What is a tank's most powerful weapon? A 120mm main gun? Machine guns? Thick armor?

The answer from Tank Fu is a bit different. Here, this tank uses martial arts.

Currently under development by Knight Owl Games, Tank Fu is a third-person character action game featuring a tank as the protagonist. While centered around tank combat, it is a far cry from conventional tank games. Instead of exchanging shells while calculating armor and penetration, players dash toward enemies, launch into the air, and chain together combos.

The developers' starting point for the game was equally simple: the idea of "What if tanks fought using martial arts?" Citing inspiration from character action games like Bayonetta and Hi-Fi RUSH, the game already features over 16 moves in its currently available pre-alpha version. Being a tank doesn't mean staying grounded, either. Alongside ground combos, there are air combos where players can launch enemies into the air to pursue them or leap up themselves to continue attacking. In certain situations, players can also trigger cinematic finisher attacks.

In the released video, viewers can see staggering action, such as hooking enemies to deliver ramming attacks, swinging the turret to strike opponents, and spinning tank treads mid-air to smash rival tanks. While players can fire coaxial machine guns and main guns closer to a tank's traditional duties, the primary offensive method in Tank Fu is melee combat—beating enemies to a pulp with hands and feet... or rather, with turrets and treads.

The scoring system also resembles that of character action games. Rather than spamming the same attack, players earn high scores by combining various skills while maintaining continuous combo streaks. The current pre-alpha playtest features a four-zone tutorial for mastering core skills and an Arena mode where players fight waves of continuously spawning enemies for 5 minutes to chase high scores. Scores achieved in the Arena can be used to compete against other players on the leaderboards.

Tank Fu is currently preparing for release on Steam, though an official release date has not yet been announced. Players can sign up to participate in upcoming playtests on its Steam store page.