Line #35 VideoGame/BattleCity


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5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/battle_city.jpg]]
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7	''Battle City'' is a series of four-directional shooters developed and released by Creator/{{Namco}}, featuring tanks. This series consists of:
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9	* ''Tank Battalion'' (1980), released in arcades and on the Platform/{{MSX}}.
10	* ''Battle City'' (1985), released on the Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem. Some consider it only a port rather than sequel.
11	* ''Tank Force'' (1991), released in arcades. A rarer 4-player version also exists.
12	* ''Tank Battalion Blitz'' (2012), released on iOS, but delisted shortly after.
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14	In these games, the player spawns right next to their base, presented as a bird covered in brick walls. The enemy tanks start appearing from the edges of the screen and moving semi-randomly towards the bottom, and they all have to be defeated to win the round. GameOver is not only if player runs out of lives, but also if the enemies (or the players, either by accident or on purpose) manage to shoot the base down.
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16	The first game, ''Tank Battalion'', featured simple graphics, clunky movement and only one type of obstacle. ''Battle City'' improved it with much smoother movement, different types of enemy tanks, more varied scenery, different powerups and most importantly two-player co-op mode. ''Tank Force'' further improved the game by adding boss levels, more powerups, more enemies and increasing the pace of levels even more.
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18	Namco has also released ''Shingun~Destroy! Girl's Tank Battalion'' in 2014, which is sometimes considered to be part of this series, [[InNameOnly though aside from its title and having tanks in it, the game has little to do with any of the aforementioned games]].
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20	This series wasn't quite popular, with the exception of ''Battle City'', even then, it was most popular in places where it wasn't officially released. Along with ''VideoGame/RoadFighter'', its almost impossible to find an unlicensed multicart that doesn't have this game on it. It's even gotten to the point where unofficial remakes have been made for clone systems.
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22	Not to be confused with one of the arcs from ''Manga/YuGiOh''
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24	!!This series provides examples of the following tropes:
25	* OneUp: Occasionally, a tank item is spawned in ''Battle City'' and ''Tank Force''. Collecting it gives an extra life.
26	* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
27	** Clock power-up stops all enemy tanks for few seconds. The effect also applies to those that spawned after the power-up was picked up.
28	** Game Boy port of ''Battle City'' [[ScreenCrunch doesn't fit the whole screen]], which is compensated by a radar on the bottom showing where you and the enemy tanks are.
29	** In ''Tank Force'', player's bullets are made more distinct from the ones shot by the enemies. Notably, they have no effect on the headquarters, which means that you won't get a game over by accidentally shooting it. They also now just push friendly tanks away, instead of freezing them in one place for few seconds, meaning that you're less likely to get screwed over by another player while trying to avoid enemy attacks.
30	* ArtShiftedSequel: While the original games were more or less cartoony, ''Tank Battalion Blitz'' goes for more realistic approach, with its selection of tanks being heavily based on UsefulNotes/WorldWarII machines.
31	* ColorCodedMultiplayer: Player 1 is yellow, Player 2 is green. ''Tank Force'' changes things up a bit, with yellow and green now being colors of Player 3 and 4, first and second slots are used by red and blue.
32	* CompanyCameo: Round 29 of ''Tank Force'' has red walls in the center that are made to resemble Namco's logo.
33	* CompanyCrossReferences:
34	** Some levels in ''Battle City'' are shaped after characters from other games by Namco, including ''VideoGame/LibbleRabble'' Hoblin, VideoGame/{{Mappy}}, [[VideoGame/DigDug Pooka]] and a VideoGame/{{Galaxian}}.
35	** Round 16 of ''Tank Force'' is shaped after VideoGame/PacMan.
36	* ContinueCountdown: Arcade version had countdown to insert more credits, should a game over appear.
37	* CoresAndTurretsBoss: ''Tank Force'' has a final boss which is comprised of four 3-barreled turrets which fire projectiles at fast rate and speed, considering the genre of the game.
38	* DestructibleProjectiles : If there's an enemy projectile heading towards your tank, you can stop them with your own bullets.
39	* EasterEgg: In ''Battle City'', credits are shown that way. Open and exit Construction mode 7 times, press A 8 times on Controller 2, while holding Down on Controller 1, press B 12 times on Controller 2 while holding Right on Controller 1, then press Start. Then you'll get a message "THIS PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN BY OPEN-REACH[[note]]Most likely referring to late Namco programmer Ryoichi Ohkubo[[/note]] WHO LOVES NORIKO....." and an animation of green droplet falling down.
40	* EndlessGame: In ''Tank Battalion'' and ''Battle City'', the levels just loop.
41	** ''Tank Battalion'' has total of 8 unique maze layouts, 7 of which loop around each other until Round 22, which is the last 8th one. The game then continues looping between previous maze layouts.
42	** After 35th stage in ''Battle City'', the second goaround begins, but with tank spawning patterns and speed of the last stage. After completing the second loop, the game resets back to stage 1.
43	* Every10000Points: ''Tank Battalion'' and ''Battle City'' give the player extra life after reaching certain score. In Battle City, it's 20000 points.
44	* FastTunnelling: For a tank, players can dig through brick walls surprisingly fast. Even more so if you have collected 3 star power-ups.
45	* FlashOfPain: Enemies with multiple hitpoints and bosses in ''Tank Force'' flash white when hit.
46	* FlunkyBoss: Every 4th round in ''Tank Force'' is boss battle against either a train cannons, AK-1 or AK-2 accomplained by up to 20 regular tanks. Final boss is the only exception to this.
47	* FrictionlessIce: Several levels of ''Battle City'' feature ice tiles. Should player stop moving on it, their tank will continue sliding forward for a bit.
48	* GameOver: Simple game over screen happens when all lives are lost or when headquarters gets blown up.
49	* HitboxDissonance: ''Battle City'' and ''Tank Force'' have tanks actually snapping from one tile to another even though the movements seem smooth.
50	* HoldTheLine: The line in this case is a bird-shaped headquarters. The goal is to keep 20 enemy tanks from it, while trying to stay alive yourself.
51	* InvincibilityPowerUp: A variation. Although helmet/shield power-up grants invulnerability to the player, it's still possible to get game over due to the base still being vulnerable. Of course, there's a shovel/fortification power-up to protect it as well.
52	* LevelEditor: Construction mode of ''Battle City'' provides one of the earliest examples on the NES. While you can't save it or select enemy tanks, you can chose all of the 5 available environment tiles, change base's defence blocks and play your creation in co-op. After completing it, the game starts playing pre-built levels.
53	* MegamixGame: Many stages in ''Blitz'' are the remakes of levels from ''Battle City'' and ''Tank Force''.
54	* NintendoHard: ''Tank Force''. Even at the easiest difficulty. Especially if you don't have a friend.
55	* ObstructiveForeground: Done deliberately in ''Battle City'' and ''Tank Force'' with tree tiles. It's still possible to see the tanks through them, but the bullets they fire is a different story. There's also an inversion of this in the form steel tiles that can hide the bullets the enemies shoot, which you would normally counter with your own bullets.
56	* OneBulletAtATime: By the default, your tank can only fire one bullet, and you won't be able to fire another until previous one hits something. Getting two star power-ups in ''Battle City'' will allow you to fire two bullets at a time, and such is a default tank in ''Tank Force''.
57	* PressStartToGameOver: The fact that your bullets are just as effective as the enemy ones against the headquarters mean that you can shoot it down as soon as the round starts. ''Tank Force'' avoids this by making it invulnerable to player's bullets.
58	* ProtectionMission: The whole game is based on this. Protect the bird located in the bottom middle of the field from enemy tanks while staying alive as well.
59	* RegeneratingHealth: If not hit for a while, Armored tanks in ''Tank Force'' will slowly start regaining their hit points. They are the only enemies in the series to do so.
60	* ScoringPoints: The series has a score counter.
61	* ShowsDamage: Armored tanks in ''Battle City'' and ''Tank Force'', as well as the bosses in the latter game change color when they're damaged.
62	* SmartBomb: Grenade powerup in ''Battle City'' and air strike powerup in ''Tank Force'' wipe out every single enemy on-screen.
63	* TankGoodness: The series as a whole is about tanks, but a honorable mention goes to player's tanks for being essentially a OneManArmy, as well as bosses and large flame tanks in ''Tank Force''.
64	* TimeStandsStill: Clock powerup in ''Battle City'' and ''Tank Force'' freezes all of the enemy tanks on the screen for several seconds.
65	* YetAnotherStupidDeath: A rare non-roguelike game where you get plenty of these. Have you shot your own base on accident? GameOver, even if you done so after destroying all enemies just as round ends. Tried to recklessly go into a huge pile of enemy tanks? The most likely outcome is that you will lose a life from their pile of bullets.

Context VideoGame / BattleCity