Line #86 VideoGame/BattleTanx


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/battletanx.jpg]]
2	-> ''2001 A.D. -- The world as you know it is no more. A deadly virus has wiped out 99% of the female population and the few surviving women are now worshiped as [=QueenLords=]. You are Griffin Spade, warrior and Battlelord in a post-apocalyptic future. With only the [=BattleTanx=] at your command, you must save mankind from extinction! Fight your way across the wasteland that was once America and rescue the [=QueenLords=] from roving gangs of mercenaries and thugs.''
3	-->-- The game's box, and a fair summation of the first game.
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5	''[=BattleTanx=]'' is a 1998 game for the Platform/{{Nintendo 64}} by Creator/The3DOCompany, which was followed a year later by a sequel that also appeared on the Platform/PlayStation. The premise is simple: [[GenderCide a plague has killed nearly every woman on the planet]], forcing the worlds' governments to cloister the surviving females away in heavily-fortified quarantine zones. In the mayhem, [[ApocalypseHow a nuclear war was sparked]], reducing much of the Earth to rubble and leaving the survivors to fight over the species' few females, who are now worshipped as "[=QueenLords=]". For reasons unexplained (save by the RuleOfCool), all of these tribes of brigands and freaks managed to get their hands on tanks. Lots and lots of tanks.
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7	In the original ''[=BattleTanx=]'', the player controls Griffin Spade, a tough guy from [[UsefulNotes/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 UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor was released in 2000, which featured the storyline and gangs of the first game, but with music taken from the second.
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9	The sequel, ''[=BattleTanx=]: Global Assault'', is set five years later and involves a rival [=QueenLord=] named Cassandra who has taken an unhealthy interest in Madison and Griffin's son Brandon. Using her [[MindControl mind-controlling]] [[PsychicPowers powers]] to turn Griffin's army against him, Cassandra kidnaps Brandon and flees across the country, two angry tank-driving parents in hot pursuit. The chase ultimately leads through Great Britain, France, Germany, and back to Alcatraz. Along the way we learn that Cassandra was [[spoiler:the one who unleashed the woman-killing plague as a way to wipe out those women lacking the psychic "Edge]]," and ends with the seemingly-killed villainess being revived by a mysterious magician who mentions a "{{chosen one}}."
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11	And after that, nothing. 3DO had already been in decline when the ''[=BattleTanx=]'' series came out, and went bankrupt in 2003. Still, the ''[=BattleTanx=]'' games are fondly remembered: the story was simplistic, the graphics basic, but the gameplay was solid and conveyed the visceral joy of grinding the ruins of Western civilization under your armored treads as you stalked your opponents like steel-skinned predators.
12	----
13	!!The games provide examples of:
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15	* ActionGenreHeroGuy: Griffin Spade.
16	* ActionMom: Madison in the sequel, an upgrade from her [[DamselInDistress role in the first game]].
17	* AdaptationExpansion: A very minor case; the Game Boy version features renditions of several musical tracks from ''Global Assault'' but is otherwise a pure adaptation of the first game.
18	* AfterTheEnd: The introductory sequence gives us shots of Griffin watching from afar as a nuke is dropped directly on New York City before stating "civilization came to an end on May 6, 2001".
19	* AmazonBrigade: The Storm Ravens and Iron Maidens gangs.
20	* 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.
21	* ApocalypticLogistics: Somehow, biker gangs and other rag-tag groups acquiring many, many, fully functional tanks, a wide range of weapons, including nukes and experimental energy weapons isn't uncommon in a world that was devastated by a population decimating plague and a nuclear war.
22	* {{Area 51}}: One of the battlegrounds of the first game, complete with a trio of destroyable [=UFOs=] that leave warp points for you to quickly teleport around the battlefield.
23	* AwesomeButImpractical:
24	** The Nuke. It damages everything within the stage. ''Including you.'' Averted if there's a subway tunnel to hide in after firing the nuke. Surface to find a wasteland with all your enemies dead.
25	** Using the Teleport powerup in the second game just when the shockwave is about to hit can save you from any damage.
26	** The "Bouncing Betty" mines are a bit like this; they're capable of dealing out massive damage, but the delay between them bouncing up and firing their lasers makes them only effective against the slowest tanks.
27	%%* BadassArmy: ALL of them in both games!
28	* BadassBiker: The Skull Riderz, who roam the highways in Mototanks and other light vehicles.
29	%%* BadassFamily: The Spades, in spades.
30	* BadassLongcoat: Griffin picks one up right at the end of the first game's introduction.
31	%%* BadassNormal: In comparison to the other gangs, Griffin's Army is the most normal of the bunch, and still is to a degree in the second.
32	%%* FourStarBadass: Essentially what a Battlelord is.
33	* BigApplesauce: Where the first game begins. [[AfterTheEnd It's seen]] [[SceneryGorn better days]].
34	* BigBad: ''Global Assault'' introduces Cassandra, an insane psychic who [[spoiler:created the plague that killed most of the world's women]].
35	* BottomlessMagazines: You can give everyone unlimited ammo for their default weapons in the options.
36	* CaptureTheFlag: Battlelord mode is a variation of this, replacing actual flags with Queenlords who stay in whichever base they've been taken to rather than spawning back at their home and having to be re-captured an arbitrary number of times. Much of the first game's campaign revolves around the mode.
37	* ColorCodedMultiplayer: While the different gangs/tribes have their own unique colors to identify them in the campaign, multiplayer recolors them to match whichever team they're on: blue, red, green or yellow.
38	* ConfusionFu: The sequel introduces the Teleporter item. Where it sends you is random, but it's still useful for getting away from (or behind) enemies quickly.
39	* CoversAlwaysLie: The huge, impossibly cool-looking tank on the second game's cover? It doesn't appear in the actual game.
40	* CripplingOverspecialization:
41	** The Rhino tank-hunter, which sports a huge fixed gun and a heavily-reinforced front which can [[NighInvulnerable take more punishment]] than even the Goliath Tank. Unfortunately, its sides and rear are extremely vulnerable, and it can't engage targets who flank it. Also highly susceptible to fire attacks.
42	** The Inferno flamethrower tank, to a lesser degree, since it uses a flamethrower instead of a regular cannon. It holds a huge amount of ammo and, when close to an enemy, can burn through them quickly and effectively - if a threat is at any distance further than [[VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck near-point-blank]], however, it has to rely on its limited supply of other special weapons to deal with it.
43	* CriticalExistenceFailure: When a tank is brought down to about a fourth of its health, it changes to look heavily damaged, but it'll still work just as good until it takes another shot or two and is destroyed.
44	* DenserAndWackier: The first Battletanx is about an epidemic that kills a lot of woman, and the presentation of the journey to rescue the remaining woman is grim. The sequel, ''Global Assault'', is about an over-the-top comic book villain, an evil witch, as a CardCarryingVillain. The soundtrack were changed as well, from dark marching music to heavy metal.
45	* DoABarrelRoll: The [=FLP-E=] or "Flippy" tank. It's small, has a light gun, and not much armor, ''but'' has modified tracks, a gyro-stabilized cockpit, and angled jets on its flanks. The result is a tank that can flip itself sideways over and over, dodging incoming fire and generally [[ConfusionFu baffling its opponents]].
46	* TheEmpire: [[BigBad Cassandra]] has one spanning most of North America and Europe.
47	* EnergyWeapon:
48	** The Marksman, a tank with light armor but a big-honking laser cannon. The vehicular equivalent of a ColdSniper.
49	** The Laser PowerUp. Plasma Bolts are lasers that [[DeathInAllDirections bounce all over the place]]. Both have BeamSpam as their SecondaryFire.
50	* EscortMission: Brandenburg Gate and Escape From Berlin, as well as the Convoy multiplayer mode, in the second game.
51	* Every10000Points: ...Gets you a OneUp in the first game. Averted in the sequel, though, where ThePointsMeanNothing.
52	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: With the exception of the Iron Maidens in ''Global Assault'', every gang you encounter in both games wants you dead.
53	* ExcusePlot: Really, this game's plot mostly exists to give you a reason to drive around in a CoolTank and [[StuffBlowingUp blow stuff up]]. [[JustHereForGodzilla Not that anyone's complaining.]]
54	* FixedForwardFacingWeapon: Several tanks are stuck with these, including the Mototank, Rattler, FLP-E, and Rhino.
55	* FragileSpeedster: The Mototank, a tiny wheeled vehicle with dual machine guns and light armor. Capable of streaking about and running circles around larger tanks, but capable of being flattened by heavier tanks.
56	* GatlingGood: The Rattler, a small tank with a fixed [=GAU-8=] gatling cannon, letting it chew through even heavy armor. Also capable of turning on a dime. The Playstation-exclusive Shredder tank is an even faster, better-armored vehicle with a smaller, turret-mounted 35mm gatling gun.
57	* GameplayAndStorySegregation: An early cutscene in the first game has four Moto Tanks [[CutscenePowerToTheMax destroy two M1s and a Goliath with no trouble]]. Granted, the tanks seem to be unoccupied, and one of the four Moto Tanks [[FunnyBackgroundEvent still manages to get instakilled]] by somehow crushing ''himself'' under the '''immobile''' Goliath.
58	* GayParee: Several missions in the sequel involve you flattening what's left of France. The Eiffel Tower [[WeaponizedLandmark is converted into a laser weapon]], for starters.
59	* {{Gendercide}}: The inciting incident for the game is a virus that kills 99% of the women in the world. [[spoiler:''Global Assault'' reveals that Cassandra created the virus to kill any women who were unable to use "the Edge".]]
60	* GenderRarityValue: The misogynist virus in the game's backstory. Those few women who survived have become "queenlords", whom the men of the world wage war over. [[spoiler:''Global Assault'' reveals that the women who survived the plague are those capable of using "the Edge", and it was deliberately engineered to weed out those who couldn't.]]
61	* GunsAkimbo: The M2 Hydra, an Abrams variant with two lighter cannons, making up in rate of fire what it loses in punch.
62	* HealThyself: Health powerups heal on contact if you're damaged or can be stored for later use if you already have full armor.
63	* HoldTheLine: Assault on San Francisco in the second game.
64	* HoverTank: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hovertank]]. An Abrams that floats, propelled forward by turbines. Hard to control and sub-par compared to the Abrams, but able to ignore minefields, strafe sideways, and reach an impressive top speed.
65	* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: The first game's RunTheGauntlet levels have such [[SarcasmMode charming]] names as "Stranglehold Bridge", "Armageddon Highway", and "The Crimson Gate". Also, The Tunnel has the InUniverseNickname "No-Man's Land", because no man has ever crossed it and lived (of course, being the second level of the game, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation it's piss-easy]]; likely, the player's the first one to try taking a tank down it).
66	* InvisibilityCloak: The Cloaking Device power-up. It can also make an illusory double of your vehicle to lure the enemy.
67	* JackOfAllStats: The M1 Abrams. No gimmicks, just decent armour and firepower, while still offering high mobility. Also cheap enough to be fielded in large numbers.
68	* KillItWithFire: The Inferno Tank, light and fast with a heavy [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrower]].
69	* LighterAndSofter: ''Global Assault''. Subverted, via MoodDissonance and ArtStyleDissonance, as the change in soundtrack from grim dark marching music into heavy metal and, at least on [=PlayStation=], the story from graphic novel to CGI cutscenes doesn't deter the fact that the game is about an evil witch kidnapping a child and then brainwashing the poor child and a large swath of the world populace to ignite global war.
70	* LuckBasedMission: More of a Luck Based Bonus, but one of the levels in Global Assault has a group of powerups sitting tauntingly behind an indestructible barrier, including a Nuke powerup. The only way to get behind it and grab the powerups? Using your limited supply of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin teleport]] powerups, which give you no control over where you end up. If you happen to use your last teleport to get ''in'' the box, you can't get out without dying.
71	* MamaBear: Madison, alongside Griffin as the PapaWolf, in ''Global Assault''. When Cassandra kidnaps their child, the duo chase her all the way across the United States and on through half of Europe to get him back.
72	* MacrossMissileMassacre: The Hornet, a tank capable of spamming rockets, or even firing them around corners.
73	* MassHypnosis: Cassandra does this ''twice''. First with movie projectors, then with the [[WeaponizedLandmark Eiffel Tower]], which she's converted into a radio station (appropriately enough, given that its usefulness as a broadcast antenna was why it wasn't scrapped).
74	* MightyGlacier: The Goliath, a behemoth with a [[{{BFG}} really big cannon]]. Slow as Christmas but capable of making pancakes out of Mototanks and Rattlers.
75	* MindControl: The most common manifestation of "the Edge", used by Cassandra to maintain her empire.
76	* MonsterClown: The Psycho Brigade, a gang of mechanized [[ComicBook/TheJoker Joker-wannabes]].
77	* MonumentalBattle: It's like a tour of American and European landmarks getting [[StuffBlowingUp blown up]].
78	* {{Mutants}}: Urban Decay, the resident gang of New York City.
79	%%* NextSundayAD: The first game released in 1998 and was set in 2001, three years in the future. ''Global Assault'' came out in 2000 and is set five years after the first in 2006.
80	* PortTown: San Francisco in both games.
81	* ThePowerOfLove: The motivation of Griffin and his army in the first game. The later UsefulNotes/GameBoy port {{lampshade\|Hanging}}s this by naming its last level "Love Conquers All".
82	* PowerUp: Several of them. Ammo pickups, health pickups, shields, points (in the first game, at least), and ''lots'' of different weapons.
83	* PsychicPowers: The "Edge" from ''Global Assault'', capable of swaying others to your will. Both Griffin and Madison are strong in it, and its presence may explain how Griffin was able to forge an army so easily in the first game. Later on, [[spoiler: even Brandon, Griffin's five-year-old son, turns out to be an extremely powerful psychic]].
84	* RammingAlwaysWorks: With the Turbo power-up, even a puny Mototank is transformed into a deadly guided missile.
85	* ReligionOfEvil: The Dark Angels, a mysterious cult who apparently wears voluminous robes inside their tanks.
86	* RuleOfCool: Where the hell did these people ''get'' not only billions of dollars worth of tanks, but enough people who know how to drive them?
87	* RunTheGauntlet: The Tunnel, Stranglehold Bridge, Armageddon Highway, and The Crimson Gate in the first game, Tower Bridge in the second.
88	* SequelHook: One of those sad examples that was never followed up on.
89	* 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.
90	* SpiritualSuccessor: ''World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks'', made by the same company, featuring an upgraded version of the M1 Abrams among other tanks reminiscent of those from ''[=BattleTanx=]'', and even uses the ''Global Assault'' victory music as the in-universe WDL's interstitial theme. The story of ''Thunder Tanks'' doesn't come out and say it, but it basically implies that [[StealthSequel 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 3 apocalypse somehow.
91	* StrawFeminist: The [[AmazonBrigade women-only]] Storm Ravens, who believe men are responsible for every problem both pre- and post-Apocalypse. [[spoiler:Ironically, it was a ''woman'' who [[{{Gendercide}} depopulated the world of every single woman]] unable to use PsychicPowers The Edge.]] Averted with the similarly-women-only Iron Maidens, who become Griffin and Madison's only allies in the entire series.
92	* SugarApocalypse: Some of the ads for ''Global Assault'' involved an army of [=BattleTanx=] rampaging through what certainly were not the Series/{{Teletubbies}}. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7brl9mzmgPY first]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tigO7U7AmBc second]] commercials, however...
93	* SuicideAttack: The M-80 Demolition Vehicle. Small, lightly-armored, and lacking in a main weapon besides its self-destruct attack. Another [=PlayStation=] exclusive.
94	* SuperpowerLottery: If you count the secondary weapons as superpowers - Griffin's tanks in the first game's multiplayer modes start off with a random weapon, and the Cold Warriors in ''Global Assault'' occasionally spawn with a nuke.
95	* TankGoodness: Really ''the'' linchpin of the series. The original only had three, while the sequel introduced many more.
96	* 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, Hornet, or Marksman in the campaign mode.
97	* VideoGameFlamethrowersSuck: The Inferno swaps out a normal cannon for the flamethrower special weapon, including the ability to fire to the sides. This makes it good at extreme close ranges, especially against the heavy frontal armor of the Rhino, but causes it to [[CripplingOverspecialization quickly lose effectiveness at any sort of distance]], where engaging a target from more than a couple feet away forces it to use its much more limited supply of other special weapons.
98	* WeakTurretGun: Gun Buddies, though the campaign features bigger, more powerful ones defending enemy bases.
99	* WeaponizedLandmark: As above, the Paris missions climax with the Eiffel Tower being turned into a massive laser weapon.
100	%%* WorldOfBadass: Even Griffin's five-year-old son turns out to be an extremely powerful psychic.
101	* XtremeKoolLetterz: It's all there in the title, folks. Evidently, "[=BattleTanx=]" are distinct from regular tanks by being built and maintained with whatever scrap the post-apocalyptic gangs can find to keep them running.
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Context VideoGame / BattleTanx