I was not a fan of the NES port of Ikari Warriors. It was a Micronics hack job that was so slow and brutal that I nearly wrote off the series because of it. However the one good thing I will say about it is that riding around in the tank was cool. Apparently SNK though so as well as Iron Tank is literally Ikari Warriors in a 60 ton hunk of metal. That descriptor is selling the game short as Iron Tank is a great game with a few unique features for the time that make it much better than it probably should be.
It’s hard to believe but Iron Tank really wants to be Metal Gear so bad. Your protagonist is code named Iron Snake, you have a radio that you receive calls on every so often like Solid Snake’s transceiver, and you even have a refuel option that replenishes your life bar before you die like Metal Gear’s rations. I’d like to believe most of these similarities are coincidental but it does make you wonder. Iron Tank is another in the long line of war themed NES games from SNK and is surprisingly great. Usually tank based video games are not my cup of tea because they are so slow (which makes sense) but this strikes the perfect balance between realism and pacing that I would recommend to action fans.
The most immediate aspect you will need to adjust to is the controls. Since you are controlling a tank you can move in one direction while aiming the turret in another. This is facilitated by holding down the B button while moving in order to position it. Locking the turret in eight directions while freely moving around is an unprecedented amount of control that is invigorating. That initial learning curve is a bitch to get used to though.
What is a tank without an awesome array of weapons? Iron Tank has four primary weapons: rapid fire, armor piercing, bomb shells, and long range along with the requisite smart bomb. Each of these has ammo that is gathered separately and you can actually activate them in combinations if you so choose. Power-ups are so frequent that it is almost encouraged to experiment. It is far better than relying on the default machine gun which is so slow and weak it’s embarrassing.
The journey to Normandy is incredibly long, longer than most games of this type. Technically the game isn’t split up into levels but there are very clear break points although that doesn’t make it any easier. Despite the fact that you regain health from picking up power-ups and running over foot soldiers it is still pretty easy to be overwhelmed and die in seconds, making this a difficult undertaking. It’s actually more prudent to simply drive by enemies when possible rather than slowly moving into position to line up a shot. As much as I like the control setup it does come with an adjustment period and some may find it frustrating to deal with. But for what the game is asking of you I honestly can’t imagine them any differently.
The high challenge might be a deterrent for some but those that stick with it will be rewarded. There’s high replay value as there are multiple branching paths to the end, some more difficult than others. The separate routes have different enemies and bosses as incentive to go back to find the quickest and safest path. If you study the map you can even reach the final boss in fewer than six “levels’. There weren’t too many games from that era that offered such player choice so Iron Tank is innovative in that regard.
Iron Tank is a great looking game and one of SNK’s best efforts on the platform. It is incredibly deceptive; you’ll spend far more time than normal treading through similar forests and grey strongholds. But after your first big boss battle the variety in environments begins. The trip will eventually take you through a fortress, a village, and even a naval shipyard. While there is variety in terrain you’ll have to get used to destroying more tanks than you thought possible for one country to possess. Iron Tank heavily resembles SNK’s other NES works such as Guerilla War and P.O.W and I wouldn’t be surprised if they all shared assets. That’s not a knock on the game either. When so many products from one company share one theme you can’t help but notice the similarities.
In Closing
I am a late fan of Iron Tank but glad I came around to it. Once you get used to the controls Iron Tank is an excellent game and worth the dirt cheap price it usually goes for.
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