🧬 Tank Evolution

A tank runner through 100 years of tanks

Tank Evolution is a fast side-scrolling game where your tank rolls forward on its own and you do the jumping and the shooting. It starts in 1916 with one of the very first tanks, a long rhomboid landship, and every time you finish an era your tank evolves into the next one, all the way to a hover tank from the future. It plays in the web browser with no download.

Each level is a run across a changing landscape: muddy fields for the First World War, green countryside for the Second, snow for the Cold War, desert for today and a glowing city at night for the future. Rocks, mines and pits must be jumped, crates and barricades blasted out of the way, and robot drones either shot down or dodged. Gears are everywhere, on the ground and in long arcs in the air that you have to jump for.

Five eras of tanks

WW1 (1916): the landship, slow and long, built to cross trenches. WW2 (1940s): a medium tank with a round turret, the workhorse of its time. Cold War (1960s): a bigger tank with a long gun and a flat turret. Modern (2000s): a main battle tank with an angular turret and a huge gun. Future: a hover tank with no tracks at all, gliding on a glowing pad. Eras open as you win stars, at 6, 14, 22 and 30.

Finish the third level of an era by beating its robot boss, a big grey machine that blocks the way and launches drones at you, and you unlock that era's card. Together the five cards tell the story of how tanks changed: from the first landships to turrets and radios, the main battle tank, computers and thermal cameras, and the ideas engineers are testing for the future. Your collected cards are shown in the menu.

The garage

Every gear you collect is saved, and in the garage you can spend them on four upgrades, each with four levels. Armour adds a heart, so you can take an extra hit. Reload lets the gun fire faster, which helps a lot against the barricades and the bosses. Jump sends the tank higher, for the long pits and the gear arcs. Engine makes the tank faster, which is exciting but also gives you less time to react. The upgrades carry over to every era and every level.

Stars

Each level awards up to three stars: one for reaching the end, one for collecting at least 70% of its gears and one for finishing without taking a single hit. There are 45 stars to win. A level that went badly can be replayed as often as you like, and the gears you collected still count.

Tips

Jump early rather than late: a tank landing on a mine still sets it off. Barricades show how many hits they need, so start firing as soon as one appears. Drones bob up and down; fire when one is level with your gun, or jump over it. On the boss levels, keep the fire button held and jump the drones it launches. If a level feels too hard, collect gears on earlier levels and buy armour and reload upgrades first.

Why tanks kept changing

Every era in the game is based on a real change in how tanks were built. The first tanks of 1916 only had to do one job: cross trenches and barbed wire, slowly. By the Second World War tanks had to move fast across open country, so they got stronger engines, turrets that turned all the way round and radios so a whole group could work together. Armies built light tanks for scouting, medium tanks for most jobs and heavy tanks to break through, which is why the WW2 tank in the game looks so different from the landship.

After the war, engines and armour improved so much that one tank could do the work of all three, and the idea of the main battle tank was born. That is the long-gunned Cold War tank in the game. Later came the computers, laser rangefinders and thermal cameras of the modern era, which help a tank find and hit a target by day or night. The future era is our own guess, inspired by ideas engineers are really testing, like electric drive and vehicles with no crew on board. In the game it hovers, because why not?

Types of tanks you'll meet

Along the way you drive five very different machines. The landship is long and low with tracks around the whole hull. The medium tank has a round turret and a short gun. The Cold War tank has a flat, wide turret and a long gun. The main battle tank is the biggest, with an angular turret and the heaviest gun. And the hover tank floats on a glowing pad. Watching your tank change shape after each boss is one of the best parts of the game.

Controls

On a computer: Space, the up arrow or W jumps, and F, the right arrow or D fires; P pauses. On phones and tablets, use the big JUMP and FIRE buttons under the game, or tap the left half of the game to jump and the right half to fire.

Free, safe and made for kids

Tank Evolution is free to play, with no download, no sign-up and nothing to buy: the gears are earned in the game, never paid for. There is no chat and nobody else online, and there are no people in the game, only robot drones, barricades and crates. Progress is saved only on your own device. See the Parents & Safety page for more.

More tank games

Learn more tank history in Landship WW1 and the Tank Museum of WW2 Tank Battles 3D, or upgrade a tank through a campaign in Tank Upgrade Arena. Every tank game is on the Tank Games page.

Frequently asked questions