Jack Balloon

A Jack Balloon is a pick-up that provides Jack with an extra life.

Locations
They are often dropped by tougher enemies like mid-bosses or found in areas that are difficult to reach. Sometimes they are found inside crates. Like all the items in the game, their locations are not random and and can be memorized by players to collect many of them.

Usage
Collecting it will increase Jack's extra life supply by one, allowing him to try once more after he died. It does not heal him, though.

Jack starts with two of them on normal difficulty, and none on hard difficulty. Theoretically, there is no limit on how many he can carry, but their limited availability does not allow to carry too many of them.

Any Jack balloon that is not used after the completion of a level is worth an additional 100,000 points each. This is not true for the final levels of each area, where no high-score is saved.

Announcer Commentary

 * Howard: "Another life for Jack!"
 * Kreese: "I used an extra life once, and came back as a roach."
 * Howard: "Sounds like you got the Wheel of Karma extra life."
 * Kreese: "I actually enjoyed it! You know, a cockroach can live for a week without it's head?"
 * Howard: "Big deal, I went through 8 years of marriage without any head!"

Trivia

 * This power up is very likely to be a reference to Donkey Kong Country, as that game also used balloons as one ups.