Game Review: 'World of Tanks Blitz'

If you'd told me back when the iPhone launched that I'd be playing World of Tanks on it, I'd call you crazy. Even now, after having held World of Tanks Blitz in my hands, manipulated a teeny little tank, and played the same intense matches I'm beholden to on the PC, I'm still trying to grasp how such a tiny little device can manage it.

Some serious care has been taken from Wargaming.net to make sure World of Tanks Blitz survived the (likely traumatic) conversion from PC to console to mobile title. Things as simple as firing your gun while aiming have been taken into consideration (if you want to, you can plop a second fire button on your screen for that), as well as the ability to move and resize any of the inputs on your screen.

If you've played its virtually identical predecessor, you've already experienced most of what World of Tanks Blitz has to offer. The game plays just like its PC and console brethren, and it does it looking great with dynamic shadows, decent textures, and running at an impressive 60FPS the whole way through (I know, I was surprised too, but the framerate counter in the corner doesn't lie). You've got a plethora of tanks, your nice looking armory, your fairly balanced F2P elements (including the ability to buy a subscription and link your account to Wargaming.net), and relatively large maps.

World of Tanks Blitz is a pleasantly impressive effort; everything is here, nothing is sacrificed. It offers the same large-scale battles of its bigger brother on a considerably smaller device, and still hangs onto that "just one more game" mentality the "World of" series is known for. It's cliche to say, but for the low entry price of zero dollars, it's hard to pass this up.

Rhys Egner is a writer for Front Towards Gamer from Seattle. He likes comics, hates crowds, and loves gaming of all kinds.