An energy bar representing the structural integrity of the players tank is displayed at the bottom of the screen. As the players’ tank is hit by enemies’ bullets and missiles, the energy depletes. When all the energy is gone, the players’ tank explodes and one of the 3 tanks the player starts with is lost. Fortunately, the player will restart the game at the point where s/he reached after loosing a life, and the energy level can always be replenished by driving the tank over a “V” symbol that appears on the terrain throughout the game. The difficulty curve in tanks is not too steep, although in later stages a novice player may encounter problems as the game provides a stronger challenge as progression is made. Enemy tanks increase in both size and their numbers and are equipped with 3-way firepower in the final few stages. The terrain also becomes more restricted by natural or artificial barriers that require thought by the player to navigate while successfully avoiding an ambush from oncoming enemies.

Tank was developed by SNK and it predates another SNK game, Ikari Warriors. It appears that Tank was the forerunner of Ikari Warriors and that the theme of Tank was developed further by SNK in the Ikari series of games. The Ikari games by SNK were very popular at the time of their release and inspired many other games for home computers such as “Leathernecks” for the Atari ST.

The background graphics in Tank are varied enough to give the player a sense of progression through the games 11 stages: start; woods; lake; statue; town; station; highway; city; park; parking and last.  Little graphical touches to the sprites in the game enhance the game considerably: when the energy bar reaches a certain low point, the turret of the players tank flashes red to show it’s about to explode unless some more energy is found quickly. Landmines flicker when the players’ tank approaches them as a warning of danger. There is a pleasing variety of enemies to confront, ranging from submarines in lakes that sporadically dip up and down firing missiles to aeroplanes that buzz around in formation before dropping their lethal payload of bombs.

Enemy tanks and soldiers vary in their colour and attack patterns. When the players tank runs over an enemy soldier, the soldier will be squashed flat with a little blood shown to let the player know that particular enemy won’t be getting up again. Although this may sound gruesome, the actual in game event is not so horrific as the soldiers are represented in a cartoon style with berets and little black sunglasses and not in a photo-realistic manner.