Victor about to burst a red balloon.
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" ("99 Red Balloons"), which was featured in the radio station, Wave 103 in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
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 and will get the player closer to 100% completion. A new feature in Vice City Stories allows the player to keep a record of which red balloons have been burst.
Rewards
- 10 Balloons: Pistol delivered to all Safehouses.
- 20 Balloons: Scorpion delivered to all Safehouses.
- 30 Balloons: Stubby Shotgun delivered to all Safehouses.
- 40 Balloons: Molotov Cocktails delivered to all Safehouses.
- 50 Balloons: AK-47 delivered to all Safehouses.
- 60 Balloons: Body Armor delivered to all Safehouses.
- 70 Balloons: Flamethrower delivered to all Safehouses.
- 80 Balloons: Equalizer delivered to all Safehouses.
- 90 Balloons: Sniper Rifle delivered to all Safehouses.
- 99 Balloons: M249 delivered to all Safehouses.
In addition, a small cash award is received for every balloon burst.
Locations
- Viceport (4)
- Little Havana (7)
- Starfish Island (2)
- Little Haiti (10)
- Downtown Vice City (18)
- Prawn Island (4)
- Vice Point (Including Vice Point Mall) (23)
- Ocean Beach (15)
- Leaf Links (1)
- Washington Beach (9)