it's a fan campaign for getting the three games The Last Story, Pandora's Tower and Xenoblade Chronicles localized and released in North America. But Nintendo just responded "no" on Facebook without giving any good reason, which understandably caused some giant pile of ruckus all over the internet.

I would join Operation Rainfall, however, I live in Europe and we're getting Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story anyway (update: Pandora's Tower will also follow). And I'm not even really interested in these games, I don't play (J)RPGs, I never liked the Final Fantasy series for example. Some Action-RPGs, that play like Zelda, like the early Mana games or Terranigma, are fine though. But from what I've seen from the three Rainfall games, I don't think that they are my thing. However, it's nice to have at least the option to buy these games in case I change my mind about them. Nintendo of Europe does a great job lately.

But to make you all feel better, I will start my own fan-campaign, which is destined to fail! I call it "Operation Reinfall" (if you don't get the pun, click here) and it's purpose is to get all three Tingle games that are currently exclusive to Japan including Tingle RPG2, also known as Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love, the Tingle Pack and Tingle's Balloon Fight localized for Europe.



They did release the first Tingle game, Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, here in Europe, so why not the second one? (Well, maybe because the first one didn't sell too well, most European Zelda fans hate Tingle and because Nintendo of Europe is too busy localizing Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora's Tower and The Last Story...) But I somehow liked the first game and I won't give up! So, where can I preorder a game on Amazon, that probably won't ever be released here? And naturally it should accompanied by the Tingle Pack, which was a set of silly DSiWare applications, that no one needs. And members of the Japanese Club Nintendo were able get a limited Tingle version of Balloon Fight, but they should definitely re-release this as DSiWare. (Actually I think the latter would be a cool idea, Balloon Fight is a solid classic and this is basically a crossover with The Wind Waker.)

Color Changing Ignorance

Well, Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love was released on August 6th in Japan and we haven't heard or seen anything specific about it yet. Over at Gametrailers there are some new gameplay videos including a 3D dungeon maze and a fight against a crow. Over at GameFAQs there are some guys, who actually have imported the game, but they only talk about puzzle solving problems. But at least someone uploaded some screenshots there.

Looks like there are still rupees in the game (not a surprise), but I hope there is no bargaining. The dungeon scene reminds of the crawling mazes in The Wind Waker, especially the one behind the prison cell, where Tingle was imprisoned and where you ran into some rats using trapdoors, if you took the wrong corner. And judging from the comments on GameFAQs the game is devided in levels, which are the chapters and pages of the faiy tale book. But you're able to visit older pages again by travelling with your balloon.

That's it, more I can't say about the game even one month after its release. But you can't blame anyone for ignoring this game, it's probably not that good and most people haven't even played the prequel yet. Well, I only care about it, because I really liked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and because I have a large curiosity when it comes to Zelda and all things related to Zelda. But I won't import Balloon Trip of Love, I still hope it will be released in Europe at one day. I don't know any Japanese and the game is an Adventure game with a lot of text, so importing it won't do me any good. But if it will be released in Europe, I definitely will get it. Right now it's selling about as good as Rupeeland did, which isn't much but enough for a game like this, so it probably will be released in Europe too. But it took a year for the first game to be released here, so I won't hold my breath.

Color Changing Overview Trailer

Overview Trailer

I apologize for the wave of Tingle news lately, but a Japanese overview trailer for Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love appeared yesterday. The game launches on August 6th in Japan, so expect more to come.

Well, storywise we will get a new Tingle. Much like we get a new Link in every second Zelda game. In Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland we learned, that a "Tingle" is not a single person, but a state of being. So, like we have different generations of Links and Zeldas, we have different incarnations of Tingles over the ages, too. This one, however, is trapped in this fairy tale book. To escape, he has to dance with the princess. So, that's the final goal. But I would expect some nasty story twists here, much like in the first game.

And it still looks like a Point & Click Adventure. But there are some special action sequences, much like the boss fights in the first game. Those work in a try and error fashion, so you either win or you have to start over. But it looks like, there won't be any regular fighting. The humor is great, like always, I especially liked the last scene in the trailer, it was hilarious.

Color Changing Gameplay Videos

At Gametrailers there is a series of gameplay videos of the new Tingle adventure game Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love available:

Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love videos

It shows how the three companions work. Like I thought, they will replace the bodyguards from Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and come in three sizes. A large lion, a medium sized female robot and a small scarecrow. All of them have special abilities to solve different puzzles.

But there's one thing, I've noticed in these videos. It totally looks like a classic Point & Click Adventure game and NOT AT ALL like an Action Adventure, which is how Zelda (and Zelda related games) should look like. I hope, there will be still fighting and dungeons and other classical Zelda elements, which made the first game "enjoyable" to begin with. If I would like to play classic Adventures like Monkey Island, I wouldn't buy Zelda games. I know, this is NOT a Zelda game, please don't kill me. But it's a spin off to the Zelda series and the main reason, why the first game was so interesting for me, was because it shared so many similarities with a Zelda game. It had action-oriented gameplay, the overworld/dungeon world layout, and so on. Just read my review. If this would be missing, then Vanpool is definitely heading into the wrong direction.

Color Changing Box Art & Video

Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love Box Art

From Amazon. This looks even more gay and aweful than the box art of the first game. The biggest challenge you can get with the game is buying it in public. But that's all part of the humor, so everyone who screams "omg this is gay and aweful, my eyes are bleeding", really doesn't get the point of those games nor does have any sense of humor. And trust me, Zelda news boards are swimming in those kind of comments right now. However, the game will be released on August 6th in Japan and I hope, it will find its way to Europe soon after. Probably never in the U.S. though, especially not with that box art.

Also, check out this fancy video. "OMG, my eyes hurt, R.I.P. Nintendo 2009!!!11111" .... Seriously, how can anyone deny the pure awesomeness of Macho Tingle?

And in the Famicon article, which I've posted the last time, there was information about, that Tingle will have three companions. A strong lion, a heartless robot and a small scarecrow. The Tingle of Oz, huh? I guess, those will be the replacements of the bodyguards from Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and they will all have special abilities depending on their size.

Double Tingle: Balloon Trip of Love and Tingle Pack

Next to the basically most amazing artwork for a game of all times those Famitsu scans show actually two games and not only one. The big game is a sequel to Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland and instead of money it will focus on getting women. Awesome. It looks like they got rid of my major complaint of the first game: the bargaining, which is a good thing. Instead of gambling you will hit on women, which seems to work pretty similar to hiring bodyguards in the first game, but with some love cards instead of rupees. No sign of fighting enemies or dungeons, too, maybe the game will be a sole Adventure. But this is all speculation based on the few screenshots.

The second game looks like a minigame collection starring Tingle for DSiWare. It contains a fortune telling minigame, a calculator, a clock, a coin tosser and something where Tingle dances and it will cost 500 Nintendo Points. It was released yesterday in Japan, so we should get more infos soon. But looks like it's finally something worth getting a DSi for. Just kidding, it looks like crab and Nintendo is really overdoing it with those clocks and calculators. Anyway, the Tingle Pack seems to be the best deal, since you get five applications for 500 points, while normally a single application costs 200. If you like Tingle, of course. I'm still waiting for the official Zelda clock and calculator, but Nintendo should start coming up with some new concepts for their DSiWare service.

The titles of the games translate as the following (thanks to our Japanese translators at the Pirateboard):

"Color Changing: Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love"
"Too Good to Be True: Tingle Pack"

Source: Gonintendo.com

Tingle Teaser online

There is a teaser site for the new Tingle DS game online and it confirms, that the new Tingle game will be a sequel to Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. It features music from the game (just listening to it makes me wanna play it right now) and one of the characters (Chiko's mum) as a fortune teller. Besides that it just tells you to stay tuned for more updates. I will do that and I'm officially excited. If the game doesn't make the same mistakes as the first one (please remove or at least improve the bargaining, pleeeaaase), then it's going to be fun and I will definitely get it.

The site, however, uses fortune telling and tarot cards as an important element. I can see, that this will end up as an important element in the game as well, mixing and picking the cards with your stylus. But what functions this fortune telling system is yet unknown, maybe it even helps you with the bargaining problem.


Link: Teaser Site

Tingle Returns

There were rumors for a while now, that Vanpool is working on a sequel to Freshly Picked: Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland, but no one could be for sure. If you have read my review for Rupeeland, you may have noticed, that I actually liked it. It wasn't a great game and I wouldn't want to compare it with A Link to the Past and alike, but it was definitely something fresh, funny and enjoyable. So, what's the news? Apparently another Tingle game is coming to the Nintendo DS system. The advertising simply shows Tingle flying with a balloon and with something in his hands, I can't really identify (probably a bomb). The text asks "Fairy?". No, that's definitely not a fairy, but it's definitely going to be some fun.

The question is, is this really a sequel to Rupeeland developed by Vanpool or a new Balloon Fight with Tingle as the main character again (like for example as a small application on DSiWare)? The former would have something to do with Zelda, the latter not really. I don't consider Tingle's Balloon Fight to be a real spin-off of the Zelda series. It's the newest installment of the Balloon Fight series featuring characters from the Zelda series. Like Super Smash Bros. does feature characters from Zelda, but still is not considered to be a Zelda spin-off. Okay, this comparison is obviously lacking, but the point is, Balloon Fight is Balloon Fight and not Zelda in any way. Rupeeland did feature the typical Action Adventure mechanics, which a Zelda game should have and which made this game interesting for Zelda fans. If they get rid of the stupid bargaining system the game has at least the chance to be a small light in the shadow of Spirit Tracks.

Source: NintendoLife