Tank Raider review

It’s a war zone trial-by-fire as you play Sunday Studios’ game app, Tank Raider. Your mission? To venture out, in a tank, into enemy territory and raid it for gems–and in this game, everyone is an enemy. Three seems to be the magic number here, as there are three levels, three opponents, and three different gem colors. Red gems level-up your ammo, yellow ones increase your tank speed, and green gems boost your health.

To steer and pick up gems, simply draw a path with your finger, and the tank will follow; you can adjust the path by drawing new ones at any time. If you run into enemy tanks, tapping on it will engage the firing mechanism, which is automatic and will continue to fire while you steer (tap anywhere on the screen to stop firing). You can even destroy plant life that’s in your way, if you don’t feel like steering around it. If your tank is destroyed, it is automatically sent back to the basepad to heal. Tap anywhere on the top of the screen (where your health bar is) to pause the game/turn the music and sound effects off; you can also find out where you stand against your three opponents.

Much like war, the action comes fast and furious in between periods of stagnant waiting: this is awesomely reflected by the background militaristic music, which comes on when there’s a lot happening on-screen. Otherwise, it’s pretty silent while you drive around to find enemy bases. The driving is pretty intuitive, but the lag time in between drawing a path and actual movement takes a little getting used to as you’re figuring out how to steer. And the AI is pretty tricksy, as it does a pretty good job of driving circles around you, so perhaps less lag between your finger and movement would be good.

What steals the show are the beautiful backgrounds created for this game; it makes us wish there were more than three levels to play on, just to see more of them. All-in-all, Tank Raider is a solid app that’s tricky enough to keep you interested, but simple enough to enjoy without hurting yourself.

Here is a video demo of the Tank Raider app on the iPhone

AppSafari review of Tank Raider was written by Julie Guan on February 10th, 2010 and categorized under App Store, Fun, Games. Page viewed 5976 times, 2 so far today. Need help on using these apps? Please read the Help Page.