Crazy Balloon
Released: 1980
Pitch: Guide the swinging balloon to the goal with precise controls.
Crazy Balloon is, in my opinion, a frustrating stress simulator. There is a maze of pointy objects waiting to pop your balloon and you need to navigate your ever-swinging balloon through it unscathed. I assumed before playing that there would be some balloon phyisics involved. That would be interesting, at least, but no. Other than the constant swinging, your balloon sits motionless if you don't push any buttons. Once I finally got through the first level—which took several tries—the second level turned out to be exactly the same but with some moving pointy bits and that's where I noped out. I don't like this kind of gameplay and if they're not even going to save the recycled levels for later down the line, I'm not going to play.
Sounds like a precursor to the Balloon Trip mode of Balloon Fight.
Yes! But at least that had balloon physics to make it interesting. I guess that's what I was subconsciously expecting.
Yeah this game is just a prototype of another game that came out later called Irritating Stick (which was actually based on a Japanese game show). I do like the arcade flyer for Crazy Balloon, though. Check it out, it's, well, crazy.
Without any context for the game or show it's based on, I have to say that Irritating Stick is a terrible name 
I remember playing this. Got very frustrating. You'll need a lead zeppelin to get through those mazes.