Battle City

aka: BattleCity, Tank, Танчики
Moby ID: 8277
Arcade Specs

Description

Battle City is a refined version of Namco's old arcade game Tank Battalion. Destroy different enemy tanks, while trying to keep them away from your base. When you have destroyed 20 enemy tanks you advance to the next level with different layout. In each level there's some obstacles which you can use to your advantage. Obstacles include red bricks which you can shoot out of your way, silver bricks which are highly armored, water and ice. You start the game with a basic tank, which you can power up to better one little by little.

The NES game includes a construction mode, so you can make your own levels when you have played through all the 35 original levels.

Spellings

  • バトルシティー - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (NES version)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 90% (based on 2 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.6 out of 5 (based on 59 ratings with 1 reviews)

2-player game at its finest

The Good
Great 2-player co-op experience and a must have for any NES/Famicom owners!

Gameplay: It's a great pick up and play game with many hours of fun guaranteed. The player controls a tank in a top-down perspective and the objective is to destroy all 20 enemy tanks in each of the levels while gathering different power-ups(some make you shoot faster or walk on water etc.) and defending the main base. Battle City is a good way to kill shorts amount of time since the levels usually don't last all that long and you can choose to play whichever level you want. The game has an element of risk versus reward because the player can choose to go after the power-ups which appear after shooting the red tanks but this will leave the base unprotected and vice versa. On top of all these awesome features, the game has a build-in level creator so players can make their own levels.

Graphics: The game looks pretty descent. There isn't much to be said about the graphics. The explosions are vibrant and satisfying.

Sound and Music: The game performs very well on the audio department. The music before each level gets players hyped-up for a nice tank battle and the sound effects are awesome. I've never felt so happy about shooting a tank. Plus, when the player gets a high score the screen starts flashing and the music makes you feel like winning a gold medal.

Multiplayer: This is where the game truly exceeds. Two players can play at the same time and this adds more strategy to the game. One player can guard the base while the other picks off individual enemies, both can try to overwhelm the enemy and so on. It has some competitive elements as well since the player with the most kills after each level gets 1000 extra points. Every time I hold gaming parties at my home Battle City is a must-play.

The Bad
Gameplay: Sometimes the AI is really stupid. The enemy tanks act really weird like they are controlled by hamsters on coffee. It's is nothing major though, since this game is pretty old and AI like this was common back in the day.

Graphics: Nothing to complain here.

Sound and Music: No complaints.

Multiplayer: You can be a real jerk to your friends and steal their lives if you run out. Not necessarily a bad thing.

The Bottom Line
Great NES co-op game! It has everything a Nintendo fan needs - tanks, power-ups, level builder., great gameplay, descent graphics and awesome sound. Perfect for parties.

NES · by Ivan Obretenov (30) · 2015

Trivia

Multigame cartridges

Battle City is known as one of the most bootlegged NES games. It appears in almost every pirated "multigame" cartridge (24in1, 150in1 etc.).

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Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 8277
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by wanax.

Arcade, Nintendo 3DS added by GTramp. Wii U added by Michael Cassidy. Sharp MZ-80K/700/800/1500, Sharp X1, FM-7 added by Infernos. Wii added by gamewarrior. Game Boy added by Michael B.

Additional contributors: gamewarrior, lights out party, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, Alex Flash.

Game added January 27, 2003. Last modified March 3, 2024.