BattleTanx (1998). Play online

Summary

Brettan was a frantic frenzy on the N64, slamming you from coast to coast over a cracked set of American city streets. I liked picking one of the three rides—the agile Moto‑Tank, the stiff‑armed M1A1 Abrams, or the lumbering Goliath—to tear through destructible recreations of New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco and a handful of other back‑county sites. Across the 17 single‑player levels each map piles enemy tanks and crumble‑able architecture in a high‑octane chase toward victory. The multiplayer lets up to four racers face off in distinct modes: Battlelord (capture‑the‑flag), deathmatch (first‑to‑seven kills), Family mode (single‑ammo), and Annihilation, where each player starts with five tanks and fights to be last alive. Critics praised how fast the game ran, how tight the controls felt, and how everything blasted apart—a combination that kept my weekends drenched in steel and smoke.

Storyline

In BattleTanx for the Nintendo 64, a deadly virus wipes out 99 % of women in 2001, turning the world into a chaotic wasteland. Nations clash over quarantine zones, the fighting escalates into nuclear exchanges that raze much of civilization. The surviving women, called Queenlords, become prized captives of the gangs that now control fragmented territories.

The player follows Griffin Spade, whose fiancée Madison is snatched by the U.S. government and taken to the Queens district of New York. After New York is obliterated, Griffin commandeers a battered tank and sets out on a cross‑country trek to rescue her. Along the way he battles rival gangs and scavengers across the ruined East Coast.

The journey takes him through the countryside, into Chicago, Las Vegas and finally the ruins of San Francisco, where he recruits allies and continues the hunt for Madison. Each zone offers its own brutal combat and a chance to reclaim a piece of the shattered world.