Battletank (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Absolute Entertainment’s 1990 action game for the NES, Garry Kitchen’s Battletank. “Climb in and discover the earthshaking power of Battletank™, the only NES tank game that puts *you* inside the tank!“ With a blurb like that on the back of the box, who could resist? I don’t know about you guys, but when someone manages to use the word tank three times in a single sentence, I certainly sit up and take notice. For the sake of context, keep in mind that this game came out about a month after the Gulf War started. I’m sure it sold extraordinarily well given the circumstances. In Battle Tank, you, the army-of-one with an NES controller in hand, are dropped into the everyman’s seat of an M1 Abrams tank. A “NATO commanding officer“ is being held deep behind enemy lines as a prisoner of war, and you alone have been assigned the unenviable task of bringing him home. The game is a basic first-person tank simulator that will immediately feel familiar to anyone who played games like Destination Earthstar or Star Trek: The Next Generation (), and with good reason. They were all created by Imagineering. Battletank feels like a better version of those two games, only this time, there’s a horizon, the backgrounds are in color, and there are fewer gimmicks to distract from the core gameplay. There are ten missions to blast through, and each involves wiping out enemy tanks, helicopters, and installations before moving on to a Cabal-style shooting gallery boss. When a mission begins, you open the map screen to check out the lay of the battlefield. The live map shows the locations of targets, minefields, and refueling depots, and the final objective is revealed once you’ve wiped out everything else. This map is more than just an inconveniently placed bit of reference material, though - it’s your primary way of getting around. The appropriately slow-moving first-person view is where most of the action takes place. You track the enemy on your radar, angle your guns for the appropriate shot trajectory, and hit the A button to make things go boom with your 150mm cannon (yeah, boy!), a .50 cal machine gun (be careful or it’ll overheat!), or wire-guided shells (perfect for choppers). You also can lay down a smoke screen to hide yourself from view if you prefer the classic spray-and-pray way of doing things. Once you’ve wiped out your target, you jump back to the map screen to look for someone else to blow up, and you repeat the cycle until you’ve saved the NATO dude. That’s about all there is to it, and for as simple as it all is, it works well. The graphics are on the plain side, there isn’t much variety to the gameplay, and the controls are a little awkward due to the limited number of buttons on the NES gamepad, but it’s a reasonably fun bit of arcade-like action for the short time it lasts. I enjoyed it as a weekend rental way back, and it’s still very playable now. You’d probably be better off playing its sequel, though. Super Battletank: War in the Gulf on the SNES provides much the same experience but with nicer graphics. Here’s a random fact - if you beat the game and took a photo of yourself next to the TV showing the ending, you could mail it to an address provided in the manual and they’d mail you a certificate, “suitable for framing.“ I wonder if that offer is still valid... _____________ No cheats were used during the recording of this video. NintendoComplete () punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!