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Iron Tank for NES (Last Updated 3/24/21)

In case you don’t know Iron Tank is a top-view action shooting game where you control an American tank fighting in the invasion of Normandy in the war in Europe in World War II and “NES” stands for “Nintendo Entertainment System.” It can only be played 1 player. Mysteriously, according to the manual it can be played 1 or 2 player and a picture is shown with it being played 2 players with 2 players playing simultaneously but not only is there not a 2 player option shown on the title screen but also during game play no matter what is pressed on a second controller a second player will not join the game, so this must be a feature that the game designers took out at the last minute after the manual was already written, maybe it was discovered that 2 players at the same time caused bugs and it was easier to just take the 2 player option out than to try and fix the bugs. Also mysterious, multiple level select codes exist to start you off at the same exact point with the same exact amount of power ups (which is zero, level select codes when typed in always start you off with zero power ups), maybe it was originally intended that there would be power ups included with at least some level select codes, and then this lead to bugs or lead to being just-too-damned-complicated-to-make-happen so it was easier to just abandon this idea and then just leave in place multiple level select codes that do the same thing. Also, all of the terms for the power ups in this article were taken straight from the manual, none of them are the fantasy terms you sometimes see floating around the internet. The full name for the game is “Iron Tank: The Invasion of Normandy” but everyone just calls it “Iron Tank” as it’s the only Iron Tank game.

The different ways you can play this game are: buy the standalone NES cartridge and it should work in any system that plays NES games or buy the Super Game 400 in 1 Multicart for NES and it works in original NES systems and all Retron systems except the Retron 5. It’s not on the Super Game 500 in 1 Multicart for NES, the Ultimate NES Remix 154 in 1 Multicart for NES, the Super Games 150 in 1 Multicart for NES, The 100 Best Videogames 143 in 1 Multicart for NES, the Unlicensed Collection 142 in 1 Multicart for NES, or the Pocket Games 30 in 1 Multicart for NES. As of the date of posting this article the only place online where you can buy the standalone NES cartridge in new, sealed condition is at SurvivalPartyStore.com where just one is in stock.

The game is one of the best for NES but is not very well known and is overly hard, especially if you don’t know how the power ups work, and it’s hard to figure out what exactly the power ups do without an article such as this one as there’s not written descriptions in the in-game menu to tell you, and something else that would make the game even better besides if it wasn’t so overly hard, and had written descriptions in the in-game menu of what the power ups do, is if you didn’t keep getting “calls” that you have to answer to receive a useless text message and if you don’t answer it just keeps ringing for awhile which is very annoying and makes you feel like saying “not now, I’m busy” so you have to keep pressing Select, then check the bottom box then read it, then press Select, then wait at least a second or 2 then hit Select a second time to make it stop ringing until the next “call” comes in.

Pressing “B” fires the tank’s machineguns which always shoot the direction that the main body of the tank is pointing but the machineguns aren’t of much use as a weapon, while you can kill enemy soldiers with it you can also kill them with the main gun or run them over to use them as power ups but it does rotate the tank’s main gun to point where the main body of the tank right then is pointing in 1 of 8 directions and the main gun stays pointed that way regardless of which way the tank is pointing and pressing “A” fires the main gun. While even machineguns alone will eventually kill an enemy tank and machineguns have a very slightly longer range than the main gun I find it easier to just ignore them as a weapon and just use them to move the tank’s main gun so I can then focus on trying to get main gun hits, with about half of the enemy tanks the size of yours taking 1 main gun hit, and the other half taking 2 main gun hits (if power ups “F” or “B” are not used). For the enemy tanks that take 1 main gun hit they take 4 hits with the machineguns, and for the enemy tanks that take 2 main gun hits they take 8 hits with the machineguns, and while the machineguns do have a little bit longer range than your main gun, the main guns of enemy tanks always have at least a little bit longer range than your machineguns, so you can’t stay out range of the main gun of a fixed position enemy tank and then peck at it with your machineguns to cause it to eventually die, and enemy tanks never use their machineguns, except for the enemy tank that all it has is machineguns. Both the machineguns and main gun fire at close to the same speed. Holding down “B” or “A” fires the guns almost as fast as a turbo controller, a turbo controller is maybe 5% faster. “Select” accesses the in-game menu which also is a form of pausing the game while “Start” pauses the game in the ordinary way.

In the in-game menu you can turn on or off any power up for the tank’s main gun that you have energy for, and it can be confusing what each of the power ups do so here’s a list, and these only apply to your tank’s main gun, your tank’s machineguns are unaffected:
V=“Rapid Firing” you shoot very fast and with a turbo controller fire shots in bursts, probably at least a little bit faster than how fast you can fire shots holding “A” while not using a turbo controller. A way to remember what “V” does is “V” stands for “Very rapid firing” (even though that’s not the official term).
F=“Armor Piercing” shoots through walls and terrain features and increases the shot’s damage. A way to remember what “F” does is “F” stands for “Flies though stuff” (even though that’s not the official term).
B=“Explosive” shots explode big when they hit something or reach their maximum range and increases the shot’s damage. A way to remember what “B” does is “B” stands for “Bombshells” (even though that’s not the official term).
L=“Long Range” each shot’s range is doubled which works out to being almost the width of the full screen. What L does is easy to remember as “L” stands for “Long range.”
And also in the in-game menu there’s:
?=A weapon that damages everything on the screen usually resulting in destroying everything on the screen and always does this, and always just this, even though it’s a “?” symbol and it can’t be combined with other special weapons.
R-FUEL=“Reserve Energy/Fuel” fully restores your health if checked and you have the meter full and then run out of health and so would have otherwise died and it does this automatically.
Also for power ups “E” (Energy/Fuel) does nothing for the in-game menu but restores some of your health and “R” fully restores your health and puts any left over health in R-FUEL accessed in the in-game menu. And running over ordinary soldiers slightly boosts your health while running over enemy officers slightly boosts your health and gives you a regular “V” power up. Also, any power up that’s not “E” or “R” slightly boosts health and regardless if you have the maximum of that type of power up or not so there is a reason to get it even if you have the maximum of it if you’re not at full health. In the in-game menu you can also check your progress on the map, see how many lives you have left, and see where your score is at, and see what the hi score is, which if you just turned on your system and started a game always is what your score is.

Since about half of the enemy tanks your size take 1 ordinary main gun hits, and the other half 2 take 2, in terms of destructive power it makes sense if using a special weapon to use the special weapon “F” or “B” for the types that take 2 hits, but not both, as just one of either of those special weapons is enough to destroy a tank that normally would take 2 hits in just 1 hit. And since you only get so many of the power ups for your main gun, it’s best to conserve them for use for bosses as much as you can, and since “V” is the most plentiful power up it makes sense to use that one the most freely.

The power up levels you die with carry on to your next life even after you continue (and you get infinite continues with 3 lives per continue with no way to get extra lives) so sometimes it’s helpful to collect power ups, don’t use any of them, and then deliberately die, and repeat this process until you are full of those power ups. Once you get a bunch of power ups even after using all of them a little bit of some of them remain permanently there each time you die then spawn for you to use with the next life and your R-FUEL is always there to the maximum level each time you spawn for the entire rest of the game even if you used it (so it then makes sense to check R-FUEL on after each time you spawn unless you are doing the strategy of getting power ups then deliberately dying) so if you’re trying to beat the game it makes sense to start from the beginning of the game or use a level select code for a little bit earlier time than close to the end of the game to stock up on power ups because no matter what power ups you had when writing down a level select code then later using it or using someone else’s level select code you always start with zero power ups.

There’s 3 paths on the map you can take, and 3 times they converge (at the beginning, middle, and end), and I always found the right path the hardest, the middle path the second hardest, and the left path the easiest.

For the bombers in the hangar level the easiest way to defeat them is speed past them and then speed past the last bomber that’s blocking the door to the back of the hanger, then keep shooting at the last bomber from behind, his guns can only shoot forward so he’s defenseless, then he will blow up and you can leave and it will still let you continue on even though all of the other bombers are intact.
For the last level you fight a white building with turrets boss (which is shown on the back of the box), then you fight 3 super-large tank bosses seen elsewhere in the game and of the type always fought inside of a building, and then after the third tank boss is destroyed you won the game and the victory music (not played elsewhere in the game) plays and you see the ending sequence with credits and then it says “THE END” and then no matter what you press it will just keep saying “THE END” so is then a good time to turn the system off.
I look it as you have one good shot at beating the game, and to get the most power ups start at the beginning of the game, then conserve power ups throughout the game for the 3 large tank bosses at the end, because while for the white building with turrets boss you can use a technique where you are just out of range of a turret’s sideways firing shots with your tank aimed forward and your gun angled to the top right (for turrets that are on the right), then when the shots stop for a second move slightly up, fire one shot, then move slightly back down, then reposition your tank aimed forward, then keep repeating this technique until the turret blows up, and with this technique you can with a little patience defeat that boss (and turrets that are not a boss (that need to have the power up “F” enabled to hit them and that are right before that boss), earlier in the game bosses like that boss but are gray, and ships of the type that stay in one place) without using any power ups and without getting hurt, but for the 3 large tank bosses power ups really are needed, and if you die, say, on the third big tank boss and used up almost all of your power ups, then you start with almost no power ups, and since there isn’t much power ups on your journey from the last level select code point in the game you would then start at until those 3 tank bosses you might as well just turn off the game and start again from the beginning some other time.

You have unlimited continues and level select codes and any game even if it just has the level select codes in effect has unlimited continues because even if it says “game over” and you’re back on the title screen you can just enter the level select code again and be back in action right on the level you left off.

Level Select Codes (here are the level select codes for just the “major milestone” markers, not every level select code was recorded, and the info on the right is just made up names for the area, not official titles, and the level select code is the 7 digit number in front of the name for an area that you enter in the “password” section accessed at the title screen):
5593417 Prison camp (left path).
4577935 Rail yard (left path).
4565072 First fortified town (with R-FUEL at its front) (left path).
1526331 Bridge with first “?” of the game on it (left path).
0513476 Unfortified town with a “?” at its front (left path).
0180630 Start of airfield (then soon is the middle of the map juncture) (left path).
3118710 Start of hanger (left path).
0085135 Second fortified town (left path).
7069653 Third fortified town (left path).
3005194 Swamp (left path).
7614060 Shipyard (and “?” and other power ups are at the beginning) (left path).
3116102 Forest with lots of power ups right at the beginning (left path).
2105786 Fourth (and last) fortified town (left path).
7067081 Farther in the fourth (and last) fortified town and the last place in the game you can start from with a level select code (left path).

Game Genie Codes (for North American version):

SLUVKESO Super strong tank.
OIOGIIPA + SXUKTKVK Infinite lives.
OIOGIIPA + AAUKGGZE Start with 9 lives.
OIOGIIPA + IAUKGGZA Start with 6 lives.
OIOGIIPA + AAUKGGZA Start with 1 life.
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