Remember the good old days of the arcade, when games where all about the gameplay, featuring sharp visuals, frantic quick fire action and that exhilarating feeling that made you reach for more coin in order to experience that rush again or the need to continue your progress and not be defeated.

Those were the days, and although gaming has changed so much in terms, of graphics, new genre’s and online play, the key mechanics remain the same, if you have a game that capture’s the players imagination and excels in reaching for the gamepad over and over again, then you know you have a hit, those famous words “just one more go” or something to that effect can only be a good thing in the long run, even if it leaves you late for work, school or to the dinner table.

With the amount of choice this generation of gaming present’s, you struggle to pinpoint an area of gaming that hasn’t been overlooked. However, I feel I can point to one small part that’s not been covered, certainly not fully, and that’s good old frantic faced paced arcade style battles, enter Tokyo Warfare Turbo a crazy Japanese Tank game!

Tokyo Warfare Turbo is the ultimate tank arcade experience, fast and frantic as Japanese developers only know how. The game feature’s WW11 and modern tanks, APC’ and AA vehicles, which all come together on the battlefield in the ultimate face-off.

As the commander of a tank of your choosing, you get to ride your multi ton beast across Japan in some fantastic location’s with the added option of a bonus desert area, for some desert strike action, and if that’s not enough there are winterland map’s included too.

With six country factions to choose to represent and the ability to unlock dozens of tanks through rank progression the game has the bases of hooking you with enough variation to keep you on your toes.

Tokyo Warfare Turbo boasts options, tanks of different era’s aplenty and factions can be teamed without restrictions. Choice is such a wonderful thing, and I love the abundance of fine tuning available in terms of gameplay. I love the fact that you can choose between ANIME & HD styles at any time, including mid game, and more.

This tank game features, survival, deathmatch and team deathmatch game play modes, all Xbox One X enhanced to utilize as much hardware power as possible and this is all obvious with the Raytracing for reflections (urban maps only in rain and cloudy weather) High framerates with a wonderful 1440p resolution.

And that’s not all, this game is a technical showcase of immense power under the hood with ultra-graphical settings, including Double Texture resolution, further draw distance , depth of field (optional) and motion blur (optional) and up to 22AI on the battlefield, the game is a brute of a package.

But for all the power is it any good?

Well for me, as pretty as the game looks, for all the options and the power the developers have clearly used…. It’s OK…. Middle of the road stuff.

I really wanted to say Tokyo Warfare Turbo was the bee’s knee’s, an all singing showcase that combines frantically fast gameplay with the ultimate use of graphic display, but I can’t.

Tokyo Warfare Turbo is indeed fast and frantic, but the gameplay is let down, by some rather unusual control mechanics and camera displays, that will leave you frustrated at what could have been.

It’s a shame really, for all the options and the hard work under the hood, gameplay wise, it’s not smooth at all, not even close. The driving and steering of the tank feel very awkward, as though your not even in control at times.

Maybe the game plays better with a keyboard, it certainly feels like it’s been built for a keyboard and mouse first with the game pad an afterthought, which has been implemented poorly. And as for the camera angles, well there not always the most helpful, having said that I absolutely adore the in-tank ride position, a thing of beauty.

The game try’s hard, I love all the tweak-able options, I love the heart and soul of the game, it has that arcade fast paced action that I for one have been waiting for on Xbox One.

Tokyo Warfare Turbo has some lovely ideas that stand out, with good use of power ups, in the form of health, fast reload, armour and devastating weapons.

The idea of a baptism of fire introduction to the game, before it all starts is the stuff of legendary games, sink or swim, panic…. Then you realise that it’s just an introduction… awesome.

It’s just such a shame about the awkward controls, to be fair that’s not my only disappointment. Had the controls been OK, I would have been complaining about the lack of multiplayer, for it not to have online play for which I sort of understand, but no local multiplayer….criminal, especially for the arcade frantic approach.

Overall, a decent effort from the developers, that get so much right with Tokyo Warfare, but fail where it matters most, gameplay. You can’t achieve classic capturing gameplay if your controls are a bit all over the place.

CX Score
  • 48%
    Overall - 48%
48%

Summary

Pros

  • Love the concept
  • Loads of options
  • A showcase of power

Cons

  • Gamepad controls are poor
  • Anything but smooth
  • Lack of any multiplayer

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