Killer Tank

Here in the PC think-tank we do our best to reward the battlers of the industry - the developers who don't have the resources of the big studios yet still manage to entertain us in some small way. Killer Tank is not a great game, was never going to be a great game, and had the developers not had the foresight to fill the game with gratuitous carnage it would have disappeared without a trace. As it is, Killer Tank proves to be quite a decent afternoon's diversion, re-acquainting us with the simple pleasures of killing defenceless foot traffic with an amphibious armoured assault vehicle.

It's essentially a straightforward arcade shooting spree, featuring 20 objective-based missions ranging from planting nukes to escorting cocaine convoys. With typical B-grade abandon, you play a hardened crim rescued from death row by a crazed scientist hellbent on global domination, which has the convenient pay-off of freeing you from any awkward moral considerations. So, apart from tackling an array of genuinely threatening opponents such as helicopters, hoverships and arachnid robotic monsters, you can have all sorts of fun with the many foot soldiers who cross your path. The game often gets into Carmageddon territory in this respect, as you burn, splatter and squish soldiers and civilians alike, leaving a trail of tomato sauce track marks as you go. There's also an impressive number of environmental objects to destroy, which, aside from exposing extra power-ups and weapon upgrades, adds a great deal of credence to the potency of your mega-tank.

Having said all this, the game is severely deficient in technical terms, most notably in the constant visible draw-in and frequent slowdown. And whoever was responsible for the woeful hand-drawn cut-scenes really should be brought to justice, and fast.

For a bit of cheap, dirty fun though, without the usual legal hassles, it's not a bad laugh.