Rock, Paper, Shotgun

It’s a tank. It’s indestructible. It’s…

By Kieron Gillen on July 9th, 2008 at 11:37 am.

Comrade Hobbes lobs me this late last night. I play it early this morning. You play it – oooh – 30 seconds after reading this post. It’s today’s web game du jour, a update of last year’s Indestructotank, IndestructoTank A.E. You play a tank of indestructibility. Using the explosions of your foes, you have to hurtle around and wipe out attack waves. It’s militarised Pinball, and from its splendid old Bitmap Brothers style music on the intro screen onwards it’s a thing of beauty. You can almost imagine the attacking ships cursing the name of whoever thought up real physics in games. The bast.

__________________

« | »

, , .

31 Comments »

  1. Jonas says:

    It’s Written by Kieron Gillen on July 9, 2008.

    report

  2. The movement of the tank itself is just perfect.

    report

  3. The Hammer says:

    That’s awesome. The sounds and explosions are pretty basic, but hella addictive. Chaining up destruction is satisfying.

    report

  4. Jonas: Yours is the best of all the jokes.

    KG

    report

  5. Ian says:

    This game rules.

    The key is to get a nice, explodey layer of mining tanks.

    report

  6. Awesome; lots of bouncy, silly fun. It all seems unclear, until you careen through the air for the first time, and then it all makes so much sense.

    I particularly like that as you level up, all you acquire is the ability to choose new types of enemy – or greater quantities of them – to face. The only way to progress is to face even more insurmountable odds. You are, after all, indestructable.

    report

  7. Riotpoll says:

    I played this a while ago, pretty fun until you levelled up everything, and then it goes into a crazy highscore mode.

    report

  8. feitclub says:

    I played this via Kongregate and I really, really liked it. My only complaint is that the music is uninteresting and extremely repetitive. Otherwise it’s crazy fun.

    report

  9. dartt says:

    My tank got destroyed, am I doing it wrong?

    fail?

    report

  10. Man Raised By Puffins says:

    You get destroyed if you run out of fuel. Once you fill up the EHP bar you’ll automatically refuel (and level up) when you land, or at least that’s how I think it works anyway.

    It’s a quite fun little game and nicely satisfying when you start to string long combos together.

    report

  11. cullnean says:

    a 25 combo and a height of 78 is ma best so far

    report

  12. AndrewC says:

    Has anyone ever tried to stop Kieron signing his posts?

    report

  13. Rob says:

    I only just caught “It’s today’s web game du jour“; I am ashamed.

    Fun game, though.

    report

  14. Ian says:

    My biggest combo was 31, I think.

    report

  15. Chris says:

    Lovely stuff. I can’t work out how I’m running out of fuel though – died on a 38 bounce combo with many, many enemies around :(. Is it just the amount of time you’re in the air?

    report

  16. Man Raised By Puffins says:

    My best is 51, but I keep losing my combos at about level 14.

    EHP

    Or actually, EXP. Which makes a bit more sense.

    report

  17. mandrill says:

    The fuel thing is a timer. Its that simple, you’ve got to fill the EHP bar before the time runs out to keep playing.

    report

  18. Garreett says:

    Was playing this yesterday. I got to a combo of 54, and then died from lack of fuel. (Why would you use fuel when you’re in the air? :S)

    report

  19. Ian says:

    I got the “Free Flyer” medal (getting over 90 altitude or something like it) by pumping loads of homing bombers in there and then getting a stream of homing missiles underneath me as well as a full boom metre. I think I got to about 120.

    Still can’t beat level 14 though, this time I was NINE points short. :(

    report

  20. roBurky says:

    Ah, I’ve figured out the low fuel thing. Basically, when you get the ‘low fuel’ warning, that is your cue to LAND and end your combo, so you can gain some exp. Which is a bit unintuitive, and not explained anywhere that I can see.

    report

  21. Chris says:

    Arr, I just worked it out after writing that, thankee koindly :).

    Trying to get down can be as hard as trying to get up sometimes. And in the game too, or something.

    report

  22. mrrobsa says:

    Nice game, got to 48 combo before blowing up.
    (I too assumed the low fuel warning didn’t apply to me as I was mid-air)

    report

  23. dan^ says:

    That’s why I come here, for the old AP jokes.

    report

  24. Man Raised By Puffins says:

    Finally beaten it, well maxed it out anyway. I found it’s easier if you avoid levelling up the homers, as they have a tendency to juggle you which makes it harder to build up a combo quickly.

    report

  25. Chris R says:

    Man, my highest combo was 59 before blowing up from low fuel… haha.

    report

  26. luckystriker says:

    Wow…that’s just a great little game!

    report

  27. luckystriker says:

    Argh i just had a 65 combo interrupted because i ran out of fuel in mid-air. How can you end someone’s game when they’re rocking out? That’s a ridiculous game mechanic.

    report

  28. Ian says:

    Damn it all to hell! Level 14 is still my downfall!

    report

  29. Chris R says:

    Seriously… is there a way to refuel in between levels? Like a refuel power-up or something? Landing doesn’t seem to work, and the only way to refuel is to get enough exp to get to the next level and the purchase screen… >.<

    report

  30. sinister agent says:

    75 hit combo and I ran out of fuel on level 14. Swines.

    report

  31. shadow says:

    this game was actually pretty good it could be better teh weapons could be a little more aluring and just a shot in the dark the tank should be customizable

    report

Comment on this story

XHTML: Allowed code: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Search

Respond to our gibber

  • nootpingu86 : “For my part, I think it's ridiculous to find the sublime in most games because of the content on display. The medium can do whatever ...” on The Sunday Papers
  • Consumatopia : “@sinister agent, your original argument was "Demanding status updates is just a waste of their time that they could spend making the goddamn game." Kadayi ...” on The Sunday Papers
  • Sinderlin : “@jaheira Gabe Newell made several statements and anouncements regarding the planned trilogy of "episodes". I can understand your reluctancy to call those "promises" as a ...” on The Sunday Papers
  • Hoaxfish : “there's always that opposite example of player/character intelligence... a player (or DM) using a character that is supposed to be a genius by their stats, ...” on The Sunday Papers
  • Vinraith : “I'm a little confused as to why an obvious troll is in the Sunday Papers at all, let alone the first article.” on The Sunday Papers

Browse the archive