Water Balloon Drop Hollywood is All About Mindless Fun

Ever been to Hollywood? If not, what would be the first thing you’d want to do? Check out the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Grauman’s Chinese Theater, or have a bite at the world-famous Pink’s Hot Dogs? Those quirky guys over at 3D Joe has given us all a clue into their ideas about what’s fun to do in Hollywood through their debut effort for the iPhone. Water Balloon Drop Hollywood is the name of their application, and you can probably guess what it's about.

In the role as troublemaker in Water Balloon Drop Hollywood, your job is to relentlessly drop water balloons on a bunch of outrageous characters from the rooftops of buildings spread across 8 main environments (6 rounds per environment). Progression is earned by hitting specific point thresholds obtained by nailing targets with your balloons. Before each round, you’ve given a brief on people to hit and people to avoid, so it’s not a full-on mindless romp by any stretch. On later environments, you’ll have to avoid aerial debris and flying creatures as those extras are introduced to ramp up the difficulty level.

Getting around in Water Balloon Drop Hollywood is fairly intuitive. Tilting the iPhone left and right moves your character that’s hanging out on top of buildings. A subtle shake of the iPhone drops a water balloon. Initially I had some mixed feelings over this mechanic for dropping balloons, but over time, it started to feel like second nature. Rounding off the controls, tapping the screen makes your virtual prankster duck to avoid trouble. With options to adjust sensitivity levels, I’m confident the controls will be a non-issue for the majority of players.

If I had to describe the look and feel that permeates Water Balloon Drop, it’d be similar to what you may have seen in the early 90’s MTV cartoon, Beavis and Butthead. Though it’s not a perfect match, Water Balloon Drop has a nonsensical and subversive style that is intentionally rough and a bit out of kilter. I totally dig it too! To supplement the funny sound effects in the game, you have the option to play music from your own iPod library as well.

I’ve got nothing but love for Water Balloon Drop Hollywood. If you’re a bit spoiled by the best games available on iPhone, you’ll probably take issue with the game’s repetition and lack of any online considerations. But for me, Water Balloon Drop Hollywood excels in the one area where it matters most, fun factor. 3D Joe’s first foray on the iPhone doesn’t wet the bed, and I’m looking forward to seeing the next product from these talented developers.