Astraware’s My Little Tank is probably a household name by now. This little gem has been on most mobile platforms there is to date, and was recently ported for the iPhone. The game has been slightly updated, bringing with it 80 action-packed levels (previously 60 levels) of fun arcade-styled mayhem on a small scale. I picked up this game last week and has been enjoying it so far.
My Little Tanks puts you in the shoes of a tank pilot. Shoot enemy tanks as you manuever your little tank around the beautifully designed terrain. You’ll encounter hostile terrain structures including snow, swamps, green plains and deserts. On some levels, barriers are put up to slow down you down – some of them destrutible, while others will force you to take the longer way out.
The game is not all about shooting enemy tanks only. On some levels, it is imperative that your protect your base at all costs, while some other missions require that you destroy enemy radar installations and bases. Its one against many – tougher enemies appear to challenge you as you progress further in the game. The enemy AI is pretty strong as well, they would always try to avoid being in your firing line when possible – timing is the key.
But then, not all hope is lost though. As you eliminate enemies, power ups appear scattered throughout the level to aid you in your mission. Seven different types of power ups are available, but the cannon power up is my favorite. I managed to upgrade my tank’s cannon to level R5, which seems to be the maximum it could go. Other power-ups like the Smart Bomb blows up any enemy tanks in your vicinity when its activated – useful when controlling a crowd of angry enemy tanks looking to hunt you down. Most of the time, the power ups appear when a building is destroyed, but I have seen them appearing at random, especially after an enemy tank was destroyed.
Here’s a tip – in some missions where you only objective is to destroy enemy installations, enemy tanks will spawn for a certain number of times before they stop. I’d suggest that you put your mission objective on hold and concentrate on killing these enemy tanks to gather points. On the other hand, if the mission requires you to just eliminate all enemy tanks, then your choice here would be to destroy the buildings around so as to collect the power ups.
My Little Tank offers one of the most configurable controls I have seen so far. There are four control schemes to choose from, each carefully described through the help system. Tilt to move is Astraware’s accelerometer-based control for My Little Tank and is configurable to allow holding the device at the player’s desired angle. I like this mode the best. No matter which control scheme you choose, the tank fires its cannons automatically.
Your progress is saved at the point where you exit the game while loading takes merely a few seconds. I have not encountered any issues with the game so far and am very happy with it.
Similar to Hellfire (reviewed here), this game also allows you to play the game while listening to your iTunes music library. All it takes is turning off all sounds in the options menu.
Overall, My Little Tank is a fun game to pickup, easy to master, challenging at times and hard to put down. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes shoot-em up games. Some of the levels may look repetitive, but if you are looking for some quick fire-and-forget, this is the game to play.
My Little Tank is currently available from the iTunes Store at a limited-time offer of $2.99 each (usually $4.99). The game is developed by Binoteq and published by Handmark, Inc. Here’s a demo reel of the game, courtesy of Astraware. You’ll also find some screenshots from the game further below.
Rating: 4.0/5.0 Taps
App Data
App Name: My Little Tank v1.00 | Publisher: Handmark, Inc. | Purchase via: iTunes App Store @ $4.99 $2.99 | Released: Nov 14, 2008 | Reviewed on: iPod touch
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