Hopping inside of a realistically made tank and destroying enemies in World of Tanks Blitz seems like a fun process at first glance. It is exhilarating to finally score a kill shot on an enemy tank after attacking them for several moments, and it is just as exciting to unlock new tanks to play around with in-game. The issue, though, is that it gets to a point where new unlockables aren’t packing enough punch and players begin to realize that winning is based more around team composition than skill.
From a visual standpoint, World of Tanks Blitz actually looks good on the Nintendo Switch, which isn’t a guarantee when games move over to the handheld/console hybrid. All of the tanks are varied in their styles and detail to the point that it is pretty easy to tell them apart at a glance, let alone upon further examination, which highlights their intricacies. The different maps aren’t as detailed as they could be, but they are more than serviceable for World of Tanks Blitz’s purposes, which means visually, the game holds up quite well.
World of Tanks Blitz is very similar to its PC counterpart in more than just visuals. Players are given a range of different tanks to choose from and must level them up in order to face off against more difficult opponents. Blitz has been streamlined considerably from its original incarnation to better suit the Nintendo Switch to varying results. Teams consist of only seven members and the maps are a lot smaller. This makes matches faster and more intense as players are much more likely to run into enemy tanks, and at a quicker clip. The controls and strategies for the game remain relatively similar, which means that returning players should be able to jump right in.
Matches themselves are fun because players have to employ a decent amount of strategy to get kills and survive against enemies. Each of the tanks handle pretty slowly and turning around can be especially difficult, which makes tactics a focus. On top of this, certain parts of each tank are weak to enemy fire, so players need to move in and out of cover while attacking their enemies. The problem with combat emerges in the fact that each game mode is centered around playing with other players on a team, which means a player can be talented and score a bunch of kills, but still lose because their team doesn’t know how the game works.
The largest issue with World of Tanks Blitz though is that the progression system is pretty broken. While it can be fun to unlock brand new tanks, they are effectively worthless. The game matches players up with opponents who have tanks of similar levels to ensure that everyone is on a level playing field. This is nice from a fairness standpoint because players can’t just purchase the best tanks and dominate, but it does leave something to be desired from the stronger tanks. Since everyone players fight against is on the same level, it means that new tanks don’t feel any stronger than the last.
There was also a pretty sizable bug present in the Nintendo Switch version of the World of Tanks Blitz. During our time with the game we were forced to skip the tutorial because there was no way to progress any further. At one point during the tutorial the game asks the player to upgrade their tank, but the glitch prevented us from pressing any buttons or interacting with the menu whatsoever. After skipping the tutorial this bug didn’t appear again, so the game ran relatively smoothly overall, but it did mean we didn’t get to play through the entirety of the tutorial, which had been solid up until that point.
World of Tanks Blitz is an interesting take on the World of Tanks formula. Those who enjoy the bigger PC game will most likely love the simplified version for the Nintendo Switch. It is very hard to look past the issues with progression in the game, however, which severely limit the impact of upgraded tanks. World of Tanks Blitz needs some polish before its on the same level as its PC counterpart.
World of Tanks Blitz can be played on Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, and PC. A Nintendo Switch code was provide for the purposes of this review.