2024-03-18 10:14:47
In the first minute of the newly released PC shooter Flying Tank for iPhone/Ipad, I got a lot of that wonderful retro vibe that developer Hexage has been good at for years (iOS success Radiant is in many ways pure Space Invaders tribute). It looks a bit like Ikaruga’s kid with an R-Type II, and feels a lot like Gradius playing, but a little more modern.
The ship, the Flying Tank, is controlled with the left thumb, while the right thumb controls the machine guns (hold down), missiles (swipe right) and bombs (swipe down), and like any side-scrolling shooter, it’s all about shooting down waves Fight another wave of flying enemies, pick up the upgrades that appear after each wave is shot down, and maneuver your ship in between and away from all enemy shots. In this way, Flying Tank is truly the same thing we’ve played 19,000 times before. Retro, in many ways, was honed to perfection back in the 1980s.
Designed by Hexage founder David Peroutka (the studio is just two people), Flying Tank’s aesthetic has as much to do with Blade Runner and Cyberpunk 2077 as it does with Ascension and Heavy Metal. All objects are modeled in 3D, even if the actual setting is only 2D, and between missions you as the player have the opportunity to upgrade your ship with different weapons and better armor (and more). There are of course the bosses, which naturally become very challenging, which is part of the genre, and there’s plenty of visual variety here to feast your eyes on.
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Hexage’s striking, atmospheric, dystopian homage to the R-Type is delicious, the presentation is excellent, and the simple playability makes use of the touch screen in a sensible way. My thumb is a little too big to hide half of the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s screen, but that’s hardly a common problem and probably not something I should complain about. However, it’s worth criticizing that the pacing is a bit too slow and the enemy and combat variety is a bit weak. After two courses, Flying Tank started to feel too familiar, too predictable, and nothing about it made me want to stay and play another course. That said, it’s a decent game, with a very nice design that (as I said) utilizes “touch controls” in a clever way.
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