Tank! Tank! Tank! was exactly what I needed. Every E3 I see and play somewhere between ten and three hundred first person shooters, most of which, despite a few individuals flourishes, boil down to Captain Army telling you where to go and who to shoot amidst a sea of grey and brown hues. They’re fun, usually, but they’re also homogenizing into an unrecognizable mélange of the same thing and three days later I can’t tell one from the other without my notes.
So imagine my delight when we walked by something called Tank! Tank! Tank! and witnessed a whole new world of yellow and green tanks blasting the crap of out giant insects in a cel-shaded urban paradise. Based on the 2009 arcade game of the same name (which also happened to be a few feet away), this interpretation Tank! Tank! Tank! on display was for Nintendo’s new Wii U.
Single player carried out like a combination of Battle Tanx and Earth Defense Force 2017. There didn’t seem to be much to it, it was an arcade game after all, and mostly involved driving a tank around and blowing the snot out of all who approached. Eventually a hydra looking boss reared its head, and we were tasked with vanquishing it while it popped up all over the city.
Multiplayer, on the other hand, left a much better impression. First I was asked to use the Wii U’s gamepad to take a picture of my face, which was then placed into an absurd frame with a bunch of silly superimposed items (I chose a luchador mask). From there one of us looked at the TV monitor while the other observed the Wii U’s tablet pad. This was a neat implementation of local co-op, which finally solved the problem of looking your buddy’s screen in a vain attempt to see what he or she is up to (one could content the player with the tablet could do the same thing, but that’s an argument for another day).
In any case what proceeded was fairly mindless, but also a bunch of fun. Four tanks, two of which were CPU’s in our demo, stalked the battlefield in a standard death match. All kinds of power-ups were available, including giant missile launchers, screen obliterating nukes, and plasma beams. Some of these, the nuke in particular, seemed a little too cheap for their own good, but hopefully some balance tweaks are still in store. Playing with fellow DigitalChumps’ editor Steve Schardein, I was always happy to see his goofy face disappear when I tossed a nuke his way (and I’ll ignore the fact that he won by a single kill at the very last second).
I think Tank! Tank! Tank! could be a really great party experience if it stays outside of the retail space. Its whimsical nature and inviting art could provide a signature title for the Wii U’s download service. If it’s a full retail game then its prospects could be troubled, which would be a damn shame as it’s a ton of fun to play.
