Title: Lil Tanks
Genre: Action, Indie
Developer: Lead Money Games
Publisher: Lead Money Games
Release Date: Apr 4, 2017
Lil Tanks is a sidescrolling Shmup by Lead Money Games. Games in the genre tend to break in one direction or another. Short and sweet (and difficult), or they use their gameplay as part of a means of getting stronger (sort of a leveling system with experience).
Lil Tanks is something of the latter. Make no mistake; it has its fair share of difficulty. However, its experience system makes it easier to get through a level the more you play. While it’s likely possible to beat the game without grinding for experience, it’s probably out of the skill range of the average player.
That’s ignoring the fact that each level you gain greatly increases your abilities. The shield and speed boost abilities are on the top of the list when it comes to useful things. They’ll work for you long after you get them, and probably do more for you than some of the later gun upgrades.
While there are 3 more unlockable tanks, and they each have their own campaign, the campaign itself is the same for all of them. The only real difference is that they get different abilities as they level up. For example Colonel Faulk’s tank gains a blocking ability on its option early on, in place of a deferred gun upgrade. In this way, they all have their own quirks, making a new playthrough of the campaign different from the vanilla experience.
There are three weapon pickups for you to use: Wide, Chaser and Flame. Wide is pretty much what you’d expect, and is likely to be your weapon of choice. Chaser tracks enemies its already hit, and can spread around in a group.
Flame is the most powerful of the three, but has the shortest range, so you probably won’t want it for yourself or your option going into a boss. The most important part to keep in mind is that you can swap weapons with your option, allowing you to give it a more powerful shot. Especially useful if you don’t get Wide on your first drop.
You also have your “bombs”, for lack of a better term. The Flame tank has a similar theme to the Flame shot; powerful, but requires you to be close. The Shock tank offers a similar tradeoff, but with wider range. The missile tank is the only one that is actually ranged, firing a volley of homing missiles.
Also, different tanks have their own bombs, so to speak. There’s no real penalty to accidentally using one; they’re selected randomly at the beginning of the stage, and cycle whenever you use one. All you have to do is wait for the gauge to fill back up over time.
The graphics are fairly standard for the genre. The sprites are borderless, which I feel is a nice touch. There are, however, a lot of shades of purple at work on the enemy side of things. Still, environments in the levels are varied and pretty enough. Not to mention all of the explosions, as expected.
It’s also worth noting that the soundtrack pumps relatively hard. It’s definitely reminiscent of 90’s era action games. Not a bad thing, considering how stupidly popular 8-bit stuff is in the indie circuit. It’s time for a later era to get a bit of love.
Overall, Lil Tanks is a good lil’ shmup. I don’t know whether it’s $10 worth of game, but you can definitely do worse as far as the genre’s concerned. There are, after all, plenty of games that give you less for the same or greater price.
Pros:
+ Classic shooting action
+ Rad soundtrack
+ Experience system works as an anti-frustration feature
Cons:
– The plot’s basically an excuse to blow stuff up (not really a Con)
– Leveling requires exponentially more experience at higher levels.
– Even with a hardcore bonus, it can take a long time to level up.
Final Score:
3.3/5
*We were provided a copy of this game for review*
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