History VideoGame / Battletanx

** CripplingOverspecialization: The Rhino tank-hunter, which sports a huge fixed gun and a heavily-reinforced front. Unfortunately, its sides and rear are extremely vulnerable, and it can't engage targets who flank it. Also strangely susceptible to fire attacks.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: The Queenlords have some pretty improbable hair colors.

* StrawFeminist: The [[AmazonBrigade women-only]] Storm Ravens, who believe men are responsible for every problem both pre- and post-Apocalypse. To be fair on the second part, with the exception of the virus itself they're pretty much right [[GenderRarityValue by default]]. Averted with the similarly-women-only Iron Maidens, who become Griffin and Madison's only allies in the entire series.

* NextSundayAD

** {{Invisibility}}: The Cloak. The SecondaryFire also projects an intangible {{Doppelganger}} for your enemies to waste ammo on.

* ReligionOfEvil: The Dark Angels, a mysterious cult who apparently wears voluminous robes inside their tanks.

* TankControls: One of the reasons these games are so loved is that they avoid this, with tanks that are very easy to control. You can switch to traditional TankControls in the control setup, though.

** OneUp: In the first game. Replaced by [[VideoGameMoney Tank Bucks]] in the second.

* EveryTenThousandPoints: ...Gets you a OneUp in the first game. Averted in the sequel, though, where ThePointsDoNothing.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The music for the "Fremont Street" stage in the first game sounds similar to [[Music/{{ACDC}} AC/DC]]'s "TNT".

** TeleportersAndTransporters: Teleport

** BoobyTrap: Mines and Bouncing Betties. The former's SecondaryFire lays down an entire minefield, while the latter's drops a continuous trail of Betties behind you.
** FrickinLaserBeams: [[CaptainObvious The Laser]]. Plasma Bolts are lasers that [[DeathInAllDirections bounce all over the place]]. Both have BeamSpam as their SecondaryFire. Guided Missiles also have them in their SecondaryFire mode.

** {{Invisibility}}: The Cloak.
** MacrossMissileMassacre: Swarmers.

** PineappleBomb: Grenades. Their SecondaryFire is a BigBulkyBomb.

* ThePowerOfLove: The motivation of Griffin and his army in the first game. The later GameBoy port [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by naming it's last level "Love Conquers All".

** The story of ''Thunder Tanks'' doesn't come out and say it, but it basically implies that it is set in the future after this apocalypse has faded into memory and tank combat is now a rich man's sport (like jousting or golf). The fact that they have a female co-host in the game, as well as several female tank drivers, gives one hope that eventually humanity pulled back from the Class III apocalypse somehow.

** MightyGlacier: The Goliath, a behemoth with a [[{{BFG}} really big cannon]]. Slow as Christmas but able to laugh off round after round of enemy fire. Also commonly mounted on a side-scrolling rail in front of fortresses as a sort of detachable gun turret. Also capable of making pancakes out of Mototanks and Rattlers.

** MightyGlacier: The Goliath, a behemoth with a [[{{BFG}} really big cannon]].

* ThePowerOfLove: The motivation for Griffin and his army in the first game. The later GameBoy port [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this by naming its last level "Love Conquers All".

** The story of ''Thunder Tanks'' doesn't come out and say it, but it basically implies that it is set in the future after this apocalypse has faded into memory and tank combat is now a rich man's sport (like jousting or golf).

* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The music for the "Fremont Street" stage in the first game sounds similar to [[Music/{{ACDC}} AC/DC]]'s "TNT".
rich man's sport (like jousting or golf). The fact that they have a female co-host in the game, as well as several female tank drivers, gives one hope that eventually humanity pulled back from the Class III apocalypse somehow.
* SugarApocalypse: Some of the ads for ''Global Assault'' involved an army of [=BattleTanx=] rampaging through what certainly were not the {{Teletubbies}}.

** JackOfAllStats: The right honorable [=M1A1=] Abrams, mainstay of the U.S. military and all-around solid tank.
** FragileSpeedster: The Mototank, a tiny wheeled vehicle with dual machineguns and light armor. Capable of streaking about and running circles around larger tanks, but lacking in firepower and capable of being flattened by heavier tanks. Also the Hovertank, a [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin flying tank]] that moves extremely fast, can move in any direction without turning, and doesn't set off standard landmines. A third is the Rattler, which is basically the Mototank with MoreDakka.

* ApocalypseHow: Humanity gets hit with a double whammy here, with WorldWarIII being the minor one. The real problem was a plague that wiped out 99.9% of the female population (with the scarcity of females being the reason for the war). This means that what was previously a Class 1 catastrophe has a very real possibility of developing into a Class 3 (human extinction), given that there is only a single woman for every thousand men.

** BadassLongcoat: Griffin picks one up right at the end of the first game's introduction.

* SlapOnTheWristNuke: There's usually at least one Nuke item per map, but they can only one-shot the lighter tanks, and can't even flatten all the buildings on their own. That said, they're still fun to throw at each other.
* SpiritualSuccessor: ''World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks'', made by the same company and features an upgraded version of the M1 Abrams.
** The story of ''Thunder Tanks'' doesn't come out and say it, but it basically implies that it is set in the future after this apocalypse has faded into memory and tank combat is now a rich man's sport (like jousting or golf). The fact that they have a female co-host in the game, as well as several female tank drivers, gives one hope that eventually humanity pulled back from the Class III apocalypse somehow.

* ApocalypseHow: Humanity gets hit with a double whammy here, with WorldWarIII being the minor one. The real problem was a plague that wiped out 99.9% of the female population (with the scarcity of females being the reason for the war). This means that what was previously a Class I catastrophe has a very real possibility of developing into a Class III (human extinction), given that there is only a single woman for every thousand men.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: "Annihilator-class" Goliaths in ''Global Assault'', which have a pair of sentry guns that can aim independent of the main cannon. You're also unable to use the M2 Hydra in the campaign mode.

* ApocalypseHow: Humanity gets hit with a double whammy here, with WorldWarIII being the minor one. The real problem was a plague that wiped out 99.9% of the female population (with the scarcity of females being the reason for the war). This means that what was previously a class 1 catastrophe has a very real possibility into developing into a Class III (human extinction), given that there is only a single woman for every thousand men.

In the original ''[=BattleTank=]'', the player controls Griffin Spade, a tough guy from [[NewYorkCity Queens]] whose fiancee Madison is one of those taken by the U.S. Government to a secure facility. After surviving the apocalypse, and armed only with an [=M1A1=] Abrams, Griffin begins a mechanized trek across the remains of the United States, blazing westward through Chicago, Las Vegas, and finally San Francisco, crushing rival gangs, rescuing other captured women, and forging his own army in his search for Madison. The two are finally reunited when Griffin storms the Quarantine Zone on Alcatraz Island, incidentally leaving them in command of the most sizable and least malevolent faction in the former United States. A port for GameBoyColor was released in 2000, which featured the storyline and gangs of the first game, but with music taken from the second.