How many of you actually remember Battle City for the NES? Like many games from that time, it was pretty simple, you guide your tank via a top-down view through a maze, destroying enemy tanks while guarding your HQ, which takes the form of an eagle, which in turn looks like it was taken from the Third Reich (check out the video below):

Well, like many retro games, you can now relive the experience on the iPhone in a remake called iTankster, and while the game the game features nice, modern graphics and more frantic gameplay than the original, it seems to have brought the archaic (read: clunky) controls over as well.

The heart of the controls is the virtual joystick in which you really need to move the stick in the direction that you want the tank to move. Simply touching the edges like that of a virtual d-pad certainly doesn’t cut it here. The excellent graphics somewhat make up for this and the variety of maps and their different but no doubt vibrant looks certainly put Battle City in the shed. The levels in iTankster are simply beautiful:

The gameplay is as simple as ever, just like Battle City you go around the maze destroying enemy tanks while protecting your castle (I suppose this is way better than having a Nazi-era Eagle). Power-ups are found on the battlefield, dropped by destroyed enemy tanks. Unlike Battle City, you get to change the type of ammo you are using and use crazier power-ups like an Atom Bomb to clear the battlefield of all enemy units.

iTankster is pretty fun to play (and it’s one heck of a looker), and despite the clunky controls, it’s worth a shot from both retro game enthusiasts and for those who never even heard of Battle City before. You can check out the game over here.