A WWII German Panzer battalion has been shrunk by a mysterious force, and now must use their tanks to defend themselves against a new threat: bugs! Blast insects and other miniscule obstacles in this top down arcade action shooter, downloadable on the Nintendo eShop for 3DS.

Move around your tank with the control stick, and rotate and center the turret with the buttons. Although it’s most advantageous to attack enemies head on, as you can use your machine guns to slow them down as well. Once in each mission, you can press a button for backup, which destroys everything on screen. You can even use StreetPass to have other players be your backup, too! Choose to either fire automatically when bugs are near, or manually with the R button.

Stages are divided into missions, and in each one you may have to reach certain objectives like get from point A to point B, or defend your tiny base from ants. Other missions are a bit more creative, and require you to gather water from dewdrops, nab crackers carried by ants for food, or take cover from giant raindrops. If your tank runs out of energy it’s Game Over and you’ll have to start the mission again.

Hidden in most missions is a tank that you can find and unlock for use in other missions. Different tanks have different attack, defense, and speed. You can also unlock paint to color your tank with (mine’s a manly pink), and choose to have explosive or penetrating shells. There are also co-op missions for players who have their own 3DS and their own copy of Bugs vs. Tanks. You can also automatically unlock special tanks if you have a copy of some other Level 5 games on your 3DS as well!

Bugs vs. Tanks is a fairly entertaining little shooter, but it does get very challenging later on, even on the Easy setting. Plus the map on the bottom screen isn’t always helpful, and many of the environments look the same. But if you like silly tank games, you may want to check this out anyway.

Kid Factor:

Bugs vs. Tanks is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Language. Even though you are using tanks, you’re only firing at bugs that just explode and keel over when defeated. No blood. There is a noticeable amount of swearing in the text, though. Plus I’m not sure why anyone would want to play as the bad guys in WWII. I’d be OK with preteens playing this, but because of the challenge level, it’s best for older kid and teen gamers anyway.

Tags: Game Reviews