60
seconds
Balloons drift up out of a little town, each one carrying a letter. Press the letter and the balloon pops. It starts with eight keys on the home row and works its way to short words, with a keyboard at the bottom that shows which finger to use.
Every balloon has one big letter on it. Find that key and press it: the balloon bursts into confetti and the letter flies up into the tray at the top of the screen. There is no game over and nothing to lose except a few points when a balloon floats off the top. A run lasts two minutes, and you can watch the time go by as the sun (or the moon on a dark theme) crosses the sky.
A small keyboard sits under the town. The key for the next balloon glows in a colour that belongs to one finger: the left little finger has its own colour, the left ring finger another, and so on across both hands. A caption spells it out too, for example "Press F with your left index finger". Once you know your way around, press the question mark key to hide the keyboard and type from memory.
Fill the tray with 15 pops while keeping your accuracy at 90% or better and the next stage opens with a little banner showing the new keys. If accuracy slips, the tray keeps sliding along until you steady up, so careful typing always moves you forward.
A wrong key never ends anything. The balloon you were aiming for gives a wobble, the key you pressed flashes on the keyboard, and you try again. Each row of the keyboard pops with its own note, higher for the number row and lower for the bottom row, so you start to hear where your fingers are.
Gold balloons are worth three times the points. A rainbow balloon arrives with a few friends that share its letter, and popping it bursts every one of them at once. Advanced mode sends balloons up faster and more at a time, and a wrong key in the middle of a word sends you back to its first letter.
Yes. It was made for first lessons: one big letter per balloon, no game over, soft sounds and a keyboard that shows which finger to use. Short words only appear once the rows have been practised.
No. Balloons show lowercase letters and Caps Lock or Shift will still pop them, so young players are never stuck because of a stray key.
Press the question mark key during a run. The keyboard slides away and the town moves down to give the balloons more sky. Press it again to bring it back.