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'Tank Racer'

[PC] [ARGENTINA] [MAGAZINE] [1999]

"More than once, a racer has probably dreamed of having a missile launcher to annoy that damned rival who stands in his way to first place... That unsportsmanlike fantasy is precisely the central theme of Tank Racer, the most recent addition to the latest batch of arcade racing games that arrived these days. As its name suggests, the game puts us in command of a tank, but not to fight on the front lines, but to face off against various opponents in a race riddled with obstacles and artillery fire. You can choose from a variety of 15 tanks (plus 4 secret ones), each with differences in track performance and armament. With them, we can compete on 22 circuits that aren't too long, but have numerous detours and forks. Many times it becomes necessary to find an alternate route (or open a new one) to stay in the race, running over fences, police cars, cows, and more, as only a tank could.

Handling our war machines is not difficult at all, and the tanks are capable of reaching quite remarkable speeds for vehicles of this type. Sometimes they are difficult to control because, as expected, they don't have much grip at high speeds and their turning radius is very wide, but this problem is usually solved by crashing into the terrain and bouncing back in the right direction (after all, a tank can afford such luxuries...). The separate controls for steering and turret are a bit tricky to master using only the keyboard, but with a good joystick and the auto-aim feature, you'll be racing in no time. This relative simplicity makes Tank Racer a game with a very short learning curve and virtually no frustration. A variety of weapons and power-ups scattered along the tracks grant momentary advantages to those who pass over them, but the "racing" aspect of the competition is never lost. Even if we launch our best missile, no rival can be destroyed or even damaged; they are only penalized with a brief delay. Among all the weapons, the Alien Abduction stands out, causing the unfortunate victim to be kidnapped by a UFO and transported to another part of the track. Tank Racer has a distinctly cartoonish feel, which is clearly reflected in its visuals, especially in the vibrant colors used to differentiate the tanks. In any case, the environments move with complete fluidity if you have a good 3D accelerator, even when running it on a relatively modest machine. The only problem we could find is that sometimes the game has trouble accessing the CD. Talking to the people at Glass Ghost, we learned that the problem only occurs with certain Spanish versions of Windows, and the company has already released a patch to fix it (which, by the way, we included on our CD of this edition). Having to install a patch before even being able to start playing isn't very pleasant, but the truth is that we were so happy with the rest of the game that we almost forgot about the issue. Ultimately, Tank Racer is highly recommended for those looking for an arcade racing game even lighter than Daytona USA or Need for Speed, or for any fan of the genre in general." ~Patricio Villarejo PC Juegos (July 1999, #09) [BMT🤖]