BombermanBoard

BlueBomberman · #13 Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2005 1:24 am

I watched the 30 minute movie from Gamespot on Mario Kart DS. And the bit about the Balloon Battle and Shine Runner is very interesting. I'll fill you in...

The basics of Balloon Battle are unchanged from Mario Kart: Double Dash, meaning you can steal balloons if you ram someone after using a mushroom or a Starman.

But the twist in MKDS is when you start a Balloon match, you always start with just ONE balloon. Yes, you heard me, just one. But this is where it gets interesting, If you look at the top right corner of the Top Screen you'll see 4 balloon icons; that's your extras. If you want to equip one to increase your HP. You must either press select rapidly or blow into the DS mic to inflate it. Doing the latter is faster but it cuts your dignity level a bit if you do it in public. =P It does not count as a balloon until you inflate it completely. Meaning, getting hit with one balloon equipped and just a half inflated one will spell "Game Over" for you, The End. =P

Once you inflate it, then it'll count as a extra balloon and will take one from the stock. The problem is doing this while you dodge all kinds of attacks from all fronts. This is definitely gonna take some strategy as far as defense goes. Especially when there's gonna be 7 other racers out to get you.

As for for Shine Runner, It's basically a elimination match. When the match starts, the clock is set to one minute. You have to collect as many Shine Sprites in the play fleid as you can in that time limit. If you get hit by enemy fire, you'll drop one and it'll fly to another location.

When the timer hits Zero, the player(s) with the lowest score will get booted from the match. The clock will then reset to only 25 seconds and the process will repeat until the winner is decided. Sounds simple doesn't it? That's all the battle matches for MKDS, they're might me hidden extra ones like "Shine Thief" from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! but I doubt it...

I think I'll be playing Balloon Battle more than the Shine Runner battle. But I'm still not sure if you will turn into a Bob-omb Kart when you lose your last balloon, but I have a feeling they might have it here. =3

Oh BTW, Block Fort from MK64 is back, and it looks better than ever too! Will post a pic of it when I can. Pipe Plaza from MKDD is also here too.