Hiroshi Iuchi, best known for his work on Radiant Silvergun, Sin and Punishment and Ikaruga, gives Nintendo 3DS owners his latest project, Kokuga. Unlike Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun, Kokuga does not have you in control of supersonic jets or spaceships, but a tank, as you wheel your way through environment disposing of enemies. While this is quite a different setting from what most of Iuchi’s past games, the game still speaks to the subset of players interested in a hardcore shooting experience.

Kokuga has you in control of a tank while you blast your way through opposing tanks, turrets, and obstacles. The controls are simple and easy to grasp. Players move their tank around in 360 degrees with either the Circle Pad or the D-pad and shoot with the B buttons. To rotate the gun on the main turret, players press either L or R. This control scheme makes the game feel a bit slow, especially when compared to a game like Ikaruga. Considering you literally use tank controls to control a tank, though, it makes sense.

The touch screen adds a different element to the game in the form of cards, which serve as abilities and power-ups for your tank. You are limited to getting at most 20 cards at the beginning of a stage. Card abilities include twin shot, homing shot, laser, napalm, restore shield, repair, defense up, stealth, and quite a few others. Once you activate a power-up, you only have a handful of seconds to make use of it, with the exception of something like restore shield. Making effective use of the cards depends solely on your awareness of enemies around you or the position of your turret in relation to an enemy.

Circle lasers

The visuals in Kokuga are reminiscent of something you would find in Tron. In most of the levels I played, the levels had a transparent, grid-like floor that heightened the 3D effect with a sense of depth. The environments and enemies are metallic, and fit well with the game’s aesthetic.

I’ve put about an hour and a half to two hours into Kokuga and have came to a conclusion—I am terrible at these kinds of games! I still find myself enjoying the game quite a bit, though. The game has 15 stages, each with three levels of difficulty, as well as a robust local multiplayer mode I haven’t had a chance to touch yet. Up to four players can play cooperatively via download play with only one copy of the game. Unfortunately for me, I haven’t been able to convince any of my friends who live in the area to pick up a 3DS for the sole purpose of playing this game with me. Kokuga certainly isn’t perfect, but those interested should keep an eye out if it ever leaves Japan.