Arcade guide
Balloon Runner Game Tips: 3 Hands-Off Runs, 3 Failures
Key takeaways
- The runner moves forward by itself; you only steer by pressing and dragging left or right.
- In three hands-off tests after TAP TO START, all three runs ended in LEVEL FAILED.
- The road has red, blue and green balloons, coloured strips, ramps with arrows and a chequered finish.
- LEVEL FAILED shows a RETRY button that restarts the level.
The first balloon runner game tip is to steer from the very first second: in Puffdash all three runs where we did nothing after TAP TO START ended in LEVEL FAILED. The runner moves forward on its own, but only your dragging keeps it on the road.
How the game works
Puffdash is a 3D runner shown in a tall, phone-style column. You click once on TAP TO START and a small purple runner with a balloon dashes down a floating road. Press and hold the mouse button and drag left or right to steer. Red, blue and green balloons lie along the way, and a +1 pops up when you pick one up.
What we measured
We played in a test browser at 1280 by 800 pixels with software rendering, started a level with one click and then did nothing. We repeated this in three separate page loads.
| Result | Runs |
|---|---|
| Ended in LEVEL FAILED | 3 |
| Reached the chequered finish | 0 |
Three runs in one test browser; slow software rendering stretches the time between the tap and the fail screen, so we do not quote seconds.
What is on the road
Besides the balloons, the road carries coloured strips that cut across the track, ramps marked with orange arrows and a chequered finish. When a run fails, the screen shows LEVEL FAILED, an angry face and a RETRY button.
4 tips that follow from the numbers
- Steer right away. Doing nothing failed three times out of three.
- Drag in small moves. The column is narrow.
- Plan for the ramps. Line up before the orange arrows.
- Use RETRY. It restarts the level straight away.
Where to try it
Try it yourself in Puffdash. For another game of quick reflexes, Glidewave sends an arrow through neon tunnels.
Frequently asked questions
How do you steer in Puffdash?
Press and hold the mouse button and drag left or right; on a touch screen, drag with a finger.
What happened in our hands-off runs?
Three of three runs ended in LEVEL FAILED after TAP TO START.
What are the balloons for?
Picking one up shows a +1 and a short comment such as SUPER.
How do you start a level?
Click once where the screen says TAP TO START.
How do you try again?
Press RETRY on the LEVEL FAILED screen.
Does Puffdash work on a phone?
It is built as a tall phone-style column and is played by dragging, but we tested it with a mouse.