Heres all of the Battle Mode Courses written by our Mario Kart Expert, Yoshi Wannabe!
Overview:
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Personally, I found that if every game had to have its faults, then the
biggest downside in MKDD is the Battle Mode. The addition of two new game
types (Shine Thief and Bob-omb Blast) are great, all that's lacking really
is the battle arenas. Sure, there are six instead of the four Super Mario
Kart (SNES) and Mario Kart 64 (N64) boast, but they're not 6 quality stages,
meaning that you'll get tired of doing one arena in a very short time.
Comapred to other game modes everyone's special is available to you, not
matter the characters you choose. The triple red shell is unavailable
though.
Battle Mode Types:
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Balloon Battle:
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It's back and ready for action! Like the other Mario Kart games, the point
of Balloon Battle is to pop the balloons of your opponent, one successful
hit from an item and one balloon bites the dust, hit your opponent three
times to eliminate that player. Something new compared to the other Mario
Kart Balloon Battle games is the fact that the player may steal a balloon
from an opponent, unless of course if that player doesn't already have three
balloons. All the player needs to do is use a star and hit an opponent or
ram the opponent with a msuhroom to steal that player's balloon away. Be the
last player with balloons for the win!
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
Never stay in one place for a long time, keep chasing the opponent so all
that player can do is drop stuff behind, which is easily avoidable. Once you
have shells, pound the enemy!
Shine Thief:
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This is a Mario Kart version of tag if you wish. The point of this battle
mode is to grab the Shine (little glowing sun) and run away from your
opponent for the remaining time left on the counter which is located at the
bottom-right portion of the screen. There is an arrow on the top of the
screen, indicating where the shine is, the player with the shine when the
counter reaches zero wins!
How the counter works:
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2 players:
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- The counter starts off at 60 seconds
- Every time the player with the shine gets hit by an item, the counter
loses 12 seconds off the original 60 seconds, not 12 seconds off what left
of the timer. Hit the player with the shine once, it drops to 48, then 36,
then 24, then 12 (12 being the lowest number it can attain)
- If the player "steals" the shine away from the the other person by hitting
the player with the shine's kart with a star or ramming it with a mushroom,
the counter starts back where it started when the other player took the
shine, if it started at 60 seconds, it will return to 60 seconds, if it was
at 48 seconds, it will return to 48 seconds, etc.
3 players:
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- The counter starts off at 55 seconds
- Every time the player with the shine gets hit by an item, the counter
loses 10 seconds off the original 55 seconds, it drops to 45, then 35, then
25, then 15 then 12 (12 being the lowest number it can attain)
- If the player "steals" the shine away from the the other person by hitting
the player with the shine's kart with a star or ramming it with a mushroom,
the counter starts back where it started when the other player took the
shine, if it started at 55 seconds, it will return to 55 seconds, if it was
at 45 seconds, it will return to 45 seconds, etc.
4 players:
-----------
- The counter starts off at 50 seconds
- Every time the player with the shine gets hit by an item, the counter
loses 10 seconds off the original 50 seconds, it drops to 40, then 30, then
20, then 11 (11 being the lowest number it can attain)
- If the player "steals" the shine away from the the other person by hitting
the player with the shine's kart with a star or ramming it with a mushroom,
the counter starts back where it started when the other player took the
shine, if it started at 50 seconds, it will return to 50 seconds, if it was
at 40 seconds, it will return to 40 seconds, etc.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
It's never over 'til the timer reaches zero, keep chasing and shooting at
your opponent and when you get the shine, run!
Bob-omb Blast:
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Bob-omb Blast is similar to Balloon Battle, only with a few twists. First of
all, the goal is not to pop the other player's balloons, it's to blow that
player sky high. Item boxes contain only Bob-ombs, which the driver and
thrower can stack up to five of these. You can throw the Bob-ombs forwards
or drop them behind you without worry that your own explosions hurts you,
they don't!
Scoring System:
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2 players : Get 3 points to win the match
3/4 players: Get 4 points to win the match
Every time the players blows up the opposing player, that player gets one
point. Points can be lost though, every time you get hit, you lose a point.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
Stay far from the opponent and shot Bob-ombs at a distance, the more you
tilt the control stick forward, the further the throw. If the opponent is
chasing you, drop all your Bob-ombs behind you, sure-fire hit!
Battle Mode Stages:
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Cookie Land:
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The best way to describe this stage, small! This stage has a shape of a
circle with green, yellow, pink and red walls around and in the center,
while the exterior walls are two shades of brown and the ground is also
brown, hence the cookie image. Is it very easy to get hit, especially if
someone decided to throw three green shells in a row. Item boxes are located
mainly where there are gaps to pass in between the walls and along the
exterior close to the edge of the cookie.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
Accuracy is needed here to win, random shooting will bring random results.
Nintendo Gamecube:
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Nowhere to hide in this stage. The battle arena is on a Nintendo Gamecube.
The size of the arena is small yet again (the same size as the Cookie Land
arena), but with the lack of walls in the center, it seems bigger. Item
boxes are located in the center and on the power, reset and open buttons.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
Since there are no obstacles on this stage, you can't use that to your
advantage. Your best bet is to keep chasing the opponent down until you win.
Getting red shells put the win in the bag here.
Block City:
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The MKDD version of MK64's Block Fort. This battle arena is larger than
Cookie Land and Nintendo Gamecube, which is good. This squared stage has
four inner walls in its four quadrants and a large exterior wall circling
the stage. The ground level of this stage is uneven, behind the blue wall it
drops down (or raises up, depending on where your coming in from). The
yellow wall section has a small path inside containing some item boxes,
which can be a good escape route in case of someone chasing you. Items can
be found at all corners and intersections.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
Yes, I said it many times and I'll say it again, chase the opponent down.
Try to make the opponent make a wrong turn and get stuck behind the blue
wall because he can't go up, the job should be easy then.
Pipe Plaza:
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A big stage, one of the two stages that I actually like to play in. Two
ramps are located near the bottom of the stage (one on the left and one on
the right), going up and continuing all the way to the top of the stage.
There is a connecting bridge to cross between those two ramps near the
middle. At the top of the stage, there are 4 pipes, one leading to another,
and that one to another. Item boxes are located just about everywhere one
this stage.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
Learn the pipe pattern, from left to right...
- Pipe 1 leads to pipe 3
- Pipe 2 leads to pipe 1
- Pipe 3 leads to pipe 4
- Pipe 4 leads to pipe 2
With this, you can surprise the opponent and run off quickly.
Luigi's Mansion (locked):
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This stage is locked when you start a new game but becomes available once
you get the gold trophy in the Mushroom Cup on 150cc. Like Pipe Plaza, this
stage is one I can play for a good while in. This stage is big and there are
three levels to this stage, the basement, the 1st floor, and the 2nd floor,
so there's much more space to use. You start of on the first floor, the
green ramp heads to the top, while the red, brown and orange ramps head
down. Item boxes can be found on ramps and pretty much around the stage. Not
like the other battle arena, the music featured in this stage is the one
from Bowser's Castle.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
The 2nd floor is your friend! There a big hoole in the middle of that floor
leading to the 1st floor. Staying up there and shooting green shells down
there really helps. There's not much to do for the opponent when there's a
shower of green shells falling quickly.
Tilt-A-Kart (locked):
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This stage is locked when you start a new game but becomes available once
you get the gold trophy in the Flower Cup on Mirror Mode. The stage isn't
hard to get a clear image of, this arena is shaped like small Mario (NES).
This stage is rather special, like its name implies, it tilts. Sadly, it
doesn't tilt along with where the player's kart is, it tilt's on the "y"
axis, thus tilts on the top and bottom of the map. It seems to always start
by tilting at the bottom downwards, then tilt's the other way. Item boxes
are pretty much everywhere, following the tilt of the stage. Like Luigi's
Mansion, the music here isn't like other battle arena, it's the music from
Baby Park.
Yoshi Wannabe's Tip:
Be careful for fake item boxes in this stage, since there ae item boxes
pretty much everywhere, it's hard to tell them apart ... unless the stage
tilts. Fake item boxes don't tumble down like the real item boxes, they stay
stationary.
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