Bloons is a series of initially Puzzle Games by Ninja Kiwi about monkeys popping B[al]loons that started in Adobe Flash and has since expanded to cover different genres and full commercial games on consoles and computers.
The first Bloons game came out in March 2007. It has 50 levels. In each one, you have to pop enough Bloons to proceed to the next level without running out of darts before doing so (unless you have unlimited darts on). It is a formula that has been followed by two direct sequels More Bloons and Even More Bloons, a game for beginners Bloons Junior, five player packs with levels made by the community, and an additional community level pack for masochists only Bloons Insanity.
There have been several spin-offs released as well, like the Match-Three Game Bloons Pop Three and the obstacle avoider Hot Air Bloon, as well as games that have their own separate pages.
After over a billion plays, Bloons 2 took the series to the next level in September 2010. It features 100 levels, an improved artstyle, and new Bloon types. There were two holiday expansion packs, Bloons 2 Spring Fling and Bloons 2 Christmas Pack, with 48 additional levels and 2 bonus levels each.
After spending the next decade completely overshadowed by its more successful spin-offs, Bloons Pop! was released in June 2021 and it mixes the mechanics from Bloons with content from the Tower Defense spin-offs, such as the Bloon types up to MOABs being present, and the towers replacing most powerup Bloons.
The following subseries have their own pages:
- Bloons Tower Defense: A Tower Defense series which has effectively eclipsed Bloons and has its own line of spin-offs.
- Bloons TD Battles: A Player Versus Player BTD.
- Bloons Monkey City: BTD meets city building.
- Bloons Adventure Time TD: BTD crosses over with Adventure Time.
- Bloons Super Monkey: A shooter in which a Super Monkey must pop enough Bloons before the level ends.
Tropes applying to the Flash games
- Art Evolution: The first Bloons game and those released around that era have a very simple artstyle. Bloons 2 goes for a more detailed and colorful look, even if it doesn't compare to what BTD games would eventually become.
- Battle Boomerang: Popping certain types of Bloons can grant the monkey a boomerang, which follows a curved trajectory to let it pop more Bloons. It will always come back if unobstructed, but can be blocked from returning by obstacles.
- Bonus Dungeon:
- Bloons 2 has a set of 4 bonus levels in the Secret Zone, accessible after clearing Mount Magma, by clicking on the stone area near Crazy Coast.
- Bloons 2 Christmas and Spring Fling also have bonus levels, accessed by clicking on certain objects on the title screen.
- Book Ends: Like the first game, Bloons 2 starts off with a few easy levels where all you do is pop Bloons. Pop em All, one of the last levels in the game, is a much harder version of the same concept.
- Cool Airship: Hot Air Bloon has the monkey fly on a blimp which destroys Bloons in its path. This was before the era that introduced MOABs as a threat.
- Dull Surprise: Bloons Pop Three has the speaker. Even when they say "Cool" or "Great" due to you getting a high combo, they sound bored out of their mind. At least at "Awesome", they show the slightest bit of emotion.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Every time you beat a level, a rainbow is shown.
- Gimmick Level:
- Quantum Tunneling gives you 60 darts with which to punch through a huge amount of ceramic blocks, to reach the Bloons hidden within.
- Whack a Bloon requires precise timing to get the Bloons before they retreat behind cover and pop all 6 with just 5 darts. Most other levels let you take your time.
- Gravity Screw: Reverse Gravity Bloons will reverse gravity when popped, causing darts and spike balls to fall up instead of down. This also affects the monkey, which anchors itself to the ground with its tail.
- Hint System: Bloons 2 gives you 5 Level Solutions that will display exactly how to beat a level, and gives out one more every time a world is cleared.
- Idea Bulb: Level 32 of Bloons Junior is called "Good Idea" and has Bloons set up to look like a lightbulb.
- Laser Blade: The Lightsaber Bloon makes a dual-sided lightsaber show up to pop Bloons from the sides.
- Level Editor: An editor for levels used to be available in the main series, which was used in the creator of five player packs and Bloons Insanity.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: More Bloons, Even More Bloons, the 5 Bloons Player Packs, and Bloons Insanity all run on the same engine as the first game. Bloons 2 adds in more new content.
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Nintendo Hard: Bloons Insanity. It has some of the most fiendish level design found in the series and requires perfection almost all the time. When even the first level has you do a nearly frame perfect dart throw after another one, you know you're in trouble. - No Plot? No Problem!: None of these games actually have plots.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Almost all types of Bloon only take one hit to pop in this game. The only ones that avert this are the Spawning Bloons, which take 3.
- Patchwork Map: The map in Bloons 2 has plains, a desert, and a snowy area right next to each other.
- Rube Goldberg Machine: Some levels, like Hypnosilliness in Bloons 2, require you to pop one Bloon to set off a large chain of events that ends with all of them being popped.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Bomb Bloons explode if anything touches them.
- Unwinnable by Design: A level can be impossible to complete, for example if you pop Ice Bloons before the other Bloons, which makes those frozen and unpoppable, thus making it impossible to reach the pop quota. If you're playing normally you will run out of darts, but in Unlimited Darts mode you have to restart the level manually.
- A Winner Is You: All Bloons games give just one screen of text congratulating you for beating the game as an ending.
Tropes applying to Bloons Pop!
- Acid Attack: The Acid Gunner shoots globs of acid which pierce through bloons, inflicting Damage Over Time and slowing them down.
- Ad Reward: Watching an ad during a level will give you additional monkeys.
- Adaptational Badass: In the tower defence games, the BFB and ZOMG, while they do have a lot of health and immunities, act the same way as regular bloons. In this game, they appear as bosses in Adventures, with vastly increased health relative to everything else in the game and the ability to summon many lesser bloons to defend themselves. The ZOMG in particular can also summon obstacles to give your monkeys a hard time landing a hit on it.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: In the tower defence games, regrow bloons have Regenerating Health. In this game, they instead spawn many more bloons than usual when popped.
- Beam Spam: Adora pops bloons by firing many beams of light from a ball of light above her.
- Boss Dissonance: In Adventures, depending on whether the Behemoth or the ZOMG is at the end. The former has 16 levels to complete, but an easier fight with the Behemoth, while the latter has only 10 levels, but a very difficult ZOMG encounter.
- Bouncing Battler: Several of the usable monkeys, such as the Wizard Monkey and Acid Gunner, bounce around to attack the bloons.
- The Bus Came Back: After being absent from the series for a long time, the Tack Bloon and Bomb Bloon return as power-up bloons in this game.
- Chain Lethality Enabler: Of a sort. Winning a level will grant bonuses for future levels, depending on how many you've won in a row — level 1 causes power-up bloons to spawn, level 2 also gives you a free Super Monkey at the start of the level, and level 3 also starts you off with a random Mega Monkey. However, losing a level will cause these bonuses to go away... unless you can pony up the Bloonstones.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: The game's bosses, the Behemoth and ZOMG, can take a huge amount of punishment from your monkeys. Getting high scores on the preceding levels, to get more shots in the boss fight, is essential to taking them down.
- Disintegrator Ray: These appear as a rare obstacle in Adventures, and will annihilate any monkey or projectile that touches them.
- Fusion Dance: Two monkeys of the same kind can be combined into a Mega Monkey, which is vastly more powerful.
- Homing Projectile: The Wizard Monkey (and its Mega form) and Obyn fire magical projectiles which home in on bloons.
- Meta Multiplayer: The Party Crashers game mode works like Contested Territory in BTD6 and Bloons Monkey City: your party can play levels to claim territory, and other parties can try to steal it.
- Monster Compendium: The different types of bloons are listed in the Bloonspedia, which also gives recommendations on which types of monkeys to use.
- Pinball Projectile: Several of the projectiles fired by the monkeys, such as Dart Monkey darts and Sniper Monkey bullets, will bounce around to pop multiple bloons.
- Premium Currency: Bloonstones can be earned in small quantities in special events or by completing challenges, as well as at the end of a level. They're used to buy power-ups and get more monkeys if you're about to lose a level, as well as buy certain decorations for the different areas in the game.
