Red Balloons

The collectibles from the various Grand Theft Auto games are represented in the form of red balloons in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. This is a reference to the 1984 hit song by Nena called "99 Luftballons", released in English as "99 Red Balloons", which was featured in the radio station, Wave 103 in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

File:RedBalloons.jpg

Victor about to burst a red balloon.

There are 99 red balloons across Vice City, which the player has to search for and burst with a gun. The player has to use manual aim for most of the balloons and some can be placed so high up that the player is forced to use a Sniper Rifle to get a decent aim. Each tenth burst (except for the last set, which has only nine) rewards the player a new weapon delivered to the back of the safehouses. A new feature in Vice City Stories allows the player to keep a record of which red balloons have been burst.