Review: Heavy Weapon: Atomic Tank (XBLA)

Heavy Weapon: Atomic Tank is an enjoyable shoot’em-up and worthy edition to XBLA.

Gameplay: HW is a classic side scrolling shoot’em-up, clearly inspired by games such as “Swiv”. Essentially you pilot your tank, shooting air and land based foes, collecting crazy weapons upgrades and fighting huge bosses. Both analogue sticks are used to control tank movement and shooting/direction (like Geometry Wars).

The gameplay is extremely forgiving thanks to large & clear projectiles, collectable shield upgrades, and massive “Nukes” to kill all enemies on the screen at once.

Graphics: HW features big bright sprites and cool explosions - including a fantastic nuclear blast! The graphics are perfectly fine for an original XBLA title with a solid frame-rate even when the screen is completely full of bad-guys.

Sound: The music is suitably over the top and reminds me of the sound track to the film “Commando”: cheesy and appropriate.

Value: At 800M$, I think it is good value. The Story mode is fine and offers a decent, if difficult, challenge, whilst the Survival modes, both single player and on XBL, are frantic, fun and addictive.

The achievements are nicely balanced: there are (the standard for XBLA) 12 achievements; 50% are fairly easier; 50% will require some adept skills and patience.

Tilt: There is some very subtle humour in HW:
- people sunbathing on a beach as you deliver nuclear death;
- a little button that launches the game is labelled “Invade”;
- and frivolous use of weapons of mass destruction;
...you just have to love it.

The gameplay is great fun too: especially Survival on XBL, which is just completely crazy in its intensity.

If you like your action fast and frenetic, then Heavy Weapon IS the game for you.

8/10