Balloon Pop

"pop the most balloons in this speed of test and accuracy"

- In-game description

Balloon Pop is a gamemode in Island Wars 2 and Island Wars 2 Xmas. It is completely unique to these games, the only element being ported over from the original Island Wars being the cannon itself.

Rules
In this gamemode, only one rule can be set: Play..., which can be set to Alone or With a friend. The latter option allows for a gameplay where the two players at the same device compete against each other in score, with twice the balloons appearing (initially and then through respawning) compared to playing alone.

Gameplay
The player controls a cannon on an island which is at the middle of the screen's bottom, with three palm trees on it as decoration. The goal is to shoot down the small balloons, which in other gamemodes are used for gaining bonuses, and to gain a score as high as possible, with the score for popping an individual balloon increasing or decreasing over time depending on how fast they are popped. These appear on the screen in random spots one-by-one from the start (or two-by-two if playing against another person), and shooting down a balloon instantly spawns another one. The balloons can appear in any colour, randomised as well, however this is unsignificant in terms of gameplay since no bonuses are gained by shooting them down. A game consists of 10 consecutive rounds, each lasting 30 seconds. At the start of each round starting from the second one, the player's view broadens, making it harder to aim for the farther away balloons. The cannon has a set blaster energy, which recharges over time. With full blaster energy, it can fire 10 bullets.

Ending
After the last round ends, the "cease fire" screen appears, after which the camera pans to the winning player's island (which is determined by the amount of points they gathered), or the only island if the game was single-player. The winner is then given a rating, dependant on the settings they played against and the mutators used, with which they can enter the leaderboards.

Mutators
All mutators can be used in this gamemode, except for Bouncy Bombs and PX-35 "Palmkillers", which have no significance in gameplay, but still lower ratings.

Strategies
"this being one of the most simplistic gamemodes in the entire series, i don't think there's really much strategy tips to offer here. use more bullets the farther away the balloon is, if it's far enough fire multiple shots at different angles at once to minimize the time spent, but try not to waste your ammo and to stay with an undepleted energy bar whenever it's possible. otherwise, you're just dependant on your aiming skills and rng. good luck have fun!"

- TheGreatestRoman111