And so we find ourselves, once again, sitting randomly placed across a randomly-generated landscape, with only an enormous stash of high explosives and specialised weaponry for company. Each player (of which you can have up to eight, human or CPU) takes it in turns to set the angle of their tank's turret and a power setting, and then choose from the various shells on offer, before smacking the big red fire button and seeing how their judgment serves them.

As well as offensive stores, you have a number of defences available, ranging from simple shields that take the brunt of the blast, through to high powered repelling force fields. Another difference between this and many. other copies in the genre, is that you don't have to buy all of your weapons beforehand. You have an overall cash supply to start with, and by visiting a weapons lab before each shot, you can choose what you want to use, with the amount being deducted as you go along. You have to be careful here, as running out of money before the end of the round also means disqualification.

The final and most important addition to the gameplay in Charr is that you can fire multiple projectiles (i.e. a nuclear blast, a big dirt ball, and a lava pool) in one turn. You can also choose how the shot delivers, choosing from bombards, mid-air blasts, jack hammers, and umbrella shots.

Of course, the most important element not yet discussed is the variety of shells available. Wandering cruisers, diggers, nukes, drillers, and skimmers are all available along with standard shells of varying power, but the more dramatic the effect, the more expensive, so look out (and get a receipt!)

This isn't all that different from the other Tanks games we've looked at in the past, but does offer an excellent opportunity to go well over the top with the explosions. Good stuff.