Balloon Fighter Gimmick
The obvious gimmick for him to have is the balloon-popping. However, while most movesets I've seen for him include a Down-B where he refills balloons, I don't think this would be particularly practical, as he would have to refill the balloons too often, and be gimped too significantly without them. This is problematic when considering how long it takes for balloons to be inflated in the original source material: a solid 10 seconds or so. As such, I would have the gimmick be that Balloon Fighter starts with 2 balloons and at around 100% (or thereabouts), one of the balloons pops. The character then moves slower and, more importantly, has an increased stopping time on his movement, mirroring the effect that balloons being popped has in-game. Balloon Fighter can therefore keep his multiple jumps just fine, but due to his difficult-to-control movement, can be potentially punished quite easily.
Lesser Gimmick
When jumping off of another character in the air, does 20% damage to that character.
Properties
Weight: Roughly Mario, as he has a similar body-type to him.
Speed (Land & Air): Mirrors in-game physics of Balloon Fight: Controls slowly at first but can speed up to quite incredible heights before slowing down again upon a change in directional input
Traction: Poor, made poorer upon the loss of a second balloon
A: Generic Punch
AA: Generic Punch 2: Electric Boogaloo
AAA: Headbutt
F-Tilt: Swipes hands vertically behind him in the opposite direction to the tilt -- the movement he makes when flapping in Balloon Fight
U-Tilt: Balloons inflate (and then deflate). Hits send opponents either left or right depending on which balloon hits them last
D-Tilt: Pumps both of his arms downwards in front of him -- the action enemies make in-game when pumping up their balloons
F-Smash: Thrusts an enemy bird from the game forwards, and then throws it a little. The enemy is knocked out when hitting the ground, flying vertically downwards as a projectile. If it doesn't hit the ground, it floats down within its parachute until it does, meandering from left to right, acting as a hitbox the whole way.
U-Smash: Lifts a pipe from the bonus rounds above his head. Sends opponents extremely vertically, like the route the balloons take when leaving the pipes in-game.
D-Smash: Spawns two of the bubbles from the game on either side of Balloon Fighter, which then rise into the air slowly. Contact with the bubbles does a lot of damage but has no hit stun or knockback.
Neutral Special: Releases a spark from in-game in the direction inputted. This spark moves around the stage, changing direction when it hits a wall, until it flies off-stage, hits a character, or a new spark is released above the limit. Limit of 2 sparks at a time. Contact with the spark provides massive hit-stun and decent damage.
Side Special: Sends three gusts of wind in a fan shape in the direction of the special. These gusts do very small damage, but have small hitboxes with a significant amount of knockback and no hitstun -- traditionally how wind is used in Smash Bros. The graphics for the wind can reference the wind graphic used when swiping in
Nintendo Land's Balloon Trip mode
Up Special: Creates a flipper and uses it on himself. This sends Balloon Fighter upwards predominantly, but in a fairly random direction besides that. Flipper remains after use, up to three, disappearing once another flipper above the limit has been placed, or if another flipper is placed too close to an existent one. However, they deal no damage or hitstun, making them mere directional inconveniences, or nasty ways to trap opponents into particular movements.
Down Special: Spawns a body of water around Balloon Fighter, roughly the size of 3 Balloon Fighter models placed side-by-side. This removes the stage from the contained area, treating it like normal air. Using Down Special again spawns Floppy Fish for a second or so (the fish from Balloon Fight which eats anything that gets too close to the water), which pokes its head out of the water and eats enemies traveling overhead or within the water area of the stage. The fish bites the fighters, launching them, rather than auto-killing them.
Neutral Aerial: Spawns an electrified cloud around him briefly, from Balloon Fight, dealing a lot of knockback with a very large hitbox.
Side Aerial: Sends Balloon Fighter upwards like flapping in-game, and using it after having been launched slows down the extent to which he's been launched more significantly than regular directional input. Does no damage, however. This is a way of including Balloon Fighter's deserved theoretical infinite recovery, but forces it into a more predictable path to refrain from it from being busted, though it has Balloon Fight's physics of building momentum with each flap.
Up Aerial: Deploys a parachute above himself of the same design that enemies use in the source material. Rope hitstuns and once the parachute deploys it launches.
Down Aerial: Releases a crate beneath Balloon Fighter on a rope with a permanent hitbox, from the Nintendo Land Balloon Trip mode. This remains there until it's struck by a strong attack, or touches the ground / a wall. Significant start and ending lag.
Taunt 1: Balloon Fighter creates a bonus balloon of a random colour from Balloon Fight and pops it, with the popping animation and sound effect.
Taunt 2: Balloon Fighter inflates a balloon, using the animation enemies used, and releases it: a 1% damage projectile with no hitstun and a small hitbox
Taunt 3: An enemy from Balloon Fight appears in its grounded state, Balloon Fighter walks into it, death animation plays
Final Smash: Bonus Time
A large bubbles rises from the bottom of the screen which Balloon Fighter automatically grabs, freezing time (as is what happens in Balloon Trip). Two balloons spawn upon each opponent's head. Time remains frozen for about 10 seconds, and Balloon Fighter must pop the balloons on the opponents by running into them at a direction generally upwards of the balloons. Fighters who have both of their balloons popped at the end of the final smash are launched, and each pop of the balloon does about 30% anyway. A second AI controlled Balloon Fighter can also come onto screen and help pop balloons, maybe targeting the character on the lowest percentage at the time of the final smash, or just the one closest to the right hand side of the screen, representing Balloon Fight's innovative 1987 multi-player.
