Tank Battalion
- Date
- 1984
- Publisher
- Namco · Hamster Corporation
- Genre
- action game · shooter game
In this article
Key facts
• Title — Tank Battalion • Developer — Namco • Designer — Shinichirou Okamoto • Programmer — Kazukuni Hiraoka • Series — Tank Battalion • Platforms — Arcade, MSX, Sord M5 • Release — Arcade • Genre — Multidirectional shooter • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer is a 1980 multidirectional shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It was released in North America by Game Plan. A home conversion of the game released for the Sord M5 and MSX. The game was followed up by two sequels: Battle City for the Famicom in 1985 and Tank Force for arcades in 1991.
Gameplay
• Illustration — The player destroying an enemy tank. The player, controlling a tank, must destroy twenty enemy tanks in each round, which enter the playfield from the top of the screen. The enemy tanks attempt to destroy the player's base (represented on the map as an eagle) as well as the player tank itself. A round is cleared when the player destroys all twenty enemy tanks, but the game ends if the player's base is destroyed or they run out of lives.
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
- Japan
Named but not plotted · 1
Tank Battalion is associated with Japan.
Country
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Tank Battalion, revision 1366323963 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Reception
Cash Box believed that "the real excitement" of Tank Battalion lied within its ability to modify the level design by destroying the brick walls. Retrospectively in 2015, a writer for Beep! enjoyed the Sord M5 version for its improvements over the arcade original, such as the smoother movement of the player's tank, but disliked the squashed-looking graphics and narrow playing space. While the writer believed the MSX version was superior, they still recommended the M5 version for Namco fans and collectors.
Legacy
A theme based on the game for Pac-Man 99 was released as free post-launch DLC, featuring visuals and sounds from the game. Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in March 2024.
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Szczepaniak, John. The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. 201. 11 August 2014. 978-0992926007.
- 2.Akagi, Masumi. アーケードTVゲームリスト国内•海外編(1971-2005). Amusement News Agency. 52, 118. 13 October 2006. 978-4990251215.
- 3.Game Plan Bows 'Tank Battalion', Its Latest Upright Model Video Game. Cashbox. 42. April 11, 1981. 0008-7289.
- 4.No.2 タンクバタリアン(m5)ROMカセット. Beep!. June 1, 2015.
- 5.Yarwood, Jack. Namco's Tank Battalion Rolls Onto Switch & PS4 This Week. Time Extension. 2024-03-06.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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