Balloon Battle
The goal of Balloon Battle is to pop other players’ balloons while protecting your own. It’s the classic mode we all know and love. The major difference here is that you no longer play on race tracks, but actual battle arenas. With twelve racers roaming around all holding power-ups, things can get hairy very quickly.
Scores are tallied by the number of hits you land on your opponents. The player or team with the most successful hits is declared the winner. Each player starts with five balloons. Every time a player is hit with an item one of their balloons pops.
You won’t be out of the game if all five of your balloons are popped, but you will lose a nice chunk of the points you’ve built up—the same goes for your opponents. This means it’s a good idea to hunt for the player with the most points. How do you tell who has the most points? Easy! Look at your map in the bottom-right corner of the screen and look to see which racer has a crown on their head. If you manage to pop all of their balloons, they’ll be bumped right out of first place.
You shouldn’t focus exclusively on taking out the leader, however. It’s just as effective to attack other players while they try to attack the leader themselves. Earning a steady stream of points while protecting your balloons is the best strategy in this mode.
Renegade Roundup
This mode is a six-on-six take on cops and robbers, but instead of being called “cops and robbers,” it’s the Authority vs. the Renegades. Six players are strapped with Piranha Plants, while the other six have nothing but the power-ups they can procure on the arena to protect them.
The goal is for the Authority to use their Piranha Plants to eat up the robbers. Every time a Renegade is eaten, they are transferred to a jail cell on the far side of the map. Once inside, a jailed player cannot escape without help from their Renegade allies on the outside. If all six Renegade players are jailed, the game is over.
So how do you escape? Easy. One of your Renegade friends need to hit the big switch underneath the cage. Once the button has been hit, the jailed Renegades are freed and the game presses on. The one who freed his or her comrades will be given points based on the number of freed teammates. These points are tallied at the end of the round to determine the score.
Once time runs out or all six Renegades have been jailed, the round is over and the teams rotate; those who were the Authority are now Renegades and those who were Renegades are now the Authority. At the end of the second round, the number of freed Renegades is tallied and the team with the most freed Renegades wins
This is one of only two Battle Mode game types that feature Coins on the map. If you didn’t already know, Coins increase your top speed, so grabbing them as either a member of the Authority or a Renegade is an absolute must if you want to capture, or flee from, other players. Getting hit makes you drop your Coins, reducing your top speed.
If you’re struggling to get in close enough to a Renegade to have your Piranha Plant chomp down on them, try hitting the Renegade with an item to not only stun them temporarily, but also get them to drop their Coins. The goal is to get in close, so use your mini-map to cut off Renegade players (or avoid the Authority when YOU’RE the Renegade).
On the flip side, hitting an Authority member temporarily keeps their Piranha Plant from snipping, meaning you can drive past them safely without fear of being jailed.
No matter what team you end up on, stay mobile and keep a careful watch on your mini-map. As a Renegade, stay away from crowded areas and be sneaky when going to save your friends from jail. As a member of the Authority, stay on the hunt for areas you can cut Renegades off at and grab Coins as frequently as you can.
Bob-omb Blast
Bob-omb Blast is a twist on the classic Balloon Battle game type. Every area that has Item Boxes now has significantly more, but here’s the catch: all of them have Bob-ombs in them. You can hold up to ten Bob-ombs at a time and the goal, like Balloon Blast, is to pop your opponents’ balloons.
This mode is absolute chaos, so the best strategy is to stay outside large groupings of racers and shoot Bob-ombs toward their location. Bob-ombs create a massive explosion that is very easy to get caught in, so when several Bob-ombs are going off at once, you’re almost sure to get caught in someone’s blast if you’re anywhere near a heavy-combat area.
Coin Runners
Coin Runners is the second Battle Mode game type to feature Coins, but this time they are the main focus of the game. Your job is to collect as many Coins as possible and hang-on to them until the end of the game. The catch? Anytime you are hit by an item you drop a large portion of the Coins in your possession; the same is true for any other player you hit. Your goal then is to knock the Coins out of other players’ hands, steal them, and protect your own Coins.
Coins on the map reappear after a short time, so always stay on the move and ready to get them as they appear. Keep a close watch on your map to avoid other players, or use it to try and set up ambushes to steal other players’ Coins. If you have the Feather, you can leap over a player and steal their Coins directly, and the same is true when you run into another player with a Mushroom.
Shine Thief
Your goal in Shine Thief is to grab the Shine and hold onto it for a total of twenty seconds. There’s only one Shine, so expect every other racer to be hot on your heels the second you get your hands on it. If you’re hit by an item, you’ll drop it and the game will turn into a mad dash to be the first to pick it up again.
If you do lose the Shine, don’t worry too much. Your time is cumulative, meaning you need a total of twenty seconds, not twenty seconds all at once. However, if you lose the Shine with less than five seconds remaining, your timer resets to five seconds when you pick up the Shine again. Just follow the pack, get some item shots in if you can, and wait for the Shine to drop again. Once it’s on the ground, drive right on through, grab it and be on your way. If you use a Mushroom or a Super Star, you can steal the Shine directly from another player.
Having faster karts and racers is a good idea for this game type. Your success hinges on grabbing the Shine quickly and getting away from the pack even faster. Heavier racers have higher top speeds, but take a bit of time to rev up, and with all the chaos surrounding the Shine, you’ll more than likely take a hit before you can ever reach your top speed. Using Featherweight and Light racers allows you to jet toward the Shine and escape quickly.