'Tank! Tank! Tank!' lets Wii U players become a tank-crushing Kong

Tank! Tank! Tank! for Wii U adds new "My Kong" multiplayer mode.

Japanese "battle party" game Tank! Tank! Tank! will bring its four-player tank battles to the Wii U — pitting tank against tank — armed with an all-new game mode named "My Kong."

The asymmetric multiplayer mode gives one player control of both the Wii U GamePad and a massive robotic ape hellbent on tank destruction. Three other players control a bright green tank with a Wii Remote, launching turret fire at the rampaging Kong. While those three must work together to grab power ups while avoiding robo-ape punches.

The player driving the Kong simply wreaks havoc, punching the ground, jostling the Wii U GamePad to butt-slam wee tanks, and shaking the touchpad controller side to side to engage a hyper-destructive rage mode.

It's briefly fun stuff; a good, clean, family-friendly deathmatch mode. Perhaps the most amusing part of My Kong mode is taking each player's picture with the GamePad camera, then applying cartoonish accoutrements — like beards, masks, samurai helmets — to your photo. Seeing a friend's face pasted onto a building-sized Kong is good for a laugh.

Tank! Tank! Tank! also features multiplayer modes lifted from the arcade version, including four-player coop against a series of giant Japanese monsters, four-player free for all, and two-on-two deathmatch. The game's creators also promise a single-player campaign that will hopefully better justify the cost of Tank! Tank! Tank!'s relatively thin offerings.

Namco Bandai says Tank! Tank! Tank! is coming to Wii U during the console's launch window, but whether it will hit on launch day is still being decided.