Dirty underhand tactics

Submitted by Fedule on January 29, 2005 - 11:34am

Depending on how you like to play, you might like some of these...

The Sticky Bat Probe - the original underhand tactic. You need a sticky bat (obviously) and a ball, and you must be moving towards the opponent you wish to probe. Simply move so that the ball is behind their bat (preferably over their floater balloon) and release. Catch the ball and repeat until the opponent is going down.

Wrap - it seems to me that the computer isn't so cautious about wrap as experienced humans are. So if you're playing against computers or newbies, try activating Wrap and hitting the ball so it wraps around and towards another player. They won't see it coming but may still be able to block it if their reflexes are good.

Football - Charge! This is the best piece of advice I can give you. You start off with a bit of Power anyway, and in subsequent matches you will have carried over power. So simply charge straight at the enemy goalie and probe him. If you get the ball first it's easier, if he gets it he will likely shoot at (read: to) you.

Dogs Extreme - Use Inku. If you want to be risky, you can try using Moon or Pook too, but they are vulnerable to mines and Laser Extreme, so be careful. Alternatively, try using BCM if you think you have the reflexes to hit the balls at least once each.

Any situation where you're moving VERY fast - use Jera. Laser Extreme plus some pace generally equalls a lot of players with no bubbles.

Add your own, comment, or wait until updates render these useless...

Submitted by Zwilnik on January 29, 2005 - 12:21pm.

Hehe Smile Updates won't be likely to make any of these tactics useless. All sports should have at least a few dirty underhand tactics Wink

As far as the football charge is concerned, it can work, but it can also backfire. Because using thrust also launches the ball off you, you can miss (or get your goalie shot out) and end up with the situation reversed Smile

If you've unlocked the robots, the MM-1 is also fun in situations where people are bouncing around fast. Shred Extreme (or the shred powerup) can do a lot of damage when people are ramming each other fast.

There's another dirty underhand tactic that was originally developed in Airburst, the corner trap. There's two ways to use it. The easy way is to ram an opponent into a corner with the burster, so they're stuck in the corner with the ball bouncing in the corner against their balloons. They can either try and thrust away from the corner (but lose a lot of balloons as they can't defend against the ball) or try and deflect the ball.

The other way to use corners, is to move yourself into the corner and trap the ball in the corner (only really practical when there's only a single ball in play). If you do this while the ball is still moving slowly and keep batting it against the corner, it speeds up each time it's hit. So by the time you relelease it, the ball will be travelling fast and the other players will have a hard time hitting it Smile Not to mention, your Extreme power should be fully charged by this point. If you're using BCM or the MM-2, someone else is going to take a lot of damage!

Submitted by MoonBurst on January 30, 2005 - 2:06pm.

Mini Mode ? You should try MM1 and get up to speed. When you hit a player like this, you'll move right through him and rip a huge chunk, if not all, of his balloons off. Same goes for Jera actually, though it's difficult to get him up to speed and not spoil his extreme power in the process (something known as premature extremespoilation!). Wink

Level full of mines ? See if you can bash another player into them. Inku has the annoying tendency not to be affected by this, but at least the mines are gone.

Level swarming with bursters (particularly BCM's) and lost a lot of balloons ? If there's a warp you're lucky. If you can keep hovering in the middle every burster coming at you will get warped away just before it hit's you. And your bat extends far enough to keep hitting them too ! Of course, when another human player sees what you're doing he'll knock you right outta there.

If you start off with a sticky bat, you can try bouncing the burster into a nearby wall and catching it again. It's a nice way to crank up your extreme power.

Instead of doing that, you can try probing as explained in the posts above. Being Maya especially helps with this, because computer players under the influence of swap extreme will face their bats away from the bursters. In the higher levels at least. In lower levels they might just swing it 'round.