Not intricate, with graphics in the best traditions of artists-primitivists, Pocket Tanks gives us plain pleasure of destroying. It's healthy and, according to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, the world is speeding to chaos anyway.

Shooters joke "Everybody can hit 100 points out of 100. Try to get 600 out of 600, will you?"

Type of the game: pure arcade.

Short description: two tanks on the battlefield. You select an angle and power, and fire over 30 distinct weapons at your opponent. 10 shots for each player. Games are won based on points for good aiming.

Once upon a time, I was a member of my university shooting team. My "major" was rifle. Hard work: motionless and quite monotonous. Iron nerves are required. To get some fun we went to the neighboring pistol range. Rapid Fire Pistol* was pistol shooters' hard job, our favorite entertainment.

If you treat Pocket Tanks as a "calculate-and-win" game, most likely you'll get bored. "Think-less-and-get-some-fun" is what the game really is. Here are some empirical dos and don'ts which you, of course, can follow or ignore.

Don't be too serious about deducing precise angles. Be quick and use your intuition. It doubles the pleasure of hitting targets. Don't play with default options and at the easiest level. You'll win and be at a loss. Vary parameters: let the wind change per shot with high variability and set the maximal difficulty. You'll lose (at least for the first time) and want to play again. Personally I prefer playing to practicing, but the right for trial blasts is sacred. Target Practice is at your disposal. Turn off the original music, play something a-la sound track from "Star Wars" and watch tanks flipping. Come on! You'll enjoy it!

You and your opponent (your friend or your computer) have to decide between twenty types of weapons. Important: if you play with the computer, watch what weapons CPU chooses. It's the hint what to grasp first: they usually cover bigger zone and give more score. Crazy Ivan is superb! Olympic rings of 5 Shots and lighthearted smashes of Jackhammer are able to indulge even aesthetes.

You'll obviously get more fun playing Pocket Tanks with a friend. First of all, CPU is quite good at the game and gives you little chance to win. Every now and then you feel like the Napoleon at Waterloo. (Play "Professional" by Ennio Morricone. Matches perfectly). Secondly, it's twice as much noise, guffaw and sarcastic remarks.

In general, not intricate, with graphics in the best traditions of artists-primitivists, Pocket Tanks gives us plain pleasure of destroying. It's healthy and, according to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, the world is speeding to chaos anyway :-)

*Series of five shots fired at one target each within a limited time. There are three different time limits for the series: 8 seconds, 6 seconds, and 4 seconds. A lot of fun! Especially for rifle shooters, when score is not that important.