Tank Maniacs is a fun local multiplayer game that feels like Worms mixed with Super Smash Bros.
Type: Single-Player, Multiplayer
Genre: Competitive Multiplayer
Developer: GAMELAB
Publisher: GAMELAB
Release date: 05 Dec, 2019
Intro
Tank Maniacs is a local multiplayer based game where you and 3 other players fight each other in various game modes to see who’s the best player. It’s sort of like a mixture between Worms, and Super Smash Bros. in a way. If this sounds interesting to you, do read on to find out more about the game!
Game Modes and Characters
One of the most important features of any multiplayer game is it’s game modes. The choice of characters is also of importance because everyone has a favorite character that they like to play as (I liked playing as the Velociraptor, personally).
The game features 12 unique characters for you to play as and each one has a unique appearance. You never get to see the character in-game, so you’re just choosing your character picture. Characters range from Clowns to gangster wacky waving inflatable tube men. Its characters are absurd, to say the least.
The game has a total of 8 different game modes to choose from including, Deathmatch, Gameshow, Symmetric Showdown and Last Tank Standing. Each mode has a team-based option as well bringing the selection to 8.
Each mode is played differently. Deathmatch is a mode everyone is familiar with (It’s a free for all battle), Gameshow has various events that occur during a match that can be both fatal or beneficial to you or your opponents. Symmetric Showdown grants everyone in the game the same power ups. And, Last Tank Standing is as the name suggests.
Gameplay
Once in the game, you’ll be going all out against your friends in a side-scrolling battle in a small arena using the tanks you’ve chosen. The arena’s are somewhat similar to what you’d find in Super Smash Bros but are all hand-drawn and 2D. Each tank has a short firing range and you’ll need to be careful where you aim because you can damage yourself with your own bullets.
There are also power-ups that you can make use of as you battle. Each power up is unique and transforms your tank into something different. There’s a military helmet, a cannon, a chicken that shoots eggs, an airplane that can fly and bomb enemies (I’m terrible at this power-up) and quite a few others. When you’re knocked out of the battle, airplanes fly overhead periodically and the knocked out players can bomb the remaining players below.
Some Minor Complaints
There were some minor things that I noticed that I found a little annoying. First and foremost was the announcer for the match. He starts off bearable, but he quickly gets a little annoying after multiple matches.
There was a bug I encountered while playing with my friends as well. The game would revert to windowed mode for no reason which led me to hit Alt+Enter to make it go back to full-screen again. Not entirely sure what caused it, but I’m sure this will be fixed in the future.
Verdict
Overall, my friends and I had quite a lot of fun with the game. I lost more games than I won this time around but it was a lot of fun regardless. It was also nice playing something that we were all on even footing in. The majority of the time it’s usually a default win for me regardless of what we play. If you’re in the market for a local multiplayer to play then Tank Maniacs is a pretty good option. If all of your best friends live in other countries or in other states, like mine, you’ll be happy to hear that the game is fully compatible with Steam’s Remote Play Together feature. I didn’t notice any bugs with the game using the feature either, so we were pretty happy with it. I’m going to SAVE this one, it’s a pretty solid game in its genre, and should provide quite a few hours of enjoyment among friends.
