Tanks... That is all.
User Rating: 7.6 | Cosmo Tank GB
One of the most under rated, and overlooked action games on the Gameboy was most definitely ‘Cosmo Tank’. It’s galactic battles across assorted alien worlds provided a perfect portable past time as a youngling. With a birds eye camera, you guided your heavy-duty, alien whollopin’ tank with the D-Pad’s six directions, fired your cannon with the A button, and dropped devastating bombs with B in all the third person missions. The first person objectives, however, would take you into enemy hives and caves, where you would dungeon crawl your way to the final boss, where you would deal out the Earthly devastation via, again, your cannon and bombs. Enemies swarm you from every direction, be they Giant Crabs, Centipedes, Flies, and other such creatures, in an all out battle for the galaxy spanning vast worlds with all the rich detail the Gameboy could provide. Nooks and crannies were visible in the gaping canyons, mounds and craters clearly visible to give each planet a spice of life! But of course, where would you be without the help of your Commanding officers, who chime in with helpful advice every time you make a pit stop at the convenient stations to revitalize your health and ammo, or begin a mission. The beloved MIDI music graces this title, of course, with sound effects and suiting music to coax you along your epic adventure.
Why Cosmo Tank was never expanded on, and made into a full blown franchise is completely beyond me. Although a simple tank shooter, it was a fantastically fun game, which provided me hours of enjoyment in my childhood, and still does to this day. Blowing up five Giant Crabs at once with a bomb makes for one of many wonderful experiences in what I find to be one of the greatest portable action games of all time. Let’s all pray for a console, or even better, a DS/PSP title in the future! Happy hunting!
