The AI-controlled tanks aren't exactly geniuses, but they do attack and dodge, employing different weapons and even shields and specials. The major problem with the game, besides the glacial responsiveness of your tank, lies in the camera angle. You have no control over the third-person camera, and when you back too close to a wall, it focuses tightly upon your tank from above so you can't see anything else. That's a problem when two enemies are approaching, weapons blazing.

The action is further hampered by logistics: deathmatch and team deathmatch games are acceptable with only four players, but that's not enough bodies - or tanks - for a good game of CTF or capture and hold.

An action game with such gratingly imperfect action doesn't add up to much. BattleZone has its moments; we'd be lying if we said we didn't experience some fantastic moments during four-player games, but too often someone was complaining that he couldn't see anything just before he died, while someone else was noting how the tanks move slower than bicycles. BattleZone represents a great idea for a game, but it must have looked better on paper than it plays on a real PSP.