Back when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), also known in some Asian countries as the Family Computer, was still dominating it as the premiere gaming platform, one of the more popular games outside of “Super Mario” was “Battle City.”
It involves as much as two players playing simultaneously where they both defend their single base from enemy tanks that are too plenty for the two of them.
In “Battle City,” the game setting is highlighted by concrete blocks, steel blocks, foliage, water, and sand. Players’ tanks cannot go through metal and water while it can blast its way to the rest of the environs.
Tanks also get stronger every time they get a star until they become a heavy metal one where it can even blast its way through steel.
Apparently, the same block-based world is introduced in the multiplayer top-down shooter video game recently released for the PC called as “Tankout,” developed by independent game developer Phil Hassey.
Strategizing is key to beat opponents
Unlike in “Battle City” where players have a common enemy, “Tankout” players battle against each other. So while they strategize on how they beat their fellow players or tank them out, they can also collect coins to buy more blocks, weapons, and other objects, reports the Android Police.
“Battle City” has always been an offline game but “Tankout” can only be played online with multiplayers because playing offline and alone would not be as fun as playing it online with plenty of gamers.
A player can also set up traps for the other tanks using turrets and fireballs only if the opponent or opponents do not see him doing it and spoil his plans while working on the contraption. Otherwise, he gets blown up first and lose in the game.
Most of the blocks can be destroyed by a cannon, so a player sort of tunnel around the map looking for the enemy.
As “Tankout” is played online, the quality of the experience of players depends on how many people are playing. Those who had the opportunity to play the game have said that it is quite fun when there are a few people in the same arena.
This means that if there are too much player playing in the same arena, it becomes a free-for-all “Wild, Wild West” or perhaps that of “Royal Rumble” in the WWE.
A free to play game
While it may be a retro-looking game in this day of high-resolution and heavy graphics among today’s crop of video games, “Tankout” is a completely free to play PC game and it does not seem to feature any ads just like other video games.
It also features a pro pack upgrade that includes a few game perks, as well as packs of coins that the player can buy. The IAPs top out at just $5, though.
The game developer apparently believes that despite its retro-look, “Tankout” still has a captured market among video gamers because people like shooting stuff with tanks.
With “Tankout,” gamers can shoot blocks, other blocks, slightly different blocks, and other tanks. Some game critics believe that it is an evolution of the equally popular strategy game “Galcon,” developed as well by Phil Hassey.
Hassey is back at the helm of the massively multiplayer action game, which some critics say is kind of a curious combination where players try to take out other gamers in a variety of worlds online while collecting coins.
The gamer’s objective is to spend the coins to build a world of his own design, placing a variety of hazards to bedevil all those who enter, with the goal of collecting enough coins to lock his world down, though before then, gamers can damage his world and place their own obstacles.
It appears very much like “Clash of Clans” though in a retro block-based world, points out XDA Developer.