Hands-On: Tank! Tank! Tank!’s Simple Gameplay Still Packs Enough Heat To Hit With Hardcore & Casual Alike, 9.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating

I cannot be the only one who find themselves getting Earth Defense Force flashbacks triggered by this image, can I?

Namco Bandai lists the genre for their upcoming Wii U launch title Tank! Tank! Tank! as ‘Battle Party Game’, but upon spending some time with the game it quickly becomes apparent just how apt this rather unusual description really is. Certainly, at least, that was the case for me after I managed to play several rounds of Tank! Tank! Tank! on the show floor of E3 last week. To be sure, this is not the most complex of games ever produced but T!T!T! might just be of that rare breed of game that ends up being appealing to both the hardcore gaming set and the casual gaming population alike. Heck, they might even enjoy to playing it together with one another.

Originally released as an arcade title in Japan and the US back in 2009, Tank! Tank! Tank! is a one-to-four player action game which places players in the role of tank drivers in the middle of an invasion of various giant monsters and robots. Players will be able to team up to battle these opponents, go head to head directly in 4X4 and 2X2 competitive tank battles, and even have one player assume control of the enemy (giant bosses and all) while the other other three work together to take them down. The title’s overall gameplay is fairly straightforward, with the tanks driving essentially like cars (the demo I played at E3 had the three Wiimotes hooked up to the system alongside the Wii U GamePad ensconced in Wii Wheels) and aiming being a fairly painless process by way of the control sticks and/or motion controls. Those looking for anything resembling a sim-like experience should keep on looking because that is not what Tank! Tank! Tank! is interested in.

Because when fighting giant multistory monstrosities, their is no such thing as overkill.

Instead, the game is all about a rollicking group experience designed to be accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Its a game that encourages equal parts teamwork and competition in and where earning points is almost as important as taking down enemies. Death is rarely a setback, unless all players buy it at once, and generally simply leads to a 30 sec respawn as part of the overall fast paced nature of the game. Destruction also looms large in Tank! Tank! Tank!, with players capable of causing as much damage to a level’s various destructible environments as the enemies are. Other elements include various power-ups that appear both at random and at key times during boss fights and which range from a powerful machine gun (a tank’s default weapon being the slow firing and cumbersome cannon for which the vehicle has become famous for in popular culture) to a 5 tiered missile launcher to a massive laser cannon clearly modeled after the kind used in a number of Godzilla movies over the years (in a nice little touch, picking up a power-up also changes the current look a tank to reflect said weapon). The weapons gained from these power-ups all have limited ammo (as opposed to a tank’s default main cannon) and differing rate of fire making them each suited better for different opponents.

At its core, Tank! Tank! Tank! is a delightfully chaotic and over-the-top affair that really comes to life when four players are available to play the game. I ended up playing through the demo three times, once with only one other person and twice with a different set of three other random people, and the difference in experience between these play sessions was stark. To be fair, I was unable to try out the game’s planned single player campaign mode (which, among other things, features unique enemies and bosses designed exclusively for this mode and will be the main way for players to unlock new tanks for use in other modes) but there is no question that in regards to T!T!T!‘s main co-op mode, everything is simply more enjoyable with more people present and involved in the action. My time with the title also demonstrated its party game chops fairly well thanks to the other people I ended up playing with had all never previously touched the title. Yet the game is so accessible that both times we were all quickly able to fall into an enjoyable grove of alternately helping and backstabbing one another in our joint quest to defeat the army of giant spiders and their boss, a robotic three-headed dragon of all things, that stood in our way. I can easily imagine T!T!T! becoming a perennial favorite for families on game night or at parties. I could also see how the Wii U Gamepad’s screen functionality (which in the main co-op mode is more or less just restricted to just being an alternate screen for playing the game on; the use of its other functionality being restricted to the 3 on 1 mode that sadly I was unable to play at the time) could help ease play in an otherwise crowded and noisy location.

Bosses in particular call for teamwork. Unless the other three players quickly concentrate their fire on the head holding this guy, for example, he will be toast in mere moments regardless of his current health levels.

On a surface level, Tank! Tank! Tank! is certainly not the most impressive example of the Wii U’s visual capabilities. Still, during my time with the game at least, dozens upon dozens of foes, a wide variety of weapons fire, and the frequent destruction of surrounding buildings and other objects all filled the screen regularly without even a drop of slowdown rearing its ugly head. Which, ultimately, I would argue is the most important aspect graphically speaking for a game like this in my opinion. I will say that I personally find the floating faces that hover over each player’s tank (a holdover from the arcade version where the four machines needed to play the game made the inclusion of such a feature more understandable) more distracting than anything else and hopefully the final version of T!T!T! will give players the ability to turn this feature off.

I was unable to get any kind of definitive answer regarding the crucial question of whether or not the game will feature online multiplayer from the Namco Bandai representatives I talked too. The various press materials I have access to conspicuously fail to mention the possibility of online play and that leads me to think it will likely not be a feature, which is unfortunate to say the least. Certainly this a game that would be greatly served by such an inclusion so hopefully I am either wrong or the developers at Namco Bandai can find a way to include such functionality as future DLC.

Even without online multiplayer however, Tank! Tank! Tank! remains a highly enjoyable game that is simple to play yet still possessing enough complexity and other elements to be an engaging and enjoyable experience. Some games simply feature that perfect mix that lets them be appealing to both hardcore and casual gamers and I think T!T!T! could be another example of just such a game. I already feel like all the ingredients are present and that was without even getting to play its dedicated competitive modes. At the very least, there have been far worse examples of both launch titles and party games released in the past and I would argue that the game’s years of success in arcades (particularly in Japan) should prove there is something to the game’s basic formula. Tank! Tank! Tank! is currently planned for a Winter 2012 release as one of the launch titles for the Wii U. Stay tuned to Blistered Thumbs for continuing coverage of the game and be sure to share your thoughts and opinions in the comment section below.

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