BattleTanx

Battletanx
Developer(s)	3DO
Publisher(s)	3DO
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Release	December 31, 1998
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

BattleTanx is an action game for the Nintendo 64, produced by 3DO. The game is followed by a sequel entitled BattleTanx: Global Assault.

Plot

In the year 2001, a virus has killed 99.99% of the females on Earth. Various countries fight over each other's quarantine zones, and end up engaging in nuclear war, destroying much of civilization. The few remaining females are held by gangs who have taken over small pieces of the world. The main character, Griffin Spade, had his fiancee Madison taken away from Queens, New York by the U.S. Government. Griffin ends up separated from his fiancee, and New York City is destroyed. He claims a tank for his own and sets out to cross America and find her, battling gangs as he reaches his goal. After surviving the ruins of New York City, Griffin heads westward gaining recruits in the countryside, Chicago, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.

Gameplay

There are three tanks in the game for the player to choose from. The player can choose between a Moto Tank, M1A1 Abrams MBT, or the Goliath. There are 17 levels to complete in order to finish the single player game, all of which are filled with enemy tanks. Each level is located in a specific place in the United States, such as New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, and San Francisco the game features most environments destructable as well as interactive in some cases.

In the game's multiplayer mode, players can battle with up to 4 players simultaneously. There are four different multiplayer configurations; Battlelord mode (equivalent to capture the flag), Deathmatch, Family Mode, and Annihilation.

• Battlelord pits the players (and A.I. opponents alike) in a match to capture each other's queenlords and bring them back to their bases. When one player or team holds all the queenlords at their base(s), they win. Players can die infinitely in this mode, though if they die too often they will respawn slower. This is the only mode to feature true bases for the players, and they are set up with awesome firepower. However, with the use of items this power can be mitigated or ignored and with enough offense the bases can be damaged to the point of being largely ineffective at protecting queenlords. All of the bases have gun emplacements either with machine guns, guided missiles, or lasers. In the campaign mode, when capturing the queenlord, the gun emplacements will usually be very large and be hidden or powerful.

• Deathmatch is a fight between players to accumulate seven kills. The first to seven kills win. Again, players respawn infinitely, but will noticeably respawning slower if they die too often.

• Family Mode is the best representative of a deathmatch mode, with but one stipulation: all items are used before regular ammo can be accessed, and items cannot be switched. This can make otherwise useful items, like the cloaking device, difficult to pick up in large numbers. In addition, the player may pick up useful weapons but not be able to use them until they fire dozens of rounds of weaker weaponry.

• Annihilation provides each competitor with five tanks. The tanks that the players get are identical to the tanks their particular gang is shown with in the gang selection screen. The player controls one of the tanks and the computer controls the others. The armies then proceed to blow each other into piles of rubble. When a human player dies, they will automatically switch to another tank in their army and resume control of it (assuming there are tanks left). The smaller tanks, while being able to implement useful strategies in other modes, are particularly vulnerable in this mode where they could potentially get matched up against dozens of Goliaths. Players do not respawn in this mode; whoever is still alive at the end of the massacre is declared the winner. This match can play fast on small maps such as The Arena.

Items and weaponry

Multiple items, most revolving around weaponry, were included. These items do not respawn in Campaign Mode but can respawn in Multiplayer, per player preference.

• Radar: In Campaign Mode, the radar activates the player's radar and shows where enemies are, even from a great distance, by placing arrows over them. In Multiplayer, the radar is always activated, but picking up a radar item is still needed to see the arrows on the main screen. This item lasts until death.
• Points: Gives the player 1000 points. Appears only in Campaign.
• 1-up: Gives the player a life. Appears only in Campaign.
• Ammo: Restores a set amount of ammunition to the tank's main weapon.
• Health: Adds several units of health to the tank's life bar. If life is full, this item is stored in the inventory for later use.
• Star: An item which only appears when another tank is destroyed. It adds ammo and life to the tank, though the ammo and life are less than their aforementioned individual powerups.
• Shield: Makes the player's tank temporarily invulnerable. In addition, whatever weapon is fired at the player's tank will rebound. The shield's use is not based upon time, as it is based around how much damage it takes. When the nuke is deployed and explodes, the shields will protect you, but wear off as well.
• Cloaking Device: Makes the player temporarily invisible. In multiplayer, the player will even disappear from the radar. Firing or being hit will temporarily reveal the player's location however, the Cloaking Device does not work while a queenlord is captured.
• Swarmers: Three missiles are fired off. One goes straight and the other two initially curve slightly away, but given space will go across to each other's side. At close range, all three missiles can be used on one tank and cause heavy damage. A special attack (which uses all of the chosen weapon and is activated by pressing the weapon fire and weapon switch button simultaneously) can be initiated if one has fifteen or more swarmers. The special fires all of the swarmers rapidly in a more spread out fashion.
• Laser: Fires a high-powered laser. This weapon does heavy damage. The special attack spawns multiple lasers.
• Guided Missiles: Fires a missile that the player can control. While controlling a guided missile, the tank cannot be used. The special attack allows the user to deploy a large missile which has the ability to hit destructible buildings, destroying them while not sustaining damage. The large missile also has the ability to fire a limited amount of laser bursts.
• Mines: Drops a mine on the player's location. Mines do not differentiate between players; anyone who hits them, even the planter themselves, are targets. Detonated mines can detonate other nearby mines, causing a chain reaction. The special drops a whole field of mines instead of just one.
• Gun Buddies: Places a gun emplacement. There are different types of Gun buddies. There are small machine type Gun buddies that shoot small fast bullets that are very similar to a moto tank's shells. There is the middle to large sized (the size varies from map to map in the campaign) guided missile of Gun buddy that is usually seen placed for base defense, that fire small rockets that are typically slow moving that do moderate damage. And there is the large sized laser-class Gun Buddy, they are only seen in campaign. They fire lasers at quick intervals at a high accuracy and deal heavy damage. In the Battlelord mode there are large-size class guided missile Gun Buddies. The special places a field of gun buddies of varying type.
• Nuke: The most powerful, and scarce weapon in the game. (It appears in all multiplayer missions, and some Campaign). The Nuke will demolish every single damageable building in one stage or on the map and causes damage to all players within a very large radius.

Gangs

Throughout the entire campaign mode, you will battle against a number of different tribes, all with their own backgrounds. While playing any of the four multiplayer modes featured in BattleTanx, you will have the choice of playing any of the gangs that you battle against in campaign. In multiplayer, each different gang spawns with a different weapon; that weapon and the number of them that each tank starts with is listed next to the gang name.

• Griffin's Army: Random (starts with no weapon) [M1A1 Abrams (4), Goliath (1)]
• Urban Decay: City Mutants [Swarmers (5)] [M1A1 Abrams (4), Goliath (1)]
• Psycho Brigade: Insane freaks [Shield] [M1A1 Abrams (2), Moto Tank (2), Goliath (1)]
• Skull Riderz: Motorcycle gang [Guided Missiles (5)] [Moto Tank (4), Goliath (1)]
• Mech Maniacs: A gang obsessed with metal [Gun Buddies (1)] [M1A1 Abrams (2), Moto Tank (1), Goliath (1)]
• Charlie Company: Formerly part of the U.S. Army [Lasers (5)] [M1A1 Abrams (2), Moto Tank (1), Goliath Tank (2)
• Nuclear Knights: Escaped "Super Soldiers" [Nuke (1)] [Goliath Tank (5)]
• After Shocks: Street Punks [Mines (5) and Grenades (5)] [M1A1 Abrams (1), Moto Tank (3), Goliath (1)]
• Dark Angels: Cult society [Cloaking (1)] [M1A1 Abrams (2), Moto Tank (2), Goliath (1)
• Storm Ravens [unlocked by beating campaign]: Women only gang [Lasers (5) and Cloaking (1)] [M1A1 Abrams (2), Moto Tank (2), Goliath (1)]

Tanks

• M1A1 Abrams: The M1A1 Abrams is the most abundant tank in the game. It is usually used for open attacks on other gangs.
• Moto Tank: The Moto Tank is the fastest and weakest tank in the game. It is used for strategies for speed and have twin machine guns for the ammo's firepower. When you pick up ammo in the game, it will usually give you 70 instead of 30 because it fires so rapidly.
• Goliath Tank: The strongest and slowest tank in the game. The goliaths are used in Battlelord mode for the defense of your base and fire rapidly if you control them. The only gang that has all Goliath Tanks are the Nuclear Knights.

Levels

The first three levels all take place in New York City and involve the suburb of Queens, Queens Midtown Tunnel, and Times Square. The Las Vegas stage takes place on the world-famous Fremont Street. The San Francisco stages take place on the Golden Gate Bridge and The Wharf.

New York: Queens - This is the original location of the detonation of the nuclear bomb that went off. The city is in ruins and for a few minutes, the sky is red. Some of the buildings can't be destroyed, which can be aggrivating. In Campaign mode, you have to destroy 5 tanks.

New York: Queens Midtown Tunnel - This part you have to cross the tunnel and survive gun buddies and Urban Decay tanks. Only available on Campaign mode.

New York: Times Square - This part of the city is also in ruins. It is larger than Queens, and also a lot of the buildings cannot be destroyed. In Campaign mode, you must destroy 15 tanks and survive.

New York: Stranglehold Bridge (George Washington Bridge) - Urban Decay stronghold. Filled with mines, tanks, a goliath tank, and gun emplacements. Only available in Campaign mode.

The Heartland: You must rescue a queen lord while being able to prevail from Goliath tanks, tanks, and gun emplacements. Only available in Campaign.

Chicago: Lakeshore Drive - You must rescue a queenlord from the Psycho Brigade and bring it back to your home base.

Chicago: State Street - You must rescue two queenlords from the Psycho Brigade and Skull Riderz and bring them back to your home base.

Armaggedon Highway - entrance into the west. You must make it through tanks, gun emplacements, mines, and three goliath tanks occupied by the Mech Maniax, Nuclear Knights, and Charlie Company. Only available in Campaign mode.

Area 51 - You must rescue three queenlords from the gangs.

Las Vegas: Fremont Street - headquarters of the alliance. You must acquire three queenlords in order to make it through.

San Francisco: Crimson Gate Bridge (Golden Gate Bridge) - You have to make it through this heavily armed bridge while destroying tanks, gun emplacements, three goliath tanks, and 6 huge gun emplacements. Only available in Campaign.

San Francisco: The Wharf - You must obtain three queenlords from the Aftershocks, Skull Riderz, and Dark Angels to pass this level.

Q-zone - This is the final level. You must destroy all the gun emplacements, tanks, and two goliath tanks, and retrieve Madison from the Dark Angels and bring her to your base. Only available in Campaign.

Trivia

• A parody of Snuggles the bear was used in the North American advertisement, which shows him being blown up or ran over.

• The hacker word xyzzy can be seen in the password screen in one picture of the manual.