Tiny Tank
Score: 80% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment America Developer: AndNow Media: CD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Third Person Shooter/ Action
Graphics & Sound: Tiny Tank struts some fairly good lighting effects along with decent explosions. There are a few problems with camera angles, yet nothing worse than what you would see in a Tomb Raider game. The overlying tank design, however, gives a strong resemblance to that of Ghost in the Shell. The backgrounds are somewhat repetitive and bland, and in the most cases, the enemy characters are kinda blocky, although there was no popup or slowdown, which is definitely a plus. However, for the idea of a 3rd person tank shooter, this rugged look sort of works quite well to fit into the game-style. The strongest thing going for Tiny Tank in this category is the little guy’s attitude. This game is oozing machismo. The game makes you not only feel as though you are behind the controls of Tiny Tank, but rather are actually the character, because of his humanlike features (i.e. eyes, and a face). Tiny Tank does boast a really cool line up of music and sound. Perhaps the best part is the fact that this little booger will and does talk some serious trash (even on the verge of death).
Gameplay: A strong showing for Tiny Tank in this department. In my opinion, Tiny Tank has a similar feel to driving the tank on StarFox 64, which entails good handling and responsive controls -- the difference lying in the fact that you have a little more freedom to move about in the backgrounds. Jumping does take some time to get used to because the control is so responsive, and at some point, the camera angle glitches can make you miss the center of a ledge. Overall, Tiny Tank has a firm hold over the category of gameplay, particularly for a 3D shooter; especially since games of this genre generally have extremely sticky controls that tend to lag behind controller commands.
Difficulty: Although the levels did allow for some modified exploration, I did find Tiny Tank to be slightly short. The overriding game is linear in its objectives, most of which being to fight your way through levels and going toe to toe with a Big Boss at the end of the level. The jumping aspect of Tiny Tank does add a level of difficulty, and in some cases, just shooting at an enemy doesn’t necessarily mean that it was the best means of destroying it. You may incorporate some strategy, and in some cases even get the enemy to go against itself. Overall, in this department I did find Tiny Tank to be slightly easy, but not to the extent that one would lose interest in playing the game. Besides, the two-player vs. mode adds a nice kick to the replay value when company comes over.
Game Mechanics: Man creates machines, machines become intelligent, machines wanna lay the smack down on man. A familiar plot, yet with a new twist. Instead of mankind fighting back with cool weapons and bombs, they send in a little tank with big cajones. Tiny Tank incorporates a 3D character in a semi-free flowing background in which you must fight your way through hordes of enemies to destroy a boss at the end of the level. Therefore, you must collect brains from fallen enemies, pick up weapon power ups, and blast your way through to victory. If you like shooters, Tiny Tank is definitely one to think about. It has a cool leading character and some strong points of originality.
-Sabumnim, GameVortex Communications AKA Larry Callier
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