A Review: Battletanx 64, N64 1998
BattleTanx 64 is a vehicular combat action game developed and released by the 3DO Company for the Nintendo 64 and Gameboy Colour. It was followed by a sequel in 1998, named BattleTanx: Global Assault. The game is centred around the character of Griffin Spade, a man whose fiancee has been kidnapped by a roaming tank gang after a virus has killed all but a tiny percentage of women. Turning the last remaining women into Queenlords, rulers of the post-apocalyptic world. Play is in the 3rd person and gives the player control over a tank with various weapons and clearly defined goals and missions.
This was a game that I enjoyed for the most part and can't really complain too much about. I thought that the game was a little short, being that I completed it in about 7 hours, but it wasn't terrible. It was fairly fun and packed with action, with a 'man vs. the world' feel that hit well with me. I liked the themes and found the story to be fairly well written and depicted. Play was constant and busy and didn't give the player too much time to lounge around or mess about. You had to keep your mind in the game, and I liked that engagement. I did find that the lack of other tanks for the player to choose from was something that I didn't like, but I did understand why. Hardware limitations of the time meant the most of the focus was given to the AI and world around the player, so I could let that go. I liked the interface and HUD; it was minimal and smartly presented. For me, this is one of those games that can be enjoyed with little to no brainpower required and offers something of a break from more intense and heavy-hitting games. It was fun to load up and play for a couple of hours here and there, and I can appreciate it for that.
The visuals did look a little dated to me, and I found that the environments and world were lots of single block colours and repeating textures, but they looked okay past that. The building destruction was nice, and I liked the various animations for my and the enemy's tanks. The pick-ups and collectables were simply coloured and easy to find, and I liked the little pictures symbolising what ammo I had equipped. I liked the minimap and found it better detailed and more useful than most ones from games of this time. The lighting and shading were pretty good, and I liked the appearance of the smoke and wrecked tanks too. Yeah, it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't ugly either, in my opinion.
Overall, not a bad game, but not one that breaks any boundaries or does anything really new or fresh.
5/10 – Okay!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
This was a game that I enjoyed for the most part and can't really complain too much about. I thought that the game was a little short, being that I completed it in about 7 hours, but it wasn't terrible. It was fairly fun and packed with action, with a 'man vs. the world' feel that hit well with me. I liked the themes and found the story to be fairly well written and depicted. Play was constant and busy and didn't give the player too much time to lounge around or mess about. You had to keep your mind in the game, and I liked that engagement. I did find that the lack of other tanks for the player to choose from was something that I didn't like, but I did understand why. Hardware limitations of the time meant the most of the focus was given to the AI and world around the player, so I could let that go. I liked the interface and HUD; it was minimal and smartly presented. For me, this is one of those games that can be enjoyed with little to no brainpower required and offers something of a break from more intense and heavy-hitting games. It was fun to load up and play for a couple of hours here and there, and I can appreciate it for that.
The visuals did look a little dated to me, and I found that the environments and world were lots of single block colours and repeating textures, but they looked okay past that. The building destruction was nice, and I liked the various animations for my and the enemy's tanks. The pick-ups and collectables were simply coloured and easy to find, and I liked the little pictures symbolising what ammo I had equipped. I liked the minimap and found it better detailed and more useful than most ones from games of this time. The lighting and shading were pretty good, and I liked the appearance of the smoke and wrecked tanks too. Yeah, it wasn't amazing, but it wasn't ugly either, in my opinion.
Overall, not a bad game, but not one that breaks any boundaries or does anything really new or fresh.
5/10 – Okay!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
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