Deep Sea Balloon Recognition

Well, a complaint I had myself first time is that the boss of Deep Sea Zone's balloons are hard to figure out from the real deal - a sentiment that's apparently shared by a few others. Most people who argue for him list off vague tells, such as the balloon pilots being slightly bigger (gotta be close to notice) and being silent (again, distance and also sound requirement).

I feel dumb, though, because I've just realized a rather noticeable tell - only the real Eggman's missile launchers actually fire off with explosion graphics. The fakes' launchers just don't animate in any way whatsoever, and while it's still going to take a while for a frustrated newbie to see, it's probably the most blatant tell.

Y'all enjoy this info, I'm going to sulk in the "was wrong" corner.

I should really finish the Egg Sub Eggrobo sprites

Also, only the real eggman does the laugh animation, which is how I usually tell.

It's not very well conveyed, no. I honestly didn't even know about the other differences.

Honestly, none of the tells are conveyed all that well. Especially when you have to deal with them getting scaled down by distance. Actually, with even the fakes shooting at you, you don't really have time to look for the tells