Hidden away inside the US Saturn version of Powerslave was a little mini-game called Death Tank, a sort of real-time version of PC classic Scorched Earth. The rest of the world was exposed to the sequel Death Tank Zwei, which was hidden inside the Saturn conversion of Duke Nukem 3D. Over the last decade or so, the game seems to have built up a cult following large enough for Snowblind Studios and Flat Games to team up to produce a new version for Xbox Live Arcade, but is 1200 Microsoft Points too much to ask for a simple shooter which was free a decade ago?

Players control one of eight tanks across a mountainous landscape, where one must determine a desired angle for their shots in order to take out their opponents. Unlike games like Scorched Earth and Worms, Death Tank runs in real time and allows players to move about to avoid their opponents’ shots. Each tank destroyed will earn the player a bunch of money, with the last man standing receiving an extra bonus.


Cash can be spent at a store between levels to buy better weapons and upgrades. Some weapons work just the same way as your regular missile, requiring arc-style aiming, while others are direct fire. Weapons like the Nuke and Death’s Hand are particularly devastating, taking out multiple enemies and much of the landscape in a single shot. There are a few tank upgrades to increase movement speed, assist with targeting, and provide shielding, but the most fun is the jump jet, which allows players to fly around the map at will (so long as they have fuel).

The actual in-game mechanics of Death Tank make the game feel a little empty. Players will quickly grasp the basics of the game, and realise that there’s not exactly too much to the game. Most of the weapons seem a bit useless, and there’s no real satisfaction gained from dispatching your opponents. It also doesn’t help that the computer rarely makes mistakes with its aiming, even in the alleged beginner mode, so you’re better off sticking to playing with human opponents if possible.

Death Tank is broken up into a few different modes. The basic campaign and advanced campaign are your basic single player affairs, where you take on three AI tanks over the course of 20 rounds. Alternatively, you can opt to play it with a bunch of friends, which will increase the total player numbers. Arcade mode pits you and your friends against each other and a series of non-moving AI drones which continuously fall from the sky, with the winner being the one with the most points at the end. Last but not least are the online multiplayer modes, which are much the same as the rest of the game.

Sadly, that’s all you get for your 1200 Microsoft Points. Most players will only run through a round of twenty stages once or twice, and it’s difficult to find multiplayer opponents. The game’s achievements are fairly well balanced, but some appear to be ridiculously time consuming (like getting 5000 on the leaderboards). When you compare Death Tank to other games that fit into the same price point, such as Braid, Super Street Fighter II HD Remix and Castle Crashers, it seems like a blatant rip-off. Those games all had a lot of soul and workmanship put into them, but Death Tank seems a bit soulless in comparison. If Microsoft is going to encourage developers to make 1200 Microsoft Points the new de-facto standard price for Arcade games, perhaps they should consider giving players a little more bang for their buck.