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BATTLEZONE 2000 by Atari
As in the original, this game has you piloting an armored tank in a hostile war zone. Each stage requires the combatant to accomplish specific tasks to move on to the next stage. This is a departure from the original Battlezone in that it's mission-based rather than merely trying to survive as long as you can. Some of the notable enhancements in Battlezone 2000 include new weapons, power-ups, weapons customization and the ability to ComLynx with friends (up to four-player cooperative or competitive).
Without the killer vector graphics and the dual joystick control that was found in its classic predecessor, Lynx Battlezone loses some of the charm and playability that we've come to love in the original. Battlezone wasn't a particularly deep game to begin with, and the same thing can be said of the Lynx update. The mission-based scenario of each level does provide a new strategy element to the game, but with the repetitive gameplay and lack of variety in the enemies (and their AI), each stage feels the same after a few plays. By far the coolest element of Battlezone 2000 lies in its ability to be linked-up by up to four players total. If you manage to round up four Lynxes, four copies of Battlezone 2000 and three ComLynx cables, prepared for some non-stop fun. You can either play as one force, or everyone can choose to go his or her own way and duke it out amongst each other. Chances are slim, however, that you'll encounter this type of situation where you manage to round up the necessary systems, games and cables for this to happen. Overall, it appears as if Atari took the middle ground in this update. It's neither an exact port nor is there enough unique new frills to consider this as an overhaul. A few more enemies and different terrains would have gone a long way toward shaking this game's reputation as a "half-ass" update. Not bad, but could've been better.
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