The title of this Windows Phone game says it all; Tank Battle. Your goal is simple, destroy the enemy tanks. The battlefield is peppered with obstacles that not only hinder your movement but also acts as protection from enemy fire.
To see how big or tiny a blast Tank Battle can be, power your way past the break.
Game Layout
The main menu of Tank Battle has options to enter the battle, resume saved games in progress, access info about the game/developer and access the game's options.
Options cover sound and controls. You can control your tank one of two ways. You have the Touch/Chase Control option where the tank moves in the direction of where you've tapped the screen. A second tap fires your cannon.
The other option is Arcade Controls that places movement and fire control icons at the bottom of the screen. To the left is the rotation controls and to the right is the accelerator and fire controls.
Here's my first (and maybe the only) knock on the game. Tank Battle needs better controls. The Touch/Chase option isn't very responsive and the Arcade icons are awfully small.
I'm not sure what the answer is but if the Arcade Icons were a little larger, maybe that would do the trick but then you sacrifice more of the playing field. Also, there's no reverse. You can easily get stuck between a rock and a hard space.
Let's get ready to rumble
You begin Tank Battle at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and as you defeat your enemies, you have the opportunity to move up in rank. It's a win/loss type situation in that as you progress in rank, your enemies get tougher.
The game screen has a stat bar running across the top of the screen. Here you'll see your armor level, power ups in use and current level of play. Power ups help temporarily upgrade your armor, cannon and maneuverability. You can collect power ups by running over them.
The battlefield is populated with an assortment of tanks (who will fire upon one another) and you simply move about blowing them to smithereens. At some point in time, enemy tanks will be joined by helicopter gunships.
Overall Impression
Tank Battle's game play was nice but it was hard to get over the challenging controls. I often wanted to rotate left but the controls are so close, I rotated right. The fire and movement controls are spaced but their size becomes the challenge. With the Touch/Chase option, I often found myself stuck behind a boulder unable to turn around. All of which made for an easy target for the enemy tanks.
Sound effects, animation, and overall mission of the game does make Tank Battle an attractive game. As is, Tank Battle is a fun game to pass the time with in short bursts but lacks that "I'm hooked" feature to give the game an addictive quality.
There is a free trial available for Tank Battle with the full version running $1.29. You can download either here (opens Zune) at the Marketplace.
