Overview
Atari released in 1974 a two-player arcade game called Tank and in the game each player controlled a tank and had to destroy the other player’s unit. It was a successful game and later when Atari released the Combat series, Tank fighting was included as well. If these games don’t ring a bell is either because you’re too young or too old, but trust me that these games were the basis of the geek-gene. Back then you needed a console to play a handful of these basic games, nowadays you can play literally all of them on a mobile device. There’s no shortage of retro-style Arcade games for mobile devices either, as there are many feeling nostalgia like me. Lone Tank is one of them.
The game
Lone Tank is the first game released by Spencer Johnson, an independent self-taught game developer. He released the game just before leaving on a 2-year mission in Mexico and every cent made from this game will be used during his mission. In Lone Tank you control a tank, who is actually the last stand between awful enemies and your own family. Subsequently the goal is to protect your family and fight all throughout the 100 levels (yes, the game has 100 levels). The game has a retro-arcade style with intentional pixelated graphics. It’s targeted for those that have some nostalgia towards the games that have written history in the 80s (Combat, Mario). I miss those times when we didn’t have as many games as there are inhabitants on this planet like it’s happens now, and that’s one of the reasons I never disregard a retro game.
After you’ve installed it, the game is one tap away from starting. Lone Tank supports multiple profiles so once installed on a device multiple gamers can play it. Each profile saves all the information for that user, power-ups, game progress and of course a history of your winnings. When you start the game you have to select which profile you want to load and the game will start where you last left off.
Now, even if you’re the only one playing the game profiles are still something useful, as you can play the game using a specific type of power-ups and another one using different ones, to compare which helps you win faster.
As mentioned above the game has 100 different waves (levels). They are split in 5 different categories that range from Beginner to Insane. Throughout the levels you’ll encounter five different bosses that will truly put your fighting skills to test.
What makes this a bit easier is the power-ups. Based on how well you fight in a level, you’ll obtain in-game money which you can use to improve your tank (better armor, shields, more powerful ammo). As opposed to other games, Lone Tank doesn’t have in-game purchases with real money, all it’s virtual and has to be earned.
Here’s a list of features that you get when you purchase Lone Tank for a mere 99 cents:
- Retro-style arcade graphics. The short title says it all, Lone Tank is an Arcade game with graphics that match the pixelated retro style of this genre. The game view is show from above so you see the top of the environment, enemies and other elements.
The retro-style in Lone Tank, from environment to enemies.
- Game profiles. You can set up multiple profiles and manage those depending on how you want to play in each. A profile will save everything related to that play mode, including the powerups you’re using and which level you’re at as well as the history of your battles.
Different profiles for game players.
- Power-ups shop. Using the in-game currency you can improve your tank by upgrading your armor, purchasing an electric shield or a bubble one and finally improving the power of your ammo with better guns. Each set of power-ups is also saved in the profile you’re playing with, so you can experiment the efficiency of each by playing with different profiles.
Various power-ups you can purchase.
- Multiple levels. You can play the game in different difficulty modes: beginner, normal, challenging, hard and good luck (toughest one). For each of these modes you have 20 different levels so in total you can play 100 battles. In each level your tank has to fight against multiple enemy units and use the environment elements/barricades to protect against the incoming ammo.
One of the levels in Lone Tank
- Bosses. As with every Arcade game that respects itself, Lone Tank has bosses that you have to fight against. There are five bosses right now that you encounter throughout the game, one more powerful than the other. If some enemy tanks are easier to defeat and others with better armor tougher, you can imagine that the boss tops everything in terms of difficulty.
All the bosses and enemy units in Lone Tank
- Scoring and bonuses. Each time you destroy an unit your score increases and you can obtain bonuses if you survive multiple times in a row (streak bonuses). Score is important as based on it you obtain money that you can use for power-ups. All you have to do is try to stay alive and destroy the enemies.
Conclusion
Lone Tank is a game for those that like retro Arcade survival games. You get several lives and have to survive the different waves of enemies that attack you. When those lives end, tough luck, “better think of your family next time” as the game over scene in Lone Tank says it. The game isn’t free but at $0.99 for 100 playable levels you can’t really say it’s paid either.
You can purchase the game directly from Google Play: Download Lone Tank.
Name: Lone Tank
Developer: Spencer Johnson
Size: 4.8Mb
Package: com.swick.tanker.apk
Version: 2.2
Last update: October 29, 2013
Price: $0.99
