If you've ever dreamed of hopping into a tank and driving across all terrain blasting enemy vehicles to bits along the way then you're in luck because you can now do so from the comfort of your mobile device.
Tank Ace transports you back to the Second World War, charging you with the task of neutralising enemy forces by destroying their tanks. At the start of the game you're presented with a map of Europe and can choose to fight as the Allied, German or Soviet forces in a series of locations across the continent.
The first thing you notice when you climb aboard your tank and set out is the quality of the 3D graphics, which are very impressive for a mobile game. The terrain is well drawn out and animations are realistically slowed down or speeded up depending if you're going up or downhill. Likewise, the sound is impressive and the boom of the gun is as good as you'll hear on any phone-based game.
The control system is very fluid and you'll soon be navigating effectively using the keypad. If you get really stuck you can even call up a control panel on the side of the screen and do it manually. I also like the way you can switch between drive mode and aim mode, as it gives you pinpoint targeting of enemy tanks.
There are two different gaming views to choose from - one where you're watching from behind the tank and an overhead mode. You'll need to using the latter quite a bit because the lack of a radar map makes it difficult to really know where you're going and there's a lot of aimless driving around involved.
One of the things that lets the game down I feel, is the lack of variation in the scenes. It seems that no matter which country you select to play in (with the exception of some snowy parts of Russia), the terrain looks exactly the same, which only adds to the game's monotony. What's more, all of the tanks seem to look and behave the same no matter which force you choose to play with.
On the whole the gameplay is enjoyable although because of a lack of AI the enemy tanks often disappear out of sight even when they know you're there and that you have no ammunition left.
Overall, this is a polished 3D war game that looks great on the small screen but lacks a little variety.
