Vector Tanks

During high school geometry, surviving class was made possible only through games played on a graphing calculator. The rudimentary games played with numbers and simple geometric shapes on that gray-yellow screen were just enough to get you through those lectures.

Try playing them now, though, and your fond memories are likely to be shattered. Vector Tanks is from that same bygone quadrant, attempting to recreate a game that simply doesn't hold up to today's standards.

Facing two types of enemies on a field riddled with mines, your only goal in Vector Tanks is to blast the opposition to bits. Enemy tanks fire explosive shells at your own Panzer, while mines punish haphazard driving as you engage in battle. All it takes is a single hit to get taken down, so moving quickly and firing accurately are vital skills to hone.

Control over your tank is handled via two gauges on the left and right sides of the screen. Like vertically-oriented analogue sticks, moving the green squares up and down the gauges allows you to move forward, backward, and turn.

Moving forward, for instance, means pushing both up equally. If you want to turn right and move forward, you push the left gauge up further than the right one.

It's not the most intuitive form of control, especially considering the availability of the accelerometer and poorly-placed fire button.

Firing a shell from your tank has you tapping the neon green radar at the centre of the screen. Unfortunately, this requires stopping and moving your thumb off one of the gauges to tap the button.

This is hardly ideal and has undesirable impact on combat tactics. Instead of fluid skirmishes that see tanks jockeying for the best shot as they zip about the battlefield, Vector Tanks is a stop-and-start affair. You're forced to move to a position, fire, then move again if you missed, firing again.

Sure, it gives the game a nostalgic feel akin to long lost favourites like Battlezone, but emulation without an eye for contemporary expectations is a serious miscalculation in the game's design.

The same game that wowed players two decades ago doesn't necessarily work for today's gamer, particularly on iPhone.

Vector Tanks carries no main menu, no options, and a complete lack of structure. There are no defined modes of play, the game just dropping you into a points fest with no defined levels or sense of progression.

The lack of multiplayer is shocking, if only because the game would be perfect for it. Duelling other players over the network would transform this stale single player game into an entertaining competition.

Introducing multiplayer would only solve part of the problem. Vector Tanks needs an overhaul in its controls to facilitate the type of action it has in its sights. The concept here is good, but the desire to recreate the gameplay of yesteryear prevents it from reaching its clear potential.