Seek and Destroy (2002 video game)
Seek and Destroy is the American name of Shin Combat Choro-Q, an installment of the Choro Q series. It is a tank-centric Action Game. It first released in Japan in June of 2002, in the US in December of that year and in Europe in May of 2003. The US release was handled by Conspiracy Entertainment.
The game takes place in Quewar, a "world of steel" very different from ours, populated by Sentient, Super-Deformed battle tanks. The powerful Q-Stein Empire has declared war on neighboring nations and has conquered all but one- The Kingdom of Proton. The Player Character is Proton's "Special Force Tank", a One Tank Army entrusted with bringing Proton Back From the Brink. Quite literally, as the opening stage takes place in Proton's last held city of Rivageders.
Gameplay consists of tank-sim esque combat with fairly loose physics, with an effect not unlike Battlezone 1998. Missions are selected from a World Map and consist mostly of pitched battles against armies of Q-Stein Mooks, as well as impressively sized and dangerous bosses. There are some RPG Elements in the form of looting and equipping new and better tank parts, as well as exploring Hub Level towns and talking to various NPCs. There's a few mini games, including a Gladiator Subquest.
This should not be confused with the 1996 MS-DOS and Amiga Shoot'Em Up by Epic Games. Or the Metallica song.
- Ace Custom: Q-Stein squad leaders are these. You'll recognize them as pitch-black tanks with the red Q-Stein "Q" on the side. They typically have better stats then other tanks of their type- including yours.
- Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: You never receive a discount on shop purchases.
- American Kirby Is Hardcore: Seek and Destroy is the best example of this in the Choro Q series. See these two for references.
- Amphibious Automobile: You can equip inflatable floats or various grades of outboard motor in order to cross water. You need to get one of these in order to progress through the campaign to Nibelia, an island nation sandwiched between Proton and Q-Stein.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Q-Stein leaders are much tougher then their subordinates- and often larger. This goes for your side as well- Major Rodeschild, a blue-and-white-striped M1A1 Abrams with the Proton symbol on his turret, can hold his own in combat- more then can be said for any of the Red Shirts.
- Bling of War: In the form of Requisite Royal Regalia. The Kings of Proton and Nibelia, an M24 Chaffee and Sherman Firefly, respectively, are shiny white/pink with gold/blue detailing.
- The Captain: Captain Bourne, a green-striped, tan Merkava III who leads The Remnant of Nibelia's forces during the counter-offensive against Q-Stein.
- Chainsaw Good: You can strap a giant chainsaw to the front of your tank. For extra Goodness, equip the Side Saw sub-weapon in tandem with the front saw.
- Character Customization: You can choose from a wide variety of tanks and parts. You can equip a main gun and up to two sub-weapons depending on the tank, as well as different paint jobs, turret gears, engines, radars, computers, treads, armors, internal devices (speed loaders, night vision gear, etc.) and "special" parts (jet engines for flight, outboard motor for water travel, etc.)
- Covers Always Lie: This game has nothing to do with America, despite what the American cover might suggest. It has American tanks, but as said above, it's a world where not only is there no America, there aren't any humans.
- Darker and Edgier: This game as compared to the rest of the Choro Q games. Though only somewhat, as despite the seriousness of the plot, most of the characters have a fairly upbeat attitude- especially Jevons.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Your lone, tiny tank takes out a massive combat helicopter, several Military Mashup Machines, a fully armed battleship, and whatever the hell the Q-Stein Emperor is.
- Disk One Nuke: The Challenger is unlockable in the third town. It just happens to be the second-best armoured tank in the game (the German Maus (unlocked at the endgame) being number one), it also has a large amount of carry weight meaning that it can be upgraded with sufficient weaponry and armour to make the game something of a cakewalk...
- The Emperor: The Q-Stein Emperor, of course.
- Energy Weapons: A few become available towards the endgame.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: The "Flame Gun" and "Blaze Gun" sub weapons.
- Gatling Good: The air Gatling weapon, most prominently. It makes short work of air units if you can line them up- It rotates with your turret but has fixed elevation.
- Gladiator Subquest: The aptly-named Battle Arena.
- Good Tanks Bad Tanks: In general, Proton Red Shirts are American and British tanks and Q-Stein Mooks are German and Russian ones. Nebelia's Red Shirts are British tanks, but their de facto military leader is an Israeli Merkava III.
- Gratuitous German: Many examples in the names of Q-Stein cities, like Gloonstadt, though it may just be a case of As Long as It Sounds Foreign.
- Flying Tank: You can strap a pair of wings and jet boosters to the sides of your tank and take flight. This is necessary to fight one boss, a rather large bomber.
- Highly-Conspicuous Uniform: Usually averted, most tanks are camouflaged or at least in a terrain-neutral color. This is not the case for officers of either side, or for one specific paintjob for the sole original tank in the game, the BHE Tank, which can have a black-with-flames paintjob.
- Infinity+1 Sword: The BHE tank. While it doesn't have the best armor or weight capacity, it is the ONLY tank with all three letter (H,T,B,) designations, meaning it can equip heavy and turret-mounted sub-weapons. Every other tank has one or the other, not both. On top of that it can also equip "B" or body-mounted sub-weapons, which most "H" designated tanks cannot.
- Informed Ability: In the Backstory, Q-Stein forces had beat Proton back to their capital with relative ease. And then the game starts.
- The bosses are the ones that put up an actual fight, but still lack any tactics beyond Attack! Attack! Attack!.
- It's Raining Tanks: Both sides sometimes get reinforcements in the form of parachute-dropped tank squads.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Possible with the use of the 16-Missle sub-weapon.
- Majorly Awesome: Major Rodeschild, your Voice with an Internet Connection, though you fight alongside him in a few missions. May even have Gameplay Ally Immortality.
- New Game+: Finishing the campaign returns you to the first level with all tanks, parts, funds etc. obtained in the previous playthrough.
- Officer and a Gentleman: Lt. Gen Ahmadi, a light blue Chieftain tank, comes off as this, being soft-spoken and intelligent. He seems like he might be a Four-Star Badass given his role in planning and executing the counter-offensive against Q-Stein, but he winds up Killed Off for Real by a particularly nasty boss.
- One-Man Army: Reaches Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? levels, with the Proton Special Force Tank.
- One-Winged Angel: The Big Bad, the Q-Stein Emperor, goes absolutely bug-nuts in his third and final phase.
- Pinball Projectile: Sort of. The "Bound Bomb" Sub-Weapon launches large grenades that bounce along until they hit something.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Jevons, a dark green LVTP-7 with white stripes and leader of Proton's Civilian Resistance. He has a habit of forgetting to hit his brakes and often reappears afterwards with a little bandage.
- Sentient Vehicle: Everyone's a tank! Well, almost everyone. Some people are helicopters, planes, battleships... civilians appear as APCs. There's even a fortune teller (a Pink Bren Carrier with a translucent cloth shroud draped over its hull) and a priest! (Not an M7 Priest, sadly, but a M113 APC, white with a red V-stripe to form its priestly vestments.) The tanks have very human mannerisms, like turning their turrets to "face" who they're talking to, and jumping in surprise or anger.
- Status Buff: The "Grand Flag" sub-weapon isn't a weapon at all, rather, equipping it gives you a substantial boost to your tank's stats at the expense of having no weapon in that slot.
- Sequential Boss: Final Boss Q-Stein Emperor has three forms. The first is a massive, multi-gunned purple and black tank, the second is a Spider Tank version, and the last... well, it's hard to describe. It's a mess of giant cogwheels and energy emissions.
- Sigil Spam: Every tank save yours has a flag displaying it's country's emblem, invoking both Wearing a Flag on Your Head and Color Coded for Your Convenience, as Proton flags are white-on-blue, Q-Stein flags red-on-black. If that isn't enough, officers of both sides wear their national colors and display the emblems on their hulls.
- Sniper Rifle: As the name might suggest, the "Long Shot" main weapon functions as one.
- Spikes of Villainy: Right there in the Q-Stein emblem! It's a big, red, spiky letter "Q".
- Super-Deformed: Legions of cute little tanks blowing the hell out of one another. There's more then a few cases of Mood Whiplash.
- Tank Goodness: In spades. Many, many models of tanks ranging from World War Two to the present day appear, including a number of experimental models.
- This Is a Drill: The "Drill Shot" main weapon, which can penetrate through multiple foes.
- Wacky Racing: A few of the "Expert Arena" challenges involve this.
- Wide Open Sandbox: With certain exceptions, missions can be completed in any order you wish.
- Widget Series: Well, yeah.