is an

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Vanpool Vanpools or Vanpooling is an element of the transit system that allow groups of people to share the ride similar to a carpool, but on a larger scale with concurrent savings in fuel and vehicle operating costs and thus usually a lower cost to the ...

and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It is a sequel to the game ''

Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland is an adventure video game developed by Vanpool and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld game console. It was released in Japan in September 2006, and in Europe in September 2007. ''Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland'' stars ...

'' and was released in Japan on August 6, 2009. As with its predecessor, the game focuses on Tingle, a character from ''The Legend of Zelda'' series.

Overview

The game's storyline starts with an ordinary 35-year-old man who watches a direct sales program on television and orders a book said to make its readers popular among women. When the man opens the book, he gets sucked into a picture book world. In this world, he becomes Tingle, wearing a green costume. Tingle meets three characters that accompany him on his journey to escape the world: Kakashi the scarecrow, Buriki the tin robot woman, and Lion the lion. These characters are inspired by the

Scarecrow A scarecrow is a decoy or mannequin, often in the shape of a human. Humanoid scarecrows are usually dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds from disturbing and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops.Lesley ...

, the

Tin Woodman Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman, also known as the Tin Man or—mistakenly—the "Tin Woodsman," is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. Baum's Tin Woodman first appeared in his classic 1900 book '' ...

, and the

Cowardly Lion The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is depicted as an African lion, but like all animals in Oz, he can speak. Since lions are supposed to be "The Kings of Beasts," the Cowardl ...

from ''

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the magical Land of Oz afte ...

'', respectively. The player has to solve many puzzles that require use of the different abilities of Tingle's three partners. Kakashi lacks intelligence, but is small and therefore able to get into small places. Buriki is very intelligent, but heartless, and can cleverly solve puzzles Tingle's other partners can't. The party's last member, Lion, is more powerful than the other two partners, but cowardly. Many of the actions in the game are performed via the stylus. Another central gameplay element is the romantic interaction with five different female characters. The player has to find the right words during the dialogues and to give Tingle's love interests the best fitting items to win their favor. This is necessary for continuing the adventure. To complete the game, Tingle must have some degree of a relationship with all of the girls. Unlike its predecessor, ''Irozuki Tingle no Koi no Balloon Trip'' is completely touch screen controlled, except for a small dungeon

mini-game A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...

segment, in which a control pad may be purchased.

Development

''Irozuki Tingle no Koi no Balloon Trip'' was developed by Vanpool, the company that also created ''Freshly-Picked Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland''. A first hint at the game appeared in an issue of the Japanese magazine ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' published in June 2009. It contained a teaser advertisement depicting a tiny picture of Tingle along with a line of text saying ''Yōsei?'' (ようせい?, lit. "Fairy?"). Nintendo opened a teaser website on June 12, hinting at an then-upcoming Nintendo DS game starring Tingle. Another issue of ''Famitsu'' published in late June revealed that actually two Tingle-centric titles were teased, the

DSiWare This is a list of games and applications, collectively known as DSiWare, for the Nintendo DSi handheld game console, available for download via the DSi Shop and unplayable on earlier DS models. An update released for the Nintendo 3DS in June 201 ...

application '' Dekisugi Tingle Pack'' and the Nintendo DS game ''Irodzuki Tingle no Koi no Balloon Trip''. The latter game was released on August 6 in Japan.

Fan translation

An English

fan translation Fan translation (or user-generated translation) refers to the unofficial translation of various forms of written or multimedia products made by fans (fan labor), often into a language in which an official translated version is not yet available ...

patch for the game was released on January 1, 2018 after five years of development.

Reception

''Famitsu'' awarded ''Irozuki Tingle no Koi no Balloon Trip'' a score of 34 out of 40. It was the 9th best-selling game in Japan during the week of its release, selling 33,498 units. The following week it placed 9th again with 17,956 copies sold. In August 2009, the game sold 70,544 units in total, placing 10th in the Japanese sales charts for that month.

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{Tingle series 2009 video games Adventure games Fantasy video games Video games based on Oz (franchise) Nintendo DS games Nintendo DS-only games Japan-exclusive video games Video games developed in Japan Single-player video games Vanpool games The Legend of Zelda spin-off games Video games produced by Kensuke Tanabe