BattleTanx

"There's a typo in the game name. Try and spot it, fOO!"

Battle Tanx is none other than the GBC port of the N64 game, which was already the sequel to the fun Battle Tank on the NES. Since the GBC is somewhat a handheld NES, the game has been converted to the platform to see how it would fit it. This is a rather lame decision since the N64 version was never that popular and didn't really make such an impact on the gaming community.

The tanks are still present and you're set to battle against other tanks, turrets and even buildings in some cases. Similar to the first title, you control a tank. However, since so much progress has been achieved meantime, the game is no longer as simple as back in the 90's when all you had to do was to defend your base from oncoming enemies.

Now, you are set to meet certain objectives and the enemies have a quite remarkable AI in certain, but very few, cases. Moreover, the presence of a plot somehow makes the game more interesting. Okay, it's not really a very deep plot but it makes for a better gameplay and does give you a reason to play the damn game.

Like I just said, you now have to meet certain objectives to beat the levels and to move on. This was a great idea until the programmers decided to include pointers to help out the gamers. Bad idea because this makes the game too easy ! While some may think it is a nice addition, it actually prevented me from fully enjoying the game. And I had lost all interest by the later stages.

Battle Tanx has quite nice graphics which show that the GBC is indeed a fine portable system. I actually regard this game as one of the few which makes the most of the system's capabilities. The backgrounds are highly detailed such that even the builidings appear to be realistic, which is a really amazing achievement if you consider how most titles are really ugly.

The only drawbacks here concerns your own tank. You actually have choices but all of them are really too plain and have distracting colors. They become really annoying after some time and I can't recall how many times I lost mainly because I was distracted by the damn tanks. Talk about a funny situation !

There's not much to say about the sound in this game for the simple reason that it has next to none to offer. There are some decent sound effects but alas, there are too few of them which means you'll be bored like hell upon hearing the same thing over and over again. The music is not bad at all but some pieces seem to have been rushed through which is a pity because things would have been better if the developers had cared to spend more time on those.

Battle Tanx is a very simple game with an intuitive gameplay and if someone can't grasp the basics by himself, then he has got to be a complete idiot. You just have to move on and destroy all the enemies while looking for the objectives. The briefings between each mission are very nice and beautifully done but truthfully, I lost track after some time.

Among the most innovative changes, the ability to destroy certain buildings instead of having to move around a lot is very fun. It's basically the same principle as in Battle Tank where you could destroy the birck wall once you had a powerful weapon but hey, making buildings explode is more fun ! There are also all types of special weapons from the homing missiles to the hi-tech bomb which will destroy all enemies on-screen.

The game is quite fun but the lack of challenge is a big drawback and thus makes it quite boring after a while. The objectives are easily dealt with even at the higher levels and you'll quickly beat the 2 modes. As it is, Battle Tanx has no replay value and is repetetive near the end. I would just qualify it as a little game to spend your time on if you don't have better games and you just want a quick and easy game.

It has some appeal though but this does not last. However, some may definitely want to try it out since games of this genre aren't plentiful on the GBC. In any case, you'll have fun and you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did…until you get bored…which comes too soon..and then…you'll agree with me.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/07/01, Updated 11/09/02