Tank Riders

## Story/background

"WANTED: Able-bodied recruits to fill a number of sudden...vacancies in the 153rd tiny tank battalion. Only the finest, bravest and buffest need apply. In return, we offer all the honour and glory you can eat, and a tiny, little tank of your very own."

**Tank Riders** was released in 2013 from polarbit games.

## Gameplay

The player controls a tank throughout several batches of levels. Each level has a certain goal to reach in order to be defeated, which allows the player to advance to the next one. Goals include making it to the exit, destroying a certain number of enemies or finding a certain number of items (the latter two of which will have an icon at the top left of the screen depicting how many kills or items are left to be gathered).

The player's tank is attacked by gun turrets and various types of tanks; getting hit by an enemy's weapon will decrease the player's health and they will lose their tank and have to start the current level over if all of their health is lost.

## Enemies

* Regular tank–these are the most common of enemies, taking three hits from the player's regular Cannon to destroy. They start off slow but once the player enters their line of sight or they are hit by the player’s tank's fire they will suddenly speed up and make a beeline for the player.
* Turret–these are guns that slowly rotate in place, firing occasionally.
* Missile-Firing tanks–fires a slow-moving, but much more powerful projectile than the Regular tanks.
* Mortar-Firing tanks–fires a slow-moving, but much more powerful projectile than Regular tanks that can also be launched over a wall or other obstacle.

## Items and power-ups

* Button–running over these with the player's tank will allow one or more walls in a level to move, allowing the player access to additional areas of the level they are currently on. Above-ground buttons have to be shot in order for them to be activated.
* Cannon–this is the default weapon that the player's tank comes with, which is fast but doesn't do much damage. However, upon being upgraded its shots will bounce around.
* Coins–used to increase the player's score.
* Health–heart power-up that will restore part of player's health once picked up.
* Missile–slower, but much more powerful than the default Cannon, as it can do more damage, if not take out several enemies at once if they are close enough together. Also, even if a player were to miss their target initially, if it were to hit a nearby structure (such as a wall or rock) then the ensuing explosion could still take out a nearby enemy or two.
* Mortar–slow and short-ranged, but powerful weapon that can be tossed over walls.
* Shield–protects the player's tank from several enemy hits.
* Speed-Up–speeds up the player's tank for several seconds.
* Teleport–teleports the player's tank to another teleport pad.

### Gameplay variations/extras

There are several ways to play Tank Riders.

* Intro–five levels that are mostly small and low in difficulty. The player only faces regular tanks and the only power-up available is health.

* Campaign I–10 levels where all other power-ups (Speed, Shield, etc.) and enemies are introduced (Mortar- and Missile-equipped tanks), along with the levels being larger for the most part.

* Campaign II–15 levels with larger playfields and a higher degree of difficulty for the most part. The majority of the levels are also in an industrial setting, rather than outdoors, such as the Intro and Campaign I levels. (Note: the player must first earn three stars out of all the Campaign I levels in order to unlock this Campaign.)

* Invasion–at the start of each new game the player is briefly alone; after a few seconds an enemy will appear. Once it is destroyed others follow after a few more seconds. The difficulty level is high, as only an occasional power-up will appear after an enemy is destroyed (and none are to be found in a level at any point unlike with the Intro and Campaign variations), plus there are big/boss versions of various enemies, such as Regular tanks that take more than three hits to be destroyed and Mortar-throwing tanks that can rapidly fire multiple Mortars within only a couple of seconds, rather than one at a time. The game ends once the player's tank is destroyed. Five battlefields are available.

* Tournament–these are scheduled events/deathmatches between online players.

* Multiplayer–an online account is needed in order to play this. These playfields are fairly large and the player must wait for someone to log on in order to engage in a deathmatch.

* Wildcard–allows the player to skip a Campaign level without having to redo it.

## Controls, Chrome/book

* Move tank–arrow keys
* Aim–mouse
* Fire–mouse button
* Pause game–pause key
* Toggle to full screen–0 or F11 Key (on PC for the latter)
* Return to regular-sized window–Escape key

### (Android)

* Move tank–keypad?
* Aim–??
* Fire–??
* Pause game–pause key?
* Toggle to full screen–?
* Return to regular-sized window–?

## Trivia

* Various achievements can be earned, such as killing 100 enemies in a single player game, discovering a secret passageway, etc.
* A rank is given at the end of a campaign. A score total is given at the end of a Survival game.
* Tank Riders was followed by Tank Riders 2 and 3.