Hello boys and girls! Welcome to the 2nd Month of Modern Gamer reviews! Today we’re going to take a look at 2 things. Tank Maniacs by GAMELAB, as played on Steam for the PC, and using the Steam controller.
Let’s jump into Tank Maniacs first. Alright so I’m sure most of you have heard about Smash Bro’s yes? That is what Tank Maniacs is, but with tanks! In 2D! It’s actually a lot of fun and a great way to blow off some steam. Anger management problems? Tank Mania’s got you covered. I mean who needs to therapy, am I right? Plus it’s a lot of fun. What’s really great about it is that you can play with your friends, up to four. Or if you prefer solo playing, you can challenge the computer.
Moving into the theme and the characters, so we know it’s about tanks. You’ve got twelve cool characters to choose from. What I like is that they have unique personalities that everyone can enjoy. My personal favorites are Wendy and Grandma ( talk about boomers, right? Lol I love it) They pack a lot of funny tongue-in-cheek phrases and puns, which I dig in games like these. Seriously GAMELAB rocks.
The art? Let me tell ya’ll something about this art. It’s beautiful. It has this great comic style intro about it. Even though the smooth animation is saved for the in-game play, the intro for the Tank Maniacs is pretty much an animated story board. Which is great for a small game. Saves time and the artists get to focus more on the style. Personally I would like seeing an animated short made from it. But that’s just me. This would actually make a pretty funny cartoon. Hear that GAMELAB? I would watch it. Just saying. But seriously you can tell GAMELAB put a lot of love into this and it shows.
The animation is so, so smooth! When you go to play it feels kinda like butter in your controller hands. It even has moving backgrounds which is wonderful. Again the art is stellar in everything. So smooth and the color palette is really vibrant. Not like neon, but it feels like you’re playing in a cartoon. Which I love in games. Again that’s just my animation/art side coming out. It really is nice.
Controls, alright this where I’m going to split the difference here. When I played it on my computer and tried with the keyboard, it was really difficult. I’m used to the MMO style of playing. One set to fire and the other set for direction. So it through me off a bit. I’m sure you can change the controls, I didn’t get that far.
Now here’s what really helped me enjoy my Tank Maniacs experience. The Steam Controller! This makes Tank Maniacs ( and I’m sure every other game on steam out there) a lot of fun to play. Like this is how Tank Maniacs is meant to be played. I love that Steam controller! The buttons are simple and you can use it to move the tanks around which is way more natural in the gamers hands.
Best of all you can either plug it into your computer directly, or you can get the Steam Console and play it on your TV. ( I might get a console later down the road ). But yes, get a Steam Controller for this and all your other games.
All in all Tank Maniacs earns a perfect 5 gems. Its great alone or at a wacky party. GAMELAB did a fantastic job making this one, and I’m looking forward to playing more games from this developer.