MonoTanks

(Playdate version)

A fast, arcade tank shooter for Playdate, a modern 1-bit tribute to the classic Battle City. One tank. One base you cannot let fall. Wave after wave of enemy armor.

If you grew up with NES Battle City (a.k.a. Tank 1990), you will feel at home immediately: top-down firefights, brick mazes, steel barriers, and that one base in the corner. MonoTanks takes the formula and rebuilds it for Playdate's crisp black-and-white screen, then adds what the original never had: a tank you upgrade, a battlefield that falls apart under fire, a crank-charged radar, and an endless BATTLE run with leaderboards.

▶ No Playdate? Play it in your browser → HERE

The free browser edition is available on a separate page. Desktop or phone, no install, no download. Keyboard, gamepad, or on-screen touch controls. 40 missions and BATTLE mode, all free.

TWO WAYS TO PLAY

MISSIONS. The campaign. Hand-built levels, one objective: clear the field and keep your base standing. Finish a level to earn up to 3 chevrons, and chevrons are the currency you spend on your tank. Every level remembers your best run, so there is always a reason to go back and do it cleaner.

BATTLE. The endless run. No grading, no restarts. One pool of lives, one running score, and a ladder that keeps going until you are out. Choose your difficulty before you start, CADET, SERGEANT or MARSHAL, and the score multiplier scales with it (x1 / x1.5 / x2). Your run goes on the top-10 board for that difficulty, under your name. BATTLE keeps its own upgrade track, so every run is built from zero.

YOUR TANK GETS BETTER

Spend chevrons across four upgrade tracks:

• RADAR: signal strength and how long a sweep stays readable
• BULLET: shot power and what it can tear through
• SPEED: how fast you move, and how fast you take a corner alive
• LEVEL: your tank's base tier

Upgrades are permanent, and MISSIONS and BATTLE hold them separately.

THE BATTLEFIELD FIGHTS BACK

• Full tile destruction. Brick chips away hit by hit and leaves rubble behind for the rest of the mission. After a long firefight you can read the whole battle off the map: where you held, where you broke through, where it fell apart.
• Terrain that matters. Brick you can shoot through, steel you cannot, forest that hides tanks and bullets, water you cannot cross, and ice that keeps you sliding after you let go and kicks your tank back when you fire on it.
• Bomb crates. Shoot one and the blast levels everything nearby, steel included. Chain them together if you are feeling brave.
• Four enemy types. Standard armor, fast runners, rapid-fire tanks with faster bullets, and heavies that take four hits to put down.
• Six bonuses. Kill-all, tank upgrade, freeze, shield, a steel wall around your base, and an extra life.
• Screen shake and shockwaves on every kill, tuned per enemy type.

THE RADAR

Nothing shows up on the field until you look for it. Charge the radar with the crank and it marks you, every enemy, and every bonus on the map. Let it run down and the signal degrades. In the browser, scroll or spin the right stick instead.

30 ACHIEVEMENTS, AND TROPHY CASE

30 achievements, from "clear a level without breaking a single brick" to "wipe out four enemies in one bomb chain" to "take the #1 spot on MARSHAL". The full version also writes them to the open Playdate Achievements standard, so they show up in Trophy Case next to the rest of your library.

CONTROLS

On Playdate

• D-pad: move
• A: fire
• B: pause
• Crank: charge the radar

In the browser (desktop)

• Arrow keys or WASD: move
• Z, J or Space: fire
• X, K or Esc: back and pause
• Mouse wheel: charge the radar
• Gamepad: D-pad or left stick, A to fire, B or Start to pause, right stick for the radar

On a phone or tablet

• On-screen D-pad and buttons, portrait or landscape
• Drag the crank strip to charge the radar

FREE vs FULL

Free edition, 40 missions

• Worlds 1 and 2, 20 missions each
• BATTLE mode, all three difficulties, with leaderboards
• All four upgrade tracks
• 28 achievements
• Playable in the browser, or sideloaded to a Playdate

Full edition, 100 missions

• All five worlds, 100  missions, difficulty ramping into brutal late-game firefights
• BATTLE mode with the full ladder, 100 levels deep
• All 30 achievements
• Exported to the Playdate Achievements standard for Trophy Case
• Playdate build (.pdx)