Tank Beat review

You'll welcome a dishonorable discharge from this army of pain

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Variety of tank types

  • +

    Internet Wi-Fi support

  • +

    Beat it in an afternoon

Cons

  • -

    Simplistic and repetitive

  • -

    Dreadfully dull

  • -

    Worthless teammates

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Tank Beat combines rolling combat action and real-time strategy command, dividing attention between the top screen's muddy 3D rendering and the touchscreen's rote 2D world of targeting, route management, and support direction. Draw a blue line from your tank's radar blip to a destination, sweep the stylus to change the view, blow enemies up with a tense tap of the corresponding red dot, and issue orders to companions. The elements are simple, and there might've been a decent game in there somewhere, but any potential enjoyment is squashed by the poor execution of every last element.

Drawing a path for your non-descript box is simple, but the resulting blue line can't be altered or extended. Worse, drawing new ones results in a screeching sitting-duck halt, and the reference line disappears entirely any time a cut-scene interrupts the mission. Even without these annoyances, combat boils down to ceaselessly drawing semi-circles around red blips, and the fact that anything but a dead-center tap yields a miss prolongs the life of even stationary targets. When you do finally hit something, you're rewarded with a laughable pixelated explosion and nails-on-blackboard sound effects.

More info

GenreAction
DescriptionUse a variety of tanks to crush your opponents in this touch-based battle game.
Platform"DS"
US censor rating"Everyone 10+"
UK censor rating"Rating Pending"
Less