Tech-Gaming Technology, Gaming, and Culture
TideGears’s Take: There’s
a strange phenomenon that happens with certain obscure games. If a
lesser-known game is clever enough, eventually someone will imitate it.
Chances are several parties will imitate it. Sometimes these games are
imitations of imitations. The results can be a very mixed bag. If the
original game concept is honored and expanded upon, or reimagined in a
new and clever way, imitations can be a good thing. Sometimes these
imitations are poor or lesser in quality than others, or simply a
straight rip-off. Zuma smacks of “rip-off” since Puzz Loop came first and Zuma does nothing all that different or better. On the other hand, Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer takes the concept of Rogue,
and makes it its own in a wonderful and creative way. If a game makes
you wish you were playing another similar game then, imitation or
original, the game you’d rather be playing is the winner. Ultimately,
repeated imitations are the stuff subgenres are made of. Pocket Tanks Deluxe is yet another game in the artillery game subgenre of strategy games.
Pocket Tanks Deluxe
is an iPhone/Touch (also available for PC and Mac) artillery game that
takes the absurd weapons approach found in artillery games like Scorched Earth and Worms.
For those not familiar, most artillery games are based on the simple
concept of launching weapons at opponents in a mountainous
physics-based environment. One must launch attacks at a proper angle
and velocity, taking gravity, terrain, and sometimes other factors like
wind into account, so as to land the attack on or near opponents.
Terrain deformation is often a factor as well, and explosions can often
create craters and move terrain. Scorched Earth was the first artillery game I ever fell in love with and Worms
was yet another. They featured several opponents, sometimes teammates,
and a wide variety of normal to comically devastating or absurd attacks.
Pocket Tanks Deluxe has
a fairly huge variety of currently 105 weapons but reduces the amount
of players to two, either two humans or one human and an AI of variable
difficulty. Oddly, the difficulty ranges from “1” to “10” and yet even
on “5” the AI seems to connect almost every shot. That seems a bit too
good for “5”. Fortunately, in Pocket Tanks Deluxe, you don’t
die. You simply lob 10 shots each at each other and whoever does the
most damage wins. It’s an interesting change from the standard formula
and makes trying all the bizarre weapons more fun.
Unfortunately, the variety and number of weapons and the damage system is about all Pocket Tanks Deluxe has going for itself. It’s very barebones otherwise. Part of the fun of Scorched Earth and Worms is the number of opponents and team members you’re able to have in a battle at one time. If Pocket Tanks Deluxe
could have more than 2 tanks duking it out with its variety of weapons
it’d be exponentially better. Pocket Tanks Deluxe desperately needs a
few more features and options. It could use wind physics and the option
to make tanks killable. Allow me, as well as the game, to set the AI’s
weapons. Let me set how many volleys to fire per match. How about wifi
play? Competitive games like this benefit greatly from wifi support. At
the very least, have descriptions available for every weapon and item
to make trying them out easier and more fun. This needs to be the
be-all end-all artillery game for the iPhone/Touch or at least do
things pretty differently. Worms will be on the iPhone/Touch soon and there are other artillery games cheaper than Pocket Tanks- namely, DeluxeSnails Reloaded, iShoot, Iron Sight, Soldier Ants, etc.
The game is somewhat attractive with nice clean graphics and some
pretty particle effects, but combined with the dull synth music, the
game comes off pretty dated and uninspired. This would be more than
forgiveable if this game lived up to its potential, but it just
doesn’t, at least not yet. My recommendation is to try the “Lite”
(demo) versions available for the various iPhone/Touch artillery games
and see what you prefer. Not all have demos but most do, including Pocket Tanks Deluxe. At $4.99 USD for a barebones artillery game, with so many alternatives available, I just can’t recommend Pocket Tanks Deluxe.
DesertEagle’s Take: I’m no stranger to the Artillery game. Despite being ejected from my middle-school computer lab for a lurid, post-game, celebratory dance, I stuck with the genre. Over the years, I’ve launched a barrage of mortars upon my opponents in the Tanks Wars, Scorched Earth, and Worms series. While I exhausted my youth playing these titles, developer Michael P. Welch, was tirelessly creating them; his Scorched Tanks even predates the first Worms game.
For the most part, Pocket Tanks flaunts Welch’s long-term devotion. The interface to set a shot’s power and angle is instinctive, and allows for minute changes. Choosing one of the game’s weapons is intuitive, but could be quicker via a pop-up menu, rather than sliding to the desired armament. Unlike many games in the genre that merely chip away at the landscape, Pocket Tanks models game-altering landslides. The game’s soundtrack of bass-heavy explosions complement the on-screen mayhem competently.
Sadly, there are a few impediments that kept me from really enjoying the title. Although the game offered a mind-boggling 105 weapons, some are strikingly similar. The ‘popcorn’ shell exploded into small cascades of white pixels, while the ‘sprinkler’ shell offered a nearly identical effect. With so many different shell variants, the game needs an organizational system for the weaponry. The fledging Pocket Tanks player is forced to learn type of ballistic round, in the game’s training mode, which can feel laborious.
Pocket Tanks manages to straddle the uneasy line between the lightheartedness of Worms and the tedium of an M198 Howitzer training video. With individual shells having little personality beyond a whimsical name, the overall game feels a bit generic. I would have liked to see more color variety in the game; many of the projectiles are inexplicably monochromatic. I have to agree with TideGear’s assessment that the title is too pricey to offer a recommendation. 
LOLed at DE game-winning artillery dance. We need a Youtube video!
I cant wait for Worms. Hopefully it will take full use of OS 3.0 wifi multiplayer. My productivity will be killed 😉
Ok, guys who do you think is the better reviewer, TideGear or Desert?
Old school Worms cant be beat. It gaming at it’s finest. I got the lite version and have to agree it’s just meh.
“Pocket Tanks manages to straddle the uneasy line between the lightheartedness of Worms and the tedium of an M198 Howitzer training video” 🙂
DE
How come Desert calls them mortars when the game is Pocket Tanks?
I played the lite version. You can barely move them, and when they’re covered in dirt, you cant move them at all.
With so many apps these days, I will only purchase AAA games. This one doesn’t sound like it.
$4.99?!? WTF? Thats way too high $2.99 is pushing it.
Tide, he ‘reviewed’ it more.
LOL. You got me!
I actually forgot they were tanks. When I started playing these type of games they were originally artillery guns, and since (as another reader indicated) their movement is very limited, I got confused.
I still don’t understand the appeal of iPhone games.
Yep, that’s way too much for this game.
I love these type of games? What was so bad about your victory dance, DE?
TideGear, did you find the weapons to be similar, also? Or was DE just whining?
They’re supposed to be cheap, you got the phone anyway, and anyone can (and do) make them.
Do you guys just not like iphone games?
Good review guys.
Graphics look kinda plain.
Liked the two man review. It’s like the old EGM days.
It’s true that many iPhone games could easily appear on other platforms, but then there are games like Eliss that use the device in ways no other platform could support.
He’s right. That’s why I want descriptions of each.
Read my Eliss review and ask me that.
Beyond the title, they don’t act like tanks.
LOL. I really laughed out loud!
He’s still a whiner 😉 That’s what we like about him.
Good review guys!
Nice video of real artillery included in the review.
I’m hoping Sony renews life in the PSP at E3.
I thought that two. Are you guys trying to revive a bit of the old 1Up feel? Hats of to you, if it’s true.
Seems interesting but $4.99 isn’t close to realistic.
Yep, judging from the lite version, you guys nailed it.
I think I’ve played enough of these games to not want to play another one in my life.
now all i need is an iphone…
I remember playing this on the PC. It provided an hour of entertainment every now and then.
This seems like it’s another way for that money to cash in some money. Not gonna lie though, the game for the PC was real fun.
This just makes me want Worms 2 even more.
When I saw the pic I thought scorched earth!!!!..5.00 isn’t too bad since for some reason I could never get scorched earth to work for xp :/.
Use DOSBox for DOS games… http://www.dosbox.com/
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