“Tank! Tank! Tank!” is an unexpected surprise for the Wii U’s launch.
The game is a port of a 2009 arcade game by Namco. In it, the player drives a tank around several different arenas, including a city, an ancient ruin similar to an Aztec temple and an industrial center resembling a power plant, collecting weapon power-ups and fighting a variety of giant robotic monsters that look like they came from an old Godzilla movie. The player is given a time limit to accomplish an objective of some kind, typically to destroy a certain number of monsters.
Story mode is the game’s primary focus. In this mode, one player earns medals for each level he or she beats, which are used to unlock new levels and additional tanks to choose from. It’s mostly a single-player campaign mode, although another player with limited options can join in using a standard Wii remote to assist.
The controls are responsive and easy to learn, consisting mostly of using the directional pad to move around and a single button to fire weapons. The gameplay is simplistic but fun, which is what you would expect from an arcade game. I could see “Tank! Tank! Tank!” becoming repetitive over time, but it is fun while it lasts, and the game was released as a budget title, costing $50 instead of the standard $60 for new releases, so I’m willing to be a little more lenient on it.
The game also makes use of the camera built into the Wii U’s game pad, allowing players to take pictures of their faces and put them on their tanks as well as some monsters in certain multi-player modes, which is a nice little touch.
“Tank! Tank! Tank!” also has four multi-player specific modes, consisting of the typical kinds of things, as well as a mode where one person controls a giant robotic ape intent on destroying a city while it’s up to three other players controlling tanks to try and stop the ape.
I was expecting “Tank! Tank! Tank!” to be a low-grade and quickly forgettable launch title, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it was a very fun addition to the Wii U’s library. It isn’t a strong enough title to convince someone to buy the system on its own, but it is a solid secondary title for someone who wants to play something else when they get tired of the newest Mario game.
