YMMV / Battle City

• Difficulty Spike: Round 18 in Tank Force is very noticeable, as it comes after a Breather Level. This level has a tricky layout with the base vulnerable from all three sides. There is also very inconveniently placed water body and a tiny steel block so it can take time to switch between positions. Most of the enemies consist of fast tanks and one has to endure quite a long time to complete the level.
• Even Better Sequel: Among numerous other things, Tank Force improved upon Battle City, adding more powerups, making the variety of enemies larger, having more spawn points for enemies, and making spawn camping less viable by having more varied spawn points for the enemies.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Often, getting on top of the screen in Battle City gives you an Ur-Example of spawn camping. With a tank upgraded to maximum, most of the levels become a breeze to go through. This was made much less effective in Tank Force, as enemies also appear on sides and the effect of the freeze powerup doesn't last as long.
  • In custom levels, you can massively reduce the difficulty if you surround the base with armored tiles.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Battle City is massively popular in ex-USSR countries (where it became known as "Tanchiki"), as it was often included in pirate multicarts for Famiclones such as the Dendy in Russia.
• Goddamned Bats: Jeeps in Tank Force. While they pose the least threat, being the only enemy type that can't shoot, they are the fastest enemies in the game and never get stuck. Trying to dodge their stacks of dynamite can also get annoying, especially if there's a lot of them.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The startup jingle, first introduced in MSX port of Tank Battalion and became a staple of this series. Tank Force and Game Boy version of Battle City use it as part of two separate themes and Tank Battalion Blitz introduces a similar-sounding victory theme that fittingly accompanies it.
• Player Tic: Even after successfully completing the stage, it's likely that you'll still be trigger-happy, shooting at each other in co-op or at all the remaining walls when playing alone.
• Polished Port: Tank Battalion on the MSX was a step-up from the arcade original, adding the start/game over jingles, making the movement much smoother and controllable and introducing tougher enemies, as well as the ability to upgrade your tank, all of which would be improved upon further with Battle City.
• Sequel Displacement: For a good number of reasons, such as being Surprisingly Improved Sequel overall, and it's prominence in bootleg scene, Battle City is better known than the arcade game it was based on. This seems to be the case for Japan as well, where the series tends to be referred to and marketed as Battle City. Tank Battalion Blitz for example is known as Battle City Blitz in Japan.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Battle City. To elaborate, Tank Battalion had sprites visibly seen "snap" from one tile to next and it was hard to control them. Battle City fixed that issue and added more varied stage layouts, two player co-op, new terrain and block types, new enemy tanks, a level editor and improved upon a power-up system from MSX port.
• That One Level: Battle City has stages 20 and 34. 20 forces the player to change firing positions and it's easy for the enemy to get to the base. 34 consists entirely of bricks and the base is likely to get destroyed from each of the 3 sides, especially above.

---