''Tiny Tank'' (marketed as ''Tiny Tank: Up Your Arsenal'') is a 1999

platformer A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

video game developed by AndNow and

Appaloosa Interactive Appaloosa Interactive (formerly Novotrade International) was a corporation, founded in 1982 in Hungary, that produced video games, computer programs and television commercials during the 1980s and 1990s. History Andras Csaszar and Stephen J. Fri ...

and published by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

. Initially to be published by

MGM Interactive Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American film and television production and distribution company headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. Metro- ...

in late 1998, they sold the rights of the game to Sony while retaining a producer credit. In the game, the armed forces of planet

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

were merged into a large

corporation A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...

during the 21st century. The company decided to create a robot army to fight humanity's wars instead of human soldiers. It also created the sentient tank Tiny Tank as a company

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

to boost its own popularity. In 2098, Tiny was supposed to face the rest of the company's army in an exhibition match. Due to a series of errors, Tiny was destroyed during the match, and a robotic opponent gained both

self-awareness In philosophy of self, philosophy, self-awareness is the awareness and reflection of one's own personality or individuality, including traits, feelings, and behaviors. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While ...

and control over the other robots. The new leader decided to cause

human extinction Human extinction or omnicide is the hypothetical end of the human species, either by population decline due to extraneous natural causes, such as an asteroid impact or large-scale volcanism, or via anthropogenic destruction (self-extinction ...

, forcing his human enemies to retreat into underground shelters. In 2198, Tiny is revived and tasked with defeating the robot army and becoming humanity's latest

savior Savior or saviour may refer to: *A person who helps people achieve salvation, or saves them from something Religion * Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer of Islam who will rule for seven, nine or nineteen years * Maitreya * Messiah, a saviour or li ...

Gameplay

The player controls Tiny as he traverses many levels, eliminating SenTrax forces as he goes. There are two bars at the top of the screen that show Tiny's health and the amount of nanometal acquired. Nanometal is essential for the on-board Fix-It Crabs to repair Tiny. If the nanometal meter runs out, health cannot be regenerated. There is also a map on the upper right hand corner identifying the surroundings, enemies, and mission objectives. Tiny can pick up fallen parts from destroyed enemies: *Positronic Brains (P-Brains) - A robot's

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

system. Can be used to improve and upgrade equipped weapons. *Weapons - Fallen weapons can be attached to Tiny's four weapon hardpoints. *Debris (Nanometal) - Essential for the on-board Fix-It Crabs to repair Tiny. There are also other upgrades that are placed around the levels themselves that can be acquired: *Invulnerability - Temporary invulnerability. *Nanometal - Essential for the on-board Fix-It Crabs to repair Tiny, but these possess much more material than enemy debris does. Appears as a gray rectangular container. Tiny also has deployable "Teeny Weeny Tanks", even smaller versions of himself that can be manually controlled or set to hunt enemies, gather upgrades, or protect Tiny.

Plot

The game's plot takes place in sometime before 2098 A.D., all of Earth's armed forces were disintegrated into one large corporation, SenTrax. SenTrax vowed to create a robot army to fight humanity's wars, so mankind itself would not have to. However, they needed the peoples' vote to set this plan into motion, and thus developed the titular "Tiny Tank" - a small orange tank with an occasionally unfriendly attitude. The creation of this cute killing machine made SenTrax's popularity skyrocket, and won them the vote. As thanks, the corporation set up an exhibition showing their orange mascot fighting off the entire SenTrax army on July 4, 2098, broadcast live over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

. However, when the rehearsal began, one of the SenTrax robots had been accidentally fitted with live ammunition and destroyed Tiny with one shot. As a result, Tiny's "positronic brain" (his

system) shattered, and its shards gave "

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

" to the entire robot army. The robot that had fired the shot, now self-aware and calling himself Mutank, took control of the rampant robots and began to eliminate humanity so that machines could thrive. Humanity was forced to evacuate into underground asteroid shelters as the mechanical army conquered the surface. But then on July 4, 2198 A.D., which was 100 years later, Tiny Tank was finally restored by automated SenTrax Fix-It Crabs, which were minuscule robots made to repair damaged machinery. Also as a result, a female

on board an orbital

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

reawakened Tiny, sent him to fight Mutank's robot army and save mankind once again, and gave him his mission briefing for his

spying Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or Confidentiality, confidential information (Intelligence (information), intelligence). A person who commits espionage on ...

assignments to thwart the

criminal conspiracy In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one overt act be undertaken in furtherance ...

Mutank and his

hitmen Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, monet ...

have started.

Development

The game was in development as early as April 1998, when it was picked up by MGM Interactive. AndNow founder

Ed Annunziata Edward Ettore "Ed" Annunziata is best known for the ''Ecco the Dolphin (series), Ecco the Dolphin'' series, Kolibri (video game), ''Kolibri'' for the Sega 32X and as the voice of "Greg" in the Sega Saturn game ''Three Dirty Dwarves''. Later he ser ...

had previously worked with Appaloosa Interactive on ''Ecco The Dolphin'' when he was at

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

. Sony acquired the rights to the game after the game had missed its planned release date in 1998.

Reception

Many magazines gave early positive reviews while the game was still in development before Sony stepped in. ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'', for example, said that the game "succeeds in what it sets out to accomplish, both nits humor and its gameplay." After release, however, reviews were mixed.

References

External links

* (archived) * {{Authority control 1999 video games 3D platformers Fiction set in 2098 Video games set in the 2090s Video games set in the 22nd century Multiplayer and single-player video games MGM Interactive games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Post-apocalyptic video games Science fiction video games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Tank simulation video games Third-person shooters Vehicular combat games Video games about mecha Video games developed in Hungary Video games about robots