Battletanx is a franchise that fans remember fondly, even with only 2 games across three systems with two appearances on the N64, one for the Game Boy Color and one for the PlayStation. The series has not been seen in years but fans still love the games. As it turns out, while the game doesn’t seem out of the ordinary now, the game was very different at the time and the team working on the game had trouble believing in it.
Speaking with Destructoid, creative director Michael Mendheim, revealed how he came up with the idea for BattleTanx, and how he worked to convince his team that this game was going to be a hit.
“I pitched BattleTanx as — ‘Tokyo Wars meets GoldenEye.’ We could build a Tokyo Wars-style game using the existing technology already developed and have the team focus on making a fun multiplayer game. That’s how I sold the game to the development and executive teams at 3DO.
At first, the dev team was reluctant. They thought it was a silly idea – but I had them play Tokyo Wars so they could understand the mechanics. Early in development, the team wasn’t happy with the new direction and didn’t believe in it. I don’t think anyone on the team trusted me at that point, but we moved ahead on the development.”