The premise of HeavyMetalTankBattles by CLOUDWALKER is a simple one: You must defend your base from enemy tanks before running out of tanks to defend with. However despite the simple idea and the fun retro pixel-art and sprite style visuals, the controls and AI leave more than a lot to be desired.

In particular players are only given one control system and I was at a loss as to how to hold my iDevice. To move your tank you need to tap the sides of the screen corresponding to the direction you want to move in and to fire you have to touch your base. This makes it incredibly difficult to move and aim at the same time as you either have to swap hands constantly or play without holding the device at all. Neither of these options feel intuitive and a simple d-pad with fire button would have solved this neatly.

But the biggest problem has to be the AI that seems to stumble around the screen, especially on maps with a significant amount of walls to navigate. Some will bumble about smacking against walls and randomly pathing back and forth as though blindfolded and others will quickly snap a shot off at your tank almost presciently as you attempt to shoo them away from your base.

Plenty of power-ups and unique level designs add some variety to the gameplay, but when something as simple as the controls and AI fail to entice it all seems like wasted effort; best to avoid this title until these issues are resolved.