Born for Wii: BattleTanx: Global Assault
Sometimes looking back at the games of our childhood days can be painful. More than a decade later, it's hard to imagine how Combat Cars for the Sega Genesis was ever...well, fun. Ah, the indiscretion of youth: hoarding your money, saving for that one, glorious moment when you pick out a new game to take home and devour, only to realize, years later, how terrible it really was. Still, blind purchases could occasionally lead to good things, and a few weeks ago I went home and recovered my Nintendo 64 from its years of storage exile for the express purpose of reliving some of those magical gaming sessions of my youth. In this case, the game in question was BattleTanx: Global Assault.Likely one of the few good games to ever come out of the offices of the now-defunct 3DO, BattleTanx is about as straightforward as its name implies. The game turns 10 years old in 2009, and despite the fact that it looks and play like a Nintendo 64 game from 1999, it's still a lot of fun. Simple, arcadey gameplay, a multitude of tanks and a solid lineup of secondary weapons guarantee hours of mindless fun. The single-player is easy to plow through in short order, but fun enough to come back to -- and the real draw lies in the multiplayer, which rivaled Goldeneye, Smash Bros., and Mario Kart for four-player mayhem. Ready to take up arms with Battlelord Griffin Spade and Born for Wii as we assault the post-apocalyptic globe? Hit the link below.









Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mickey @ Jan 13th 2009 1:22PM
Dude, I love freakin love that game! The multiplayer was the bomb!! ;-)
but seriously, multiplayer was so awesome in that game.
monkey @ Jan 13th 2009 1:56PM
Just like Smash Brothers, and Goldeneye, BattleTanks was a regular at game night at our house in the N64 days.
The windows would shake and the kids would hoot! Moms couldn't be there when this game was on! It was loud!
Many people dissed the Army Men franchise from 3DO, but it was also a blast in 4 player mode. Melting your buddies with a flamethrower, so shooting a plastic head off, and the guy would run a in circle till he dropped, just plain fun!
Wesley Fenlon @ Jan 13th 2009 5:47PM
Army Men was certainly a gimmick, but it was a pretty decent one at first. The series really degraded when they took it into Sarge territory, though. Sarge's War was a terrible, terrible game.
Hardy @ Jan 13th 2009 2:07PM
This would be an awesome game for the WII if done right, but more then likely it would end up on a PS3 or 360 because of it's superior online abilities.
Unless you can hook up in random battles on line, this game wouldn't be that good.
One can hope.
Eric @ Jan 13th 2009 3:25PM
Of course you would be able to have random battles - that's how Guitar Hero and Super Smash Bros. (and I assume other games, though I've only played those two online) work.
Wesley Fenlon @ Jan 13th 2009 5:47PM
It seems like decent online support is largely up to the developer. It's not like the console can't do it, but for whatever reason games like Brawl shipped with a broken online service that has never been addressed. I definitely think their poor handling of online gameplay has been Nintendo's biggest failing this generation.
Josh @ Jan 13th 2009 2:40PM
"and the real draw lies in the multiplayer, which rivaled Goldeneye, Smash Bros., and Mario Kart for four-player mayhem"
Very, very true, but you just have to replace Goldeneye with Perfect Dark to make it true for me.
Wesley Fenlon @ Jan 13th 2009 5:47PM
Our games changed over the years, but I remember my friends and I playing BattleTanx, The World is Not Enough, and Diddy Kong Racing more than anything.
Drahken @ Jan 13th 2009 3:11PM
I think I still own this game. It was quite fun back in the day.
Adolph @ Jan 13th 2009 8:14PM
BattleTanx would be awesome with wii. I loved that game back in the day, so simple so much fun
DarthKegX @ Jan 13th 2009 9:43PM
Crazy, I just plugged in my 64 a few days ago to play this and some Jet Force Gemini. While Tank's single player isn't quite as satisfying as I remember, the multiplayer is still top notch stuff. If you got in a good rhythm with the Flip-e tank, you could easily circle strafe a Goliath to death. And dropping a nuke, then switching to turbo and high-tailing it across the map is still a rush.
Andrew @ Jan 18th 2009 1:18AM
ya this game was SO much fun, and in fact still is, i havent done it recently but i used to whip out my 64 just to play this.. i also knew quite a few tricks and glitches in this game that was just for fun. and most of it involved the downstairs :D