Touch Battle Tank 3D-4 review

The fourth canonical Touch Battle Tank game on Nintendo 3DS (not including the Touch Battle Ninja spin-off, the Wii U SP entry and any non-Nintendo platform titles) brings a new gimmick into the arena: cooperative simultaneous local two player action. Touch Battle Tank 3D-4: Double Commander boasts fifty standard stages and forty-plus extra stages with the simple premise: blow up all the enemy tanks before they blow up yours!

Featuring noticeably sharper graphics than before (although it’s hardly Resident Evil Revelations), control of your tank is via the Circle Pad (left handed players can use the New 3DS right pad or Circle Pad Pro) with firing using the stylus. Fortunately the earlier stages are super easy giving you time to become more accustomed to the controls. Level seven is when the action heats up (think level nine Tetris) with a boss on level ten (and every tenth level).

Choose between one of two tanks (red or blue) with the differences being -in simple shmup terms- the blue you power up (think R-Type) with the red rapid fire by default plus some kind of float/defence. Each tank levels up after every ten stages completed although you max out at the sixth level. Enemy tanks and obstacles are vast with the level construction almost resembling classic Bomberman with warps, mines, moving platforms and so-forth.

On the plus side: Touch Battle Tank 3D-4 doesn’t drag like previous entries with the gameplay both faster paced and more action packed than before. The two player mode is a great addition too, however the game is easier than ever (especially in two player) and after Kirby Planet Robobot; this reviewer demands some serious firepower and not the same standard tanks from the first game. But for just ¥500 SilverStar Japan more than deliver the goods.

6/10

Buy ¥1,000 digital eShop voucher