Tank-O-Box HD for iPad Review

Tank-O-Box HD iconI’m not sure how many of you still remember playing a game called Battle City back in Nintendo days. In Battle City, you basically controlled a tank (or coop with another friend) and must protect your base (an eagle?) from being shot at by other tanks. You could pick up some upgrades along the way to enhance your tank and kill more tanks. You won each mission by destroying all enemies’ tanks and that was it. The concept was simple yet fun to play for hours.

Tank-O-Box HD for iPad, made by Alawar Entertainment, takes the outdated graphics to a new level but maintain the same simple, yet fun approach.

In Tank-O-Box HD, you will be controlling a single tank against horde of endless enemies’ tanks. Each mission is basically the same: defend your base at all cost and destroy all enemies’ tanks (and bunkers). Because of this, it may disappoint hardcore players looking for some storyline or RPG elements. There is no tank to choose from and you basically have no stats to upgrade your tank’s abilities whatsoever.

Tank-O-Box HD Review

Although the game has bonuses that upgrade your tank (to move quicker or to have more firepower, for example), Tank-O-Box HD lacks of variety. Casual gamers will definitely be happy because they don’t have to deal with confusing decisions and bunch of texts to read. Simply blow them up, talk later.

Tank-O-Box HD Review Upgrades

If your tank dies, however, all upgrades are lost and you are back with your vanilla tank. On some missions, this can be frustrating because losing your fully upgraded firepower can make you repeat the same mission over and over. I had a mission where there were too many enemies attacking my base at the same time early in the mission and since my firepower was limited, I didn’t have enough time to protect my base. After a 5th attempt, I managed to get through that mission. Or maybe I just sucked?

The enemies’ tanks are quite varied. Some only take 1 shot to be killed and others take a few, depends on your current firepower. Some enemies shoot rockets and can devastate you in one shot, so you have to be careful and plan your move carefully. The tanks don’t seem to have any AI as they randomly move around the map, shooting at specific intervals. Sometimes they will get stucked for a while, giving you an easy kill from behind. There are also a few buildings that you can level down to make things a bit more interesting, such as an enemy radar or tank factories.

There are plenty of missions to satisfy you and they feel endless (which is good, meaning you can have more bangs and booms longer!). Each mission is creatively titled but after a while, you’ll probably ignore them altogether.

Tank-O-Box HD Review Boss battle

The environment in Tank-O-Box HD is what makes Tank-O-Box HD shine. Each mission is designed well with different environments and weather conditions. Most environments are destructible so you’ll always have a battlefield that’s constantly changing.

Controls might take some time to get used to but you basically control the tank with a D-Pad style control using your left hand and tap a circle using your right hand to shoot or by swiping your finger (you can choose your preference on the options).

The graphics are great (just check on the screenshots I took) and explosions are fun to watch. The only thing that annoys me is the music when you are playing the mission and when you win a mission. In fact, they are stuck in my head in a bad way. You have the option to turn the music off if you really want to.

Tank-O-Box HD Review for iPad Conclusion

Tank-O-Box HD Review - Multiple=

The Tank-O-Box HD gets back to the basic: shoot ’em up, blow ’em up, and have fun! It’s a game with really simple mechanics but at the same time challenging on some levels. Blowing other tanks up while trying to maneuver through the battlefield and staying alive are just plain fun. Buildings crumbled into pieces and tanks are blown to smithereens. The game doesn’t have any storyline and basically feels repetitive after a while. However, if you are just looking for some shoot ’em up games to kill time, Tank-O-Box HD will satisfy your hunger as the game throws 55 levels at you in different types of terrains; enough to accompany your for hours if not days.

Tank-O-Box HD – Alawar Entertainment, Inc

Note: Tank-O-Box HD promo code provided for the review

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