Tank Force (Arcade)

Hello, there! I'm Werdito, an Indonesian that keen on game, anime or other stuff that nerd like. One day, i am haunted by have inspiration to make a review blog because of....iseng. So i wrote this article about Namco's 1991 arcade game : Tank Force that can (somehow) rise my patriotism.

So what is Tank force is all about? Mostly is about tank (obviously, duh!) battle against each other, jeep also super WW II war machine. The tank (or two, if two players play this game) must destroy it's enemies while deals with various maze and defend the HQ. I will play this until no one else foolishly threaten my nation. Let's get to it!

It's said "Our strongest Tank Force . Prepare to make an attack". By that it means like "We only have 2 heroic tanks to decimate our foes. Good Luck!". My national government (in this game) really must evaluates our military arsenal when it calls 2 tank as tank force no matter how heroic are those tanks. Worse is i'm playing it alone so only 1 tank is up for the task. By the way what nation is this that need my heroism? By looking at pyramids, an obelisk and deserty environment, i'm guessing it's Egypt. So for Egypt and their ancient heritage. Onward!   

 If you ever play Battle City (1985) in NES, the gameplay will be familiar to you. Because Tank Force is  it's sequel for Arcade. Namco even put Battle City '92s extended version Music in Tank Force's stage but not in this ones. The task is simple: clear the enemies until there is no more reserve of them, indicated in right hand "enemy status" and keep the HQ (walled Eagle symbol on lowest-center section in gamescreen) save from their attack. But this task is become bit complex with enemy that surely outnumbered player and destroyable maze. Also there is player status bar indicating how many player's life & their score, and what the round (stage) where players are in bottom right corner. Red section is for 1st player and blue ones is for 2nd player. The controls are directional stick/button and only 1 button to shoot.

So what's strategy to make those enemies explode to the afterlife efficiently? Clearly you can't just wildly treading and shooting like w+m1 or worse like COD kid (and swearing vulgarly to enemy everytime you die) because your tank can only withstand an impact of any enemy. Though you can but that will make you burn credit/continue fast & lose power-ups .Yes! There is power-ups in Tank Force. They are pop up/born/appear sometime whenever enemy is destroyed also somewhere not in the place where enemy dies. So be perspective! You can see one of them in this screenshot, the cannon shell icon. It will upgrade your firepower but the detail will be briefed later. Back to the strategy, the smart/effective way to win every round in this game is :

1)  Don't forget to take cover by using each and every part of round's maze to your safety! Don't hesitate to "alter" the maze! Also some maze's round intentionally split left side and right side right in the middle of the HQ. "Secure" a passage nearest to it, so you can travel between it's left side and right side in order to protect it better. If you play this game alone that is. If you play it with two player, you can just split the task fairly (1st player's task area is left side and 2nd player's task area is right side). Note worthy is: wall that looks like silver (not white) chocolate is undestroyable by your standard cannon shell also by enemy's.

2) Shoot the enemy when it's not facing toward you! This sounds like un-heroic deed but you clearly is outnumbered by enemies so pretty fair to me. Your shoot (blue) and enemy's (orange) can collide into each other into harmless ping. Just saying. Your tank has 2 pixel width and it's cannon shoot in exact middle of it's width. Take this in mind to account hit & collision detection.

3) Memorize the enemies! Like most action type game. Enemies have colorful variety in arsenal, speed etc. In this screenshot just regular tanks that can be destroyed with single hit of cannon shell. Just like yours but still outnumber you.        

Also destroying enemies safely is only about 60% part to achieve victory each round. You must ensure that the HQ is safe, remember? Wall of the HQ can only endure 2 shoot before dissipating (like regular wall) and HQ itself is destroyed by a single shoot. Summary is: 3 shoots at HQ and then gameover. But The HQ wall is consist of 3 x 4 wall pixels. So make sure to keep your attention to those walls especially in the destroyed side. Also, there is a big and loud "Warning" whenever the HQ get shot. You can't miss it.

The buildings are empty so don't worry about possibility of civilian casualty. Behold! There is new type enemy on top left: A Panzer which is just threadless version of tank . It moves faster (somehow) and fire more frequently than the tanks. So don't underestimate it! Maybe some of you quite wonder about how Tank Force makes me fill with patriotism like legit hero in history lesson, hymn or legendary tale. The reason is because the HQ's symbol is like my nation's symbol : Garuda Pancasila.

Here's the comparison between Garuda Pancasila (Indonesia's national symbol), Eagle of Saladin (Egypt's national symbol), and the HQ's symbol. Of course, i resize them for better comparing analysis. HQ's eagle is definitely facing his head different direction than the others and also shieldless. No wonder the HQ is quite fragile. Here's the other summaries:

1) HQ's eagle has petty beak more like the ones that sparrows have

2) Indonesian's eagle and HQ's are spreading their wing unlike Egypt's who is prudent and regal.

3) Indonesian's eagle surely is the most complex to draw, especially the feathers (they symbolize Indonesia independence day's date)

4) Egypt's eagle has white eye, HQ's has bright red eye (like monster), and Indonesian's has eye with white sclera and black pupil

5) HQ's eagle is bannerless. Because he doesn't have something to say.

Anyway, i have cleared  round 1 and it goes with a Bang! As you can see from this round/level map, there is 6 x 6 hexagonals. That means there are total 36 rounds in Tank Force. Several of them are boss stages. I thought i'm defending against evil invasion, but in 2nd screenshot say " Prepare to make an attack ". So i change my mindstory (there are no story in attraction mode so i have to make my own, ok?!) to become i reclaim all of Egypt's territory from the invaders. That's the reason why the (remaining) Tank Force only 2 units, the other is destroyed during the invasion. Then we fall back to safety and finally time to retaliate. Also if Tank Force occur in WW II period, that means the invaders is Nazis. More accurately the ones who is leaded by Erwin Rommel "the Desert Fox". That's it! I will obliterate each and every Nazi including Rommel himself hopefully.

Round 2 introduces waterfloor that's impassable and also the squary & bulky red tank. At first it's color is grey like other enemy but when it get shot, it turns red as if it is embarrassed and saying "Dont shoot me, Ba-baka!". Shoot it thrice and it Tsunderexplode into afterlife. I apologize for that awkward plot. Here's another reasonable ones: the heavy tank here has special plating that whenever it receive cannonshell, it will convert impact force of said shell into heat. So the tank will explode because it's plating is overheated. Better, huh?!

Notice that my tank turret change to become like giant megaphone ehm, Giant-phone. That's because i pick power-up that have icon like reading of radarscan. Its effect is to make my tank shoot soundwave instead of petty cannonshell like usual. Not only faster but also can traverse through maze and blasting enemies through (except the heavy but it blow with single shoot), but still only allow one projectile in screen like standard shoot. Also here is another power-up that has Plane Icon. What is its effect?

It summons the legendary B-29 Flying Fortress to bomb whole gamescreen, decimating all foe but leave the player and the HQ intact. So it's screen-clearing bomb power-up. Maybe some of you think " Why not send the almighty Flying Fortress to missions instead of 1 or 2 tanks?". Naive! That giant bomber is mercenary. Whenever the player call the air bombing pick the bombing power-up, the mercenaries will do the work ASAP then get the pay ASAP too. After that, they go to wherever they are needed and get pay again. Surely you can't trust someone that only believe in lucrative sum of cash to do such heroic/noble mission such as reclaiming a nation's territory from invader, right? Also Egypt's gov must  mortgages or even sells pyramids, sphinxs and obelisks to recover payment to the mercenaries if they are employed for this whole mission.

I don't screenshot and comment at every round of the game. So don't worry about over-long post! (If you're worried about that). Instead i screenshot and comment whenever there is noticeable moment also boss stages like the one in this Round 4. The bosses are two battle train that have they own space instead like me and the minions in crate maze. The trains can't be shot in the back for sure which i like to do. Instead they are larger shooting target than the lesser enemies so there is that. Don't focus solely to the trains! You still must wipe the lesser enemies to clear this round. Even so, you should clear them first and the trains come later. Because, at first barrier of crates hinder the bosses to shoot and be shot. Now they are quite hole-y thanks to the bosses's "fire support". These trains have the same plating with the heavy tanks albeit more durable. So shoot them many time and don't forget to take cover ! Soon you finish this round.

In round 7, there is jeeps that i told you before. They are fast and place timed-detonation dynamite quite often instead of more direct means like shooting RPG (thankfully). I think this is the time to explain about "firepower upgrade" power-up. First is: it's stackable and permanent (as long as you don't die) so i recommend to take it as many as you can. Here's the detail:

1) Once makes the tank shoots faster-projectile

2) Twice makes the tank can shoot 2 projectiles in screen.

3) Thrice makes the tank can shoot 2 faster-projectiles in screen.

4) Fourth times makes the tank can shoot Rocket-like projectile that can chip the undestroyable wall

Also each upgrade makes your tank look cooler. I think. The "cooler" part not the visual change effect. Pick the upgrade power-up more than fourth times is pointless. 

Every 4 rounds is a boss round. This time, a battle against the Mega Tank and lots of jeeps. As you can tell every boss will have its own private space so you can't sneak behind it and shoot rapidly. Although,  The AK-1 Tank has larger body than the twin trains, you can only harm it in the 3 turrets. Because my tank's aimer/shooter forgets how to adjust main cannon's elevation so it can shoot at The Mega Tank's body. Why he forgets? Amnesia or intimidated by the boss, maybe. But i go with those jeep's co-driver constantly cast WaterMagic: Forgetfullness at the hero. You can notice that my tank's turret change (again) into 4-cannons turret that fire at 4 direction at the same time. This happen because i accidently pick the "4 direction icon" power-up. Frankly, this is double-edged axe (because sword is too common) power-up, because shooting in this game need tactical approach instead of barbaric method like this shoot to 4 direction at once. Imagine if your friend/relative is thirsty and really want a glass of drinking water. Instead you do like he/she asks you for, you throw Drinking-water filled ballon right in his/her face. Barbaric you see?! "Why you picked it up, then?" Because it appears where my tank standing thus word "accidently" i mean. About the boss here, the turrets is spinning in 90^o left to 90^o right from (it's) front direction suggesting it can fire more omni-directionally and dangerous than the first boss. Actually not. The turret will fire only when it exactly facing bottom direction so you can time its attack. Almost forget, it shoots twice a time so be careful! Shoot them many times and you can onward to next round.

On round 9, we have new enemy type! the 4-rocket-pods tank. Normally, that-type tanks are treading with the pods facing upward. Eventually, they will stop treading, setting their pods and shoot a barrage of 4 swift projectile in their aim direction. So just shoot them while treading or not in front of their shooting. Simple! Other method to destroy the enemy is: you can jabber  shoot button while directly facing enemy. You can do this relatively safer if your tank can shoot 2 shells in screen. But don't try that to these enemy type!

I'm in round 10 and there's these super tanks that shoot fireball projectile (like Di-Cokka in Metal Slug) also need to be shot thrice (without color-changing-plating stuff). You can't use the frontal method to deal with them because they have bigger and more powerful shoot than you (it's fireball, remember?). Actually, this tank type appeared in round 5 for the first time only one though. Quite worthy to mention is: every after boss rounds, the music change. At first it's Tank Force March, second it's funky mid-east-y music (maybe it's true that Tank Force take place in Egypt!), and third (on this round) it's Battle City '92 Extended! It's certainly bring back my good gaming memory.

It seems, round 11 is Gas containment area. "Is the gas container explode when shot enough times?" Of course. I already make one explode there, see? It was close to HQ. By the way, the explosion is harmless to me. So, destroy gas container for alternative route and also to cripple Nazi's Gas supply! Oh wait! They are originally Egypt's. Darn!

Another boss stage, this time it almost like the first ones but The Back-line Train has an extra turret. Also, first wave of lesser enemies are the jeeps. One of them manage to chip HQ's rightside wall by moving back-forth there and placing dynamite. The lucky bastard! About the boss. Just follow the procedure on the first ones! You'll be fine.

Welcome to the jungle! we have new music, walls, tank, tank, and more tank. Also panzers, don't forget about that! the leaves canopy are passable and offer camouflage... to the players so they are benefit to enemies. The game is quite repetitive at this point and also getting difficult. But still offers me with quite much of fun. How about we talk more about the power-up? There are duration-limited invulnerability, the one that make the HQ's walls become the undestroyable type for a set of period and then repair them as good as new, and also there is the one that makes your tank smaller which is quite useless but also makes it move faster. You can see the small power-up appear in the quite middle of enemies. So, yeah! Power-up appearance make the risk-reward aspect of gameplay. Do you dare enough to traverse through enemies for good power-up? Or are you prudent enough to stand still defending HQ and satisfied enough in your current state? The choice is up yours!

Round 16 Boss is...the same with ones in round 8. Joy! Just do the same procedure! Hark! There is timer power-up! What effect if the player pick it? Extending in-game time?! Certainly not. Namco isn't that kind of jerk to put time limit, in this game at least. But you still have to do HQ-sitting on every rounds. So what is this power-up does? It make all enemies including the boss also the fresh enemies (that will replace the destroyed ones) to freeze/stop in time so you can shoot them safely. It's like Stopwatch sub-weapon in Castlevania! But i prefer this enchanted stopwatch is the same with Sakuya Izayoi's. Thanks Scarlet Devil Mansion's/Koumakan's Head Maid!

Please give Remilia Scarlet and Hong Meiling my best regards! They are my #2 and #6 most favorite character respectively in Touhou Project. Also to Zun-Sama. Thanks again!

Round 17, music is back to Tank Force March and Pac-man shaped maze! Poor Namco's mascot must endure of being shot by not-so-bright enemies also by me. I have to chip 3 pixels lowest part of its chin in order to traverse to right side at ease, all right?!

This what happens when i and enemies "cooperate" to obliterate most of the Pacman Maze. That's quite beatifull art.

Round 18 has lots of pools and canals. One of them is right in front of the HQ. Well played Namco! -_-

It's quiet important to talk about the enemy's AI, mostly they move as they please (not aiming for the player or the HQ) and occasionally shoot. Their movement is like RC car that is being controlled by 5 y.o. kid. For example: when it bumps into wall, it will 1) Keep moving on the same direction, eager to try break the wall by colliding their turret over and over again 2) Turn back 3) Turn left/right. I think case 1) is the most frequently happen. Also the slower their movement speed, the more accurate their movement. So beware for the heavy tanks and the super tanks. Did i mention before that super tanks can one-shoot kill the HQ? Because they do. Sucks! Also they will spawn from border in either upper-left, upper-right and top part of gamescreen

In round 19, new enemy type appear! Yes, those 3 missile-tube bearer perhaps they are SCUDS. They can only fire to bottom direction and withstand 5 shoots before exploding. But if they left unscathed, they will clear the maze out at alarming rate. Kill them immediately!

Boss stage in Round 20 is the same as the ones in round 4. But you know?! 3 units instead of 2. Also it means the maze part is smaller then previous boss round. I compare them (in the screenshots) by using 2 finger of my hand. Stupid method but practical. At this time, i manage to pick enchanted stopwatch power-up. Twice! Thank you so much, Sakuya Izayoi!

Yes, i know. What's that? You are in the middle of daily chores? So sorry. You better hurry back! No need for extra firepower! I just need your time-stopping ability. You know what they said about bringing knifes to the tankfight? Yep! Ain't gonna works, head maid.

Every stage will become harder than ever. By that i mean the mazes getting "uncooperative" (especially: less cover for HQ) and enemy's preserve more than previous round. Another talk about power-up: there's also score-up ones (like those 2 in screenshot) which is useless for me and the ones that has tank icon which is 1-up. Very useful! But very rare to appear. Figure.

Boss in round 24 is certainly the mark 2nd of the boss in round 8 & 16. Not only it has 4 turrets but also shoot fireball like the super tanks. Do you must shoot the turrets many times to destroy the boss? But of course! Also mind about it's vassals!

Another round with gas containers. Only your shoot can powerful enough to make them explode. Take a look at those flock of enemies! You can figure how dumb they are. Dumber than eroded rock it seems but they still can shoot occasionally.

Do you remember about bosses in round 12? Add another battle train closer to HQ and that's round 28's bosses. Lazy design? Maybe. Harder? quite yes. I begin to realize that the most threatening to HQ is the goons/lesser enemies instead of the bosses. Because Namco designed enough cover in the front of HQ. So there is that.

Namco is quite narccist this time (this game is their so they have right to do it). But the enemies are chipping the maze. What a mixed feeling! But, wait!

There are drawings of Pookas (from dig dug) and Pac-man hide below the undestroyable-type wall (if you don't believe me, look to the previous screenshoot!). You notice that i keep power upgrade in later part of game. So that means i'm very skillful or perhaps legitly heroic so continue this game without dying more than twice? Of course not. I play it using savestate (you may start boo-ing me). To finish this game fairly is quite impossible. Every time you die, your shoot become petty single bullet and if you use credit you have to replay the round that you previously out of credit from beginning. If you play without firepower tier 2-4, you will be in troublesome and tedious gaming experience. Do-able, perhaps. Maybe if you play this game with 2 players, that will be easier feats. 

Heavy_revenge09.wav *sigh*. Just use the same strategy on boss round 24 to defeat it (again)! As you can see there is power-up on my left that look like double shoot power-up in Super Buster Bros. It's effect quite similar, makes the tank has double turret. Usefull!

Is round 33 the opposite of D-Day? But takes place in Africa shore, no mine, and no soldier that recklessly move through hail of bullet from Heavy machine guns. Only tanks, tanks, and tanks. Here is advanced strategies if you pique interest in playing Tank Force: 1) "Alter" the maze so enemies won't reach the HQ using their stupid A.I (hard) 2) Destroy the difficult enemy so they will replace it with easier ones and vice versa, keep the easy ones alive (doable). But if any of them near the HQ just, Destroy them! It's basic strategy.

It's the final battle! The boss is really different from previous bosses. It's Fortress battery cannons. GJ, namco. The strategy is pretty simple: let them make shooting passage for you and then you can shoot them and swiftly take cover! or you can move to the most left or most right and start shooting them safely. You notice that there are no minions/cannon fodders/ lesser enemies. Apparently, Erwin is out of units to send. So no power-up but also no disturber. Just manly duel between a tank and 4 turrets then in this round. Each time a turret is destroyed, the other ones will move faster and shoot more often. After the turrets receive cannonshells as many as the ones in Nazi vs Alliance war (European front). Tank Force is over with victory to Egypt.

Here is the credit screen. The tank's crew look up in the sky as if they don't believe that they finally liberate Egypt from Nazi's clutch. Or they see Erwin Rommel's plane fly back to German so he will be scolded by Fuhrer (imagine his head turn into cartoon volcano shows how much he is pissed by Rommel's failure) and then slaughtered by either alliance army or red army. Or do you prefer he died in the fortress? I prefer the former obviously. Anyway, happy all around! (not for Rommel though). FYI, most of the time tank's crew consists 4 personels: 1) The (cannonshell) loader 2) The driver 3) The commando 4) The (cannon) aimer/shooter. That's knowledge that is coagulated deeply in my brain since i was elementary-school age. Credit to Namco for being realist.

Here's is the continue game screen. Instead just "Continue? (9-0)" in gamescreen. Looks grim but it's another good touch from Namco. But what are those tank? Certainly not the tank force 2 tanks. Maybe they are the fresh recruits that are sent as main force. While the 2 tanks is doing guerrilla mission, needless to say that they are the ones who have the big role for Egypt Gov. The noobs!

So that's my review. Hope you enjoy it! Tanks force has simple yet enjoyable gameplay also there is a lot of fine masterpiece art. It's really step-up from Battle City ' 92. Did i mention that explosion in this game is really crispy audiolly and visually? I bet Michael Bay loves to play this game. The drawbacks: Earlier part is fun but on later part isn't, useless power-up and repetitive boss round. Now that i re-think about it: the repetitive aspect of bosses is reasonable. You don't often see real super war machine in WW II, do you?! Also the game is too long. Normally, i play it with savestate and  takes 2 hours or so to finish it. But i still have fun playing it (also because of the HQ's symbol ,remember?). If you aren't interested, well i won't tank-force you, though. *Ba dumm tsss!*