Hot Air
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Hot Air - Followed by → Sandman |
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| Released | December 6th 2005[1] |
| Play It | Nitrome.com Miniclip |
| Levels | 25 (20 + 5 bonus) |
| Game Type | Main game |
| Genre | Adventure, action |
| Websites | Nitrome (Producer) |
| Controls |
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| Prequel/Sequel | Hot Air 2: All Blown Up Hot Air Balloon Maker Hot Air Jr. |
| Credits | Artwork Mat Annal Jon Annal Programming Heather Stancliffe Music Lee Nicklen Testing Craig Annal Richard Bertram Matthew Crossland Chris Jenkinson |
| Music | Menu  |
| Special | Nitrome's first released flash game |
Hot Air!, also written as Hot Air, is Nitrome's first Flash browser game on Nitrome's site. Released in 2005, it was one of the only few games available on Nitrome 1.0, and for a limited time, it was available to be played on the Nintendo Wii on Miniclip.
The goal of the game is to guide a hot air balloon to the finish pad by using a cyan fan to blow it. In 2007, a sequel for the game (which also coincidentally Nitrome's first sequel), was released two years later, titled Hot Air 2. After another record breaking five years break, the latest installment, Hot Air Jr, was released in 2012.
Controls
Edit
Move the mouse - Move fan
Mouse click - Activate fan
The cyan fan is what propels Hot Air throughout the levels of the game. The player must click the left mouse button in order to activate the fan, which will immediately starting blowing Hot Air away from it. Also, the player must move the mouse in order to move the fan.
LevelsEdit
For video walkthroughs of this game, please see Hot Air#Walkthroughs
Each level of Hot Air starts with Hot Air on a green pad. The goal of each level is to blow Hot Air using the mouse all the way to the red pad, whilst avoiding enemies and obstacles. Any new enemies introduced are usually exclusive to their level. Any subsequent reappearances of enemies in the series would involve a new, novel way of integrating it into the level design.
Level progressionEdit
Initially only the first level is unlocked. The remaining nineteen regular levels can be unlocked by completing the level before it. Collecting all the stars in a level rewards the player with one star token. The accumulation of star tokens unlocks the remaining five bonus levels.
| Bonus level | Numerical level | Star tokens prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 21 | 10 |
| 2 | 22 | 14 |
| 3 | 23 | 18 |
| 4 | 24 | 22 |
| 5 | 25 | 24 |
The level sections below details the design and demands of each level.
Level 1Edit
Stars: five
Hazards: none
The first level is a simple introduction. The player has to guide Hot Air through a course lined with spiked walls, in the shape of a backwards C. There are a few easy-to-reach stars to be collected at the corners.
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Level 2Edit
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Stars: five
Locked gates: two
Hazard: axe
A degree of difficulty is introduced in this level, with space constraints and a need for timing to avoid the obstacles. The player has to guide Hot Air to two keys on the sides of the screen, then to the pad, while avoiding an oscillating axe. The stars, as well as the keys, involve timing to reach. To stars are placed beside the anchor of the axe, a perilous location.
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Level 3Edit
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Stars: six
Locked gates: one (optional, access one star)
Hazards: none
This level tests the control of the player. Hot Air has to go through a fairly narrow oval-shaped path. Five stars are located conveniently along this path. However, the sixth star is in a locked compartment in the middle of this oval, blocked by a locked gate. The locked gate has to be unlocked by landing on the orange pad with a key at the top of the oval.
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Level 4Edit
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Stars: five
Hazards: balls on chains
This level tests the player's fan control in a changing neighborhood (the immediate surroundings of Hot Air). Hot Air has to travel pass one double balls on chains, and another quadruple balls on chains, housed in two circular spaces. stars are placed at the circumference of these circular spaces.
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Level 5Edit
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Stars: four
Hazards: Lava
This level tests the player's timing. The lava level in this level rises and falls, and three wall pockets above the lava provide a safe respite from the lava. A star is located in the middle pocket, while the green pad and the red pad occupy the remainder. The lava rapidly switches between 'high tide and low tide', and three stars can be be found within the tidal range.
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Level 6Edit
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Stars: four
Hazards: mouth monster
This level is a test of the player's agility and perception of position.
The player has to go through a six toothed monster, and avoid the crushing teeth.
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Level 7Edit
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Stars: three
Hazards: three spinning spike paths
The player has to go through three spinning spike paths to get to the finish. This level has been reputed to be a challenging test of the player's control of the cyan fan. Most players have difficulty progressing beyond this level.[citation pending]
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Level 8Edit
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Stars: four
Hazards: volcanoes, lava droplets
The player has to get to the right side of the volcano while avoiding roaming fire shot from it.
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Level 9Edit
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Stars: four
Hazards: Parallel moving spiked platforms
The player has to get to the finish pad as fast as possible before the walls crush the player, while making tight squeezes between spike balls.
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Level 10Edit
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Stars: 10
Locked gates: five
Aggressive enemy: Green bug
Hot Air has to unlock six locked gates while being stalked by a green bug to land on the red pad.
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Level 11Edit
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Stars: nine
Hazards: beam with teeth
Hot Air has to race through an S-shaped curve while a spiked wall catches up from behind.
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Level 12Edit
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Stars: two
Hazards: small mouths
Hot Air has to go through three small mouths.
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Level 13Edit
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Stars: six
Hazards: crusher blocks
Hot Air has to weave through four crusher blocks with alternate oscillations to reach the finishing pad.
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Level 14Edit
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Stars: 10
Hazards: fans
Hot Air has to survive headwinds generated by large fans along the walls along a long passageway.
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Level 15Edit
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Stars: four
Hazards: bullets
Hot Air has to go through two horizontal rows of slow moving bullets, with the top row bullets moving left to right and the bottom row vice versa.
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Level 16Edit
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Stars: four
Hazards: Rotating spiked platforms
This level is unique as the entire level layout rotates clockwise about the centre.
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Level 17Edit
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Stars: four
Hazards: fire droplets
Hot Air has to go through a passageway shaped in the form of the number 2 (or a linear Z/S), lined densely on both sides with fire droplets.
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Level 18Edit
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Stars: five
Hazards: drills
Hot Air has to weave through drills falling from the sky from the left to the top-right-corner.
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Level 19Edit
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Stars: six
Hazards: giant fan
In the centre of the map lies a large two-bladed fan rotating anti-clockwise. Around the fan lies numerous spike balls.
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Level 20Edit
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Stars: three
Hazards: octopi
Nine octopuses are scattered throughout the level. These octopuses are affected by the cyan fan/s blow, and bounce off the spiked wall upon contact. The initial position and velocities of the octopuses are randomized.
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Bonus 1Edit
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Stars: five
Hazards: dragon worms
A square shaped level with the red pad on a pole, located in the middle of the level. The red pad is circled by a small pink dragon worm, is who circled by an ever large blue coloured dragon worm. Both dragon worms are almost completely circle shaped, with an opening between the tail and head.
Passing through the opening of the blue dragon worm is easier than passing through the pink dragon worm's opening. Five stars are located in the level, two outside the blue worm at the top left and top right of the enemy (these stars easy to get), and three stars placed around the pink dragon worm - one above the worm, and two at each of its sides.
The incredibly frustrating part of this level is getting past the dragon worms, this part of the level made even more frustrating when one is trying to collect the stars.
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Bonus 2Edit
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Stars: five
Hazards: cage
In this level, Hot Air is trapped inside a cage - a cage lined with spiked all around the inside. The cage will move on a set course, at first moving slowly, but gradually picking up speed, to the point the player has to blow so fast that a sudden stop of the cage would kill them.
The cage will first move upwards, horizontally left, vertically upwards before moving diagonally right, horizontally right, then move in a half circle motion. This half circle motion ends via a diagonally left downwards movement, followed by a diagonally right upwards movement, which then move vertically upwards before a long horizontally right movement - the longest movement in one direction.
As one comes to the end of this long movement, the movements in a set direction become longer and more abstract. The cage will make a long diagonally left downwards movement, which is replicated again, only in reverse. A very short horizontally left movement is interrupted by an abrupt diagonal movement, a vertically downwards movement, and an even longer diagonally downwards left movement.
As the end nears, the cage makes it second curve, changing to a horizontal right movement, which drops down to a downwards vertical movement and a diagonally left movement, that curves upwards to the left and finally remains vertically downwards as the player zooms to the red pad.
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Bonus 3Edit
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Stars: five
Locked gates: five
Hazards: fire droplets
A level with many drops down to activate a key pad, whilst blowing out fire droplets. Where the player starts, there is a pit in front of them that contains an orange pad and two fire droplets on the floor of this pad, in front of this pit being a locked gate.
After this gate is an almost exact room, but with two fire droplets on the ceiling. After this room is a very short drop, which is followed by an immense drop. At the bottom of this drop is a pit with an orange pad protected by two fire droplets - both droplets on the walls to the sides of the pits. Above the tips of the heads of the fire droplets is a star; to the right of this pit is a locked gate.
Past this locked gate is a longer pit, consisting of an orange pad at the bottom that has two stars, which has four fire droplets above it, both droplets sideways on the wall, with two droplets per wall. To the left of this gate is another locked gate, which features an even longer pit the same as the previous one but with an extra fire droplet on each wall.
Past the final gate is the longest pit in the level, having a red pad at the bottom and eight fire droplets protecting the pad - four on each wall. This level breaks from the extreme difficulty set by the previous two level, and instead tests the player reflexes in activating a pad before fire comes back.
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Bonus 4Edit
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Stars: four
Locked gates: one (optional, access one star)
A level involving the traversal of exceedingly small openings, testing the player's patience and concentration. The level starts off with a horizontal hallway that goes vertically up, and then another horizontal hallway.
At the end of this hallway is a small, box shaped room. This room is incredibly small and is only accessed by pressing a nearby orange pad. The smallness of this room makes it very difficult to get the star at the end, this room only attempted by those who want to collect all of the game's stars.
After this room is an upwards corridor that then takes a short horizontal move left, that is followed by a vertical drop. To the right of this drop is a small pocket containing an orange pad, that when landed on opens the only gate in the level - the one leading to one of the level's stars. Aside from this is a left horizontal hallway, a short drop, and another right horizontal hallway.
Above this is an unusual room, unusual as it has multiple directions instead of just one. This room has a small pocket at the upper left, this pocket containing a star. As with the first encountered star location, this pocket is small. Below this pocket is another room, the moves upwards, and finally ends with a right hallway with a red pad at the end.
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Bonus 5Edit
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Stars: 7
Hazards: fans
The final level of the game involves fans blowing on the player as they go past tight corners and near spikes. The player is started at the top-left of the level, where they have to go downwards into a small box.
Two of the edges of this box contain stars; the bottom left of this box leading further into the level. The right wall of this box contains two fans, the below left wall also having a fan (this fan in front of a small opening, made small by a spiked block sticking out of the wall).
Lower down is a corridor that goes to the right, and has three fans on the floor. This corridor is unusually small, but fits the the super difficulty of the level. At the right edge of the room is a star, this star at the bottom of a long upwards corridor, which, although offering very little space, containing no fans.
The top of this corridor is a hallway similar to the previous hallway, only that there is a fan at the top right of the hallway, one on the bottom left, and three at the top right of the hallway. This hallway is harder in that it is shorter than the previous hallway, and features more fans.
The star at the top right of the hallway is near a fan, this star at the top of the level's second corridor. This corridor is wider, but has more fans: one at the top right of the corridor, two at the left middle, and one at the bottom right. The bottom right fan is at the left of the third hallway - the next room entered.
This hallway is nearly the same as the first hallway, only this hallway has a fan at the top-left. As the player goes through a small gap at the top-left ceiling of the room, the player is greeted by another fan at the top of the short gap. To the right of this is the red pad.
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EndingEdit
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Interactive ObjectsEdit
The interactive objects of Hot Air.
- Stars - Found all around courses. After collecting all of them in a course, a star will be added to the count in the menu.
EnemiesEdit
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Making contact with any enemy will cause the balloon to pop, forcing the player to restart the level.
- Boy axe - A giant blade will swing back and forth, and will pop the hot air balloon if hit.
- Balls on chains - To avoid them, the player must move in sync with the movement of the balls on chains.
- Six toothed mouth monster - The player can only progress to the end by going through the gaps made by the opened mouth of the monster.
- Volcano - Spews out fire.
- Fire - A small red bullet that hones in on the player when fired out of the volcano.
HazardsEdit
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- Main Article: Hazards (Hot Air Series)
These dangerous objects will also pop the balloon.
- Spikes - Come out of the ground, and are located in every level.
- Lava - Orange and red liquid that will kill Hot Air on contact.
- Spinning spike path - A circular path of spikes that turns around. One opening/exit of the Path is usually bigger then the other. It is considered to be one of the most dangerous hazards.
InspirationEdit
When asked by FreeGamesNews where Mat Annal got his inspiration for games, Mat claimed that he got the idea for Hot Air when he was blowing Lemmings around with a fan in Lemmings2[2]
AwardsEdit
| Site/Event | Year | Contest | Prize | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jay is Games | 2006 | Best of Casual Gameplay 2005 | Top 10 games of 2005 | Nominated |
TriviaEdit
Added by Ayernam- It is possible to highlight the timer in the top right corner of the level screen.
- The Miniclip version of Hot Air is also playable on The Nintendo Wii's Internet Channel.
- The smallest passage that the balloon has to squeeze through in the game (and in the series) is at the beginning of level twenty-four. The player only has a few free pixels to move around, but the area only lasts for around two balloon widths.
- Lee Nicklen (Hot Air’s composer) made six extra tracks when he made Hot Air.
- Hot Air and Nanobots, have been claimed by many Nitromians as the two most difficult Nitrome games.[citation needed]
- This game is the only Nitrome game that can be played with Flash 7 Player[3]
- Hot Air is the only Nitrome game that does not have a mute button for music or sound in the levels. )However, the mute options can be accessed by clicking "options" on the menu screen.
ReferencesEdit
- ↑ Nitrome.com Octber 4th 2006 - News: 06-12-05 - Hot Air! [Date is written in Day/Month/Year format]
- ↑ Matthew Annal (Nitrome) interview
FreeGamesNews: You claim to develop original games that don’t sit in traditional genres: where do you get your inspiration from?
Mat: Hot Air for example was something that came to me on replaying Lemmings2 and blowing the lemmings around with the fan. - ↑ Nitrome.com 1.0 October 4th 2006: Hot Air! - Direct the fan using your mouse pointer. Hold down the mouse button to start the fan. Blow the Hot Air balloon from the green start block to the red end block to progress to the next level. Avoid spikes, traps and enemies! This game requires the Flash 7 Player
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