Attack of the Toy Tanks! Vita/PS4 Review

Attack of the Toy Tanks! is an isometric shoot ‘em up available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4 and PS Vita. Attack of the Toy Tanks! was originally created by Petite Games followed by a port developed and published by Ratalaika Games on Vita, PS4 and more platforms besides. Can Attack of the Toy Tanks! deliver an entertaining isometric tank battle shoot ‘em up?

Attack of the Toy Tanks! features 60 levels that are all immediately available to play in which the player has to guide their tank around obstacles, while defeating varying quantities of toy tanks within the shortest possible time in order to earn a bronze, silver or gold medal performance rating.

The tanks controlled by the player and A.I. enemies are all toy tanks set within environment design that is based upon children’s toys such as action figures, alphabetical letters, LEGO, magnets and more besides, alongside gradually introduced traps such as laser beams and spikes on top of wooden flooring. However, some levels are darker requiring a torch to be shone from the front of your tank or alternatively differing weather conditions such as snowing or raining.

Attack of the Toy Tanks! supports cross-buy between the PS4 and Vita, although it unfortunately does not support cross-save, so you will not be able to continue from your previous progression on the Vita version when playing the PS4 version and vice versa. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that you will be purchasing the PS4 and Vita versions of the game with just a single purchase.

The controls are appropriately mapped to the Vita and DualShock 4 controller as the DualShock 4 controller has two control schemes including pressing X or R1 to fire at the opposing tanks; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to manoeuvre the tank; and changing the direction of the right analogue stick to aim at an opposing tank, while the alternative control scheme involves pressing L1 to move forward; pressing O or L2 to move backward; and changing the direction of the left analogue stick to rotate the tank. Due to the alternative controls within both control schemes; the Vita version is as comfortable as the DualShock 4 controller.

Despite the premise perhaps lending itself to simplified graphics; Attack of the Toy Tanks! is actually quite impressive with excellent textures, animation and lighting, alongside a consistently fast paced frame-rate that assists in the frenetic gameplay.

Attack of the Toy Tanks’ presentation is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, multiplayer menus, settings menu and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons on Vita and DualShock 4, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch screen or touch pad between Vita and DualShock 4. Menu backgrounds include A.I. controlled enemy tanks patrolling a level as though they are in pursuit of the player’s tank.

Sound effects include firing at opposing tanks as they return fire and the reaction of their impact, alongside a mixture of arcade and climactic battle music. There is no DualShock 4 speaker implementation that could have produced sound effects or music.

The trophy list includes 13 trophies with 1 silver trophy, 11 gold trophies and 1 platinum trophy with the PS4 and Vita versions having individual trophy lists. Attack of the Toy Tanks! offers an easy platinum as the player does not need to complete all 60 levels with only 10, 20 and 30 levels needing to be completed in total; 1, 10, 20, 30, 50 and 70 tanks need to be defeated in battle; a single silver ranking and a single gold ranking on any level; and the player’s tank being destroyed for the first time. Better yet, the PS4 and Vita have individual trophy lists resulting in the potential of having 2 silver trophies, 22 gold trophies and 2 platinum trophies within a few hours in total.

There are no difficulty levels, although the difficulty curve steadily increases from the aggressiveness of the A.I. controlled tanks attempting to find your tank much quicker and firing on it far more relentlessly. However, the level design also has a massive part to play including laser beams fired by a toy robot or another figure standing in the centre of the level that slowly spins around or spikes moving up and down to provide multiple additional factors to the battle.

Local competitive multiplayer allows two players to compete in any of 8 maps in battles to score the most frags over the other player within two minutes. Local competitive multiplayer is tremendous fun, especially given the power-ups that appear. However, it would have been better to play local competitive multiplayer on any of the 60 single player levels, while further improvements could have seen a podium at the end to showcase the winning tank and losing tank, a form of gradual upgrade to the opposition’s tank that is far behind in the battle to even up the gameplay in such scenarios, competing competitively or co-operatively against A.I. controlled tanks and earning stickers from winning battles to be able to customise your tank’s design.

Attack of the Toy Tanks’ replayability stems from 60 single player levels, returning to improve your performance rating of bronze, silver or gold medal ratings or faster level completion times within the same medal rating and local competitive multiplayer that will collectively keep players returning for quite some time, alongside the ability to play on Vita or PS4 via cross-buy.

Analysis
• Title: Attack of the Toy Tanks!
• Developer: Petite Games (Original Developers)/Ratalaika Games (PS4/Vita Port)
• Publisher: Ratalaika Games
• System: PS4/PS Vita
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: Yes
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1 (Vita)/1-2 (PS4 Local Competitive Multiplayer)
• PS4 Hard Drive Space Required: 105.8MB
• PS Vita Memory Card Space Required: 125MB