Ooh, Tanks! Tokyo Warfare's Free Multiplayer Prototype

Tanks rolling through the streets of Tokyo, big seats with wheels and pedals, polygonal 3D graphics (three dimensions! three!), big bassy booms, and networked multiplayer left early teen me fascinated by Namco's Tokyo Wars in arcades. I only ever had the money to play it twice (we were a penny falls family), but it's stayed in my mind all along. I like games doing unlikely things in otherwise-serene modern cities. Well, today's my lucky day, as folks are making a game which looks awfully similar.

Tokyo Warfare [official site] is an arcadey tank battler rolling through the streets of Tokyo, and has a free work-in-progress version you can download and play today.

As it exists now, Tokyo Warfare supports ten-player deathmatch on one map. Handily, it's exactly the sort of map I'd want - shops, apartment buildings, offices, and overpasses. You roll around in a big old tank, armed with two types of shell (one stronger at close range, one slower but effective everywhere) and a machinegun to murder everyone. It's a bit buggy (if you get stuck, it handily has a key to explode yourself), and I don't know why an anime lady is shouting every time you fire but otherwise, yep, that's about what I remember. If not for Life Is Strange Episode 4, I'd get back to playing after work tonight.

You can download the latest prototype over here. Do be aware its sole server is limited to 100 players in total, though I have no idea how busy it gets. Here's a little action: