Thorn and Balloons is a casual ball game with bubble-popping and pop-it elements. Across 75 levels, the player uses a thorny dark purple ball to pop balloons inside of walled-off areas. Their goals are to pop all balloons without accidentally losing or popping the projectile, earn cash rewards, and perform ball upgrades.
The game presents a wide range of obstacles, including flat and inclined surfaces, rotating flippers, sharp corners, springs, and stationary and moving platforms. It provides the player with a curved dotted aiming line that serves both as an obstacle that makes targeting difficult and a helpful tool for pointing the ball somewhat in the right direction.
The thorny ball hangs from a stretchy string off a post. These features only become visible when the player interacts with the ball. When the ball hits balloons, the pieces burst and leave behind colored splashes of paint. If it falls off the sides or hits an onscreen button, it pops and forces a level reset. Thankfully, the player is never penalized for failure. They can also reload the level or skip it.
Thorn and Balloons allows the player to extend the aiming line for more accuracy with the lower-right Trajectory tool. The nearby Magnet tool helps them create static electricity that makes the ball pull the balloons toward it slightly when in close enough range.
The player receives cash winnings. They can increase their reward with a video ad view and rainbow multiplier bar. Once they save up enough money, they can use the upper-left Skins button to upgrade the ball's appearance to one of 10 options, including a batarang, a fidget spinner and a ninja star.
