Pop the Balloons is a bubble-popping shooter and logic-puzzle game that features balloons instead of bubbles. Across 90 levels, the player's primary goal is to toss a spiked, bouncy black ball hanging on a stretchy thread from a black peg into a blue-walled container and pop every balloon.
The player must essentially shoot the spiked ball. They direct more than the trajectory angle. They must also use the right amount of force behind the toss. When the player performs this task well, the balloons pop, leaving behind paint splashes on the white background, and groups of multicolored confetti burst across the screen. The game also displays happy or positive emojis. If the player fails, the game destroys the ball by turning it into pixel squares of different sizes. It also displays a cold blue emoji and a negative message.
Pop the Balloons sometimes presents containers that look like drinking glasses or mazes. Each different wall configuration for a container affects how the ball bounces as well. On some levels, the player must also deal with obstacles and traps, such as separate sliding or rotating platforms and walls in the air between the ball and the container. The player might also need to direct the ball at the perfect angle for it to bounce off a platform, up a chute and into an almost entirely enclosed container, or bounce it into a container and then out again and onto a platform where a single separate balloon rests.
