Software Review: Touch Tanks 2: Europe for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

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Touch Tanks 2: Europe for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Touch Tanks 2: Europe (iTunes Canada)

I know that Rememberance Day and Veterans Day has passed a couple weeks ago already and this could have been a good fit for it, however, like the saying goes, “it’s better late than never” so I’m posting this review now.

Aside from the movies, and Rememberance Day and Veterans Day, we tend to forget during the rest of the year about wars and the fighting that went on and still go on in some parts of the world. We tend to take for granted their sacrifices for our freedom. With that, I just wanted to give thanks to all the men and women past and future who serve in the military for keeping me safe and giving me the freedom I enjoy today.

Although most are familiar with World War II and the battles that were fought, many associate hand to hand combat battles that are mostly shown in the movies. Did you know that many of the battles involved tanks? Think Normandy, Battle of the Bulge, El Alamein. Those are some of the greatest tank battles of World War II that were so bitterly fought. You may not get the chance to re-live these greatest battles, but here’s a way for you to play some tank battle games with similar type locations and background. Today I will be reviewing a game called Touch Tanks 2: Europe which covers some of the tank battle locations across Europe. You are one of the tanks at any one of the locations and your objective is to gun down as many enemy tanks as possible. Sounds cool, right? Read on for more details!

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For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

The game is played with a satellite view of the landscape and obviously on your touch screen iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. There are two buttons, the left button with the tank icon is your direction button. Drag your finger in the direction you want to move your tank and you will control how the tank moves. So if you want it to turn 360 in clockwise direction, drag your finger in a clockwise direction and watch the tank rotate. Release your drag and it will stop rotating. The button on the right with the bullet icon is your Fire/Shoot button. Tap on that button to fire. You will also notice that there’s a straight dotted line that extends out of your tank. That is your firing line, helping you with aiming your gun at targets. Your objective of the game is to shoot and gun down as many enemy tanks as possible within the time limit allotted. That’s the quick overview of the game. Let’s take a better look at how it’s presented.

When you launch the game, you are given a screen showing a tank on the left and several rectangular buttons on the right. The image of the tank is to show the type of tank that has been selected for the game. You can change it by tapping on the [Tank] button underneath the rotating image. After tapping on the image, you are presented with a much larger image of the tank with its characteristic and levels of strengths for each displayed as a bar with varying colors. At the bottom, your current rank is displayed on the left. The middle shows the place in the line up of the total number of tanks (currently 28) and the right shows the cost of the tank in credits. Credits is the currency that is used throughout the game. Tanks and upgrades have a cost of a certain number of credits. You can purchase extra credits by going to the Shop and buying them which obviously will charge your iTunes account that amount to purchase the credits. You can also earn your credits by simply playing the game. However, it will take you quite a while before you accumulate enough credits to purchase a tank. Tapping on the [Upgrade] button, you’re taken to the Upgrade screen. On the right are the list of upgrades available: Armor, Shells, Mines, Gun sight, Loader, Mechanic, and Fuel. Tapping on each upgrade button on the right will display the available upgrades you can purchase. At the top of the screen is your current credits balance. Tapping on the Get Credits button will take you to the purchase credits screen. The prices range from $0.99 for 500 credits to $29.99 for 30,000 credits. As you can see, although the game’s sticker price at the iTunes app store is “free”, it really isn’t as you can spend a lot of money for upgrades and there isn’t a ceiling on how much you can spend for this “free” game. So be careful. Also at the bottom is the “Free Credits” button. Tap on that to see if there are any free credit offers available.

To the right are three main buttons: Play Game…, Training…, Extras… and two smaller buttons underneath those: Scores…, and Awards… Plus, there’s a display of how many players are currently playing “online” and how many games are being played. Play Game is obviously to start an online game. You can choose which game you wish to play by tapping on the left < button or right > button. They range from “First Available Battle” to El-Alamein, Kiev, Cyrenaica, and Hürtgen with different number of players. You can choose either playing online with anyone who is currently online or with your friends. Tap on Play Online Game and the game will start. As mentioned before, you have two buttons: a directional button and a fire button. Navigate your tank around the chosen battlefield and try to shoot down as many enemy tanks as possible in the allotted time. Sounds simple but it obviously isn’t.

Going back to the main screen, the next button is the Training… Similar to the main online game, you are playing the same game except there’s no time limit as it is meant to help train you for the main online game and you can play for as long or as short as you’d like. However, the training mode isn’t a tutorial as most would assume so don’t expect to be given a tutorial of how the game is played as you are expected to figure it out yourself.

The next button underneath is the Extras… There are three buttons available under the Extras screen. Settings… will allow you to personalize some aspects of the game, such as volume level (a slider, yay!), lock turret, 3D camera. As well, the user account for game achievements and scores are defaulted to Game Center but you can change it and choose Plus+ if you’d like. However, if this is chosen, all the credits earned in Game Center will be transferred over to Plus+ and if you decide to go back to Game Center, you will start with nothing again. The Email Support will simply create an email to the developers without a log. The Credits screen simply shows the developers and given credits to the game testers. Tapping on the flipside5 button displays some of the other games that flipside5 offers. The Scores button will open up your points standings in Game Center. The Awards button will open up your Achievements screen in Game Center.

And that is pretty much the game. The fun of the game is that you are playing against other people from all over the world instead of a computer algorithm so there is the sense of human interaction, strategy and that every game will be different as you are playing against a different set of players. You have a choice of 10 different games of 4 different locations with varying numbers of players playing. Plus, there are various upgrades available but the downside is that you will need credits and for most of us, there isn’t enough accumulated credits available to purchase those upgrades so that means spending money to purchase those. The game is rendered in top-down perspective or bird’s eye view so you get to see the tank against the background for easy maneuvering and better viewpoint for detecting enemy tanks a little earlier. Overall, for a “free” or more like freemium game, there isn’t much to complain about.

More details of Touch Tanks 2: Europe for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (taken from Apple iTunes store)

Download and get 750 tank credits for FREE!

Online Tank combat over EDGE, 3G or Wi-Fi!
Command your tank to victory against players worldwide in multiple 3D battlefields.

- Nearly 30 Different Tanks to select from!!!
- Nearly 20 Tank Upgrades!!
- 4 and 6 player modes
- Multiple battlefield maps
- Part of Game Center and the Plus+ network

Earn credits to customize your tank as you play
Leader boards and awards

What’s New in Version 2.3.1

Fixes scoring issue where some kills are not counted. Plus+ support as back and iCloud bug fix.

Slideshow of Touch Tanks 2: Europe for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Video of Touch Tanks 2: Europe for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Video review of Pocket Casts for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

Here are my observations:

I Liked:

easy to play

The game is somewhat easy to play as you can easily figure out how the game works. However, a tutorial would have been nice to have.

Ten different games available

You have a choice of ten different games that cover four different battlegrounds: El-Alamein, Kiev, Cyrenaica, and Hürtgen and a varying number of players.

Training mode available

Another important feature is the display of box scores whether it be current, or past as well as providing a game summary with the play-by-play.

28 tanks to choose from

You can choose from the 28 different tanks from different countries available to play the game. Some tanks require credits for purchasing, which again, goes back to paying money. Each tank has its strengths and weaknesses as displayed in the tank detail screen, color coded and in a bar and your current level on the right.

volume slider

Many of you already know how much I prefer a game or app that offers a volume slider so obviously I’m happy that this game offers that.

Game Center and Plus+ supported

I always like a game that supports Game Center. This game also supports Plus+ and you can also transfer all your credits and awards over to it. However, once you’ve transferred them over and go back to Game Center, you will need to start over again as all the awards and credits were transferred over.

Email support

There is an email support link which will allow you to compose and send an email to the developers. Any contact to the developers is a good thing in my book.

play online with real people

Unlike some other games where you are playing against the computer and the computer algorithm, this game involves connecting every Touch Tank 2: Europe player together to play the game. This way, the game stays fresh as new and different players are brought into the mix each game.

Free

The game’s sticker price is “free”. Thankfully, there are no ad bars in the game. However, many of the enhanced upgrades do require credits to purchase.

I Didn’t Like:

No tutorial available

It’s unfortunate that there is no tutorial screen available for those who are starting the game for the first time and is forced to figure it out on his own.

Training mode is just like no time limit online game mode

I am a bit surprised that the training mode offers the same locations and games as the actual online game with one exception: there is no time limit. I was expecting something a little different.

no bug submit feature

Although there is a contact link which composes an email to the developers, I am a bit disappointed that there is no log file attachment to the email for quick and easy bug submission.

bird’s eye view only

The game is rendered solely on the bird’s eye view or top-down perspective. There is no option to change it to a different viewpoint.

no bonus game unlock

I don’t see any special or other bonus games that is available for unlocking.

no side games available

As much as the game is a lot of fun to play, it can get very boring after a while because the game is pretty much the same. You are still dealing with those ten different games and you are always playing in the top-down perspective. With no side games to play, it can get old pretty quickly.

limited free credit rewards

I understand that the developers are trying to make money by making it easy for them to persuade you to purchase credits but they need to offer more free credit rewards for those who either can’t afford to buy credits or those who are willing to do certain things to earn free credits. Not offering much options will only alienate some players who will give up on the game.

No Facebook or Twitter integration

In this day and age of Facebook and Twitter, I am a bit disappointed and surprised that there is no support for those social networking sites.

Requires internet connection

As the game is played online, you need an internet connection to play. However, you can play the Training mode offline without an internet connection.

Freemium isn’t free

Although the game’s sticker price on the iTunes app store is “free”, it really isn’t free. The nice thing is that there is no ad bar in the game but in order to enhance your game experience with upgrades, you will be required to purchase them with credits, which you can purchase directly in the app. However, this type of game can get very expensive very quickly and for younger players who, if they’re not careful, can be hooked into spending a lot of money on this game.

Review Summary

Touch Tanks 2: Europe for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad is a freemium game that offers the gamer an opportunity to play the tank battles set in some of the historic battlegrounds in World War II. You don’t actually get to re-live the actual battles but the background setting is there. Play online against other players from all over the world and play your strategy to try to shoot down as many enemy tanks as possible within the allotted time. A good time waster for sure!

Touch Tanks 2: Europe (iTunes Canada)

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