What The Fuss Is All About

whatimplaying:

One of the nice things about Saints Row: The Third is that special weapons and vehicles that are only be available for one mission are generously given to you after the mission’s been completed. So, that digital arm cannon you had in the Tron level? Now you can buy it in any gun shop. That special black jet the head bad guy had? Here, have your own copy after you’ve killed him.

Which is why you get this pixel tank. It only appears for a brief homage to the tank game in Atari’s Combat in SR3’s Tron level, but you get it for free after that mission’s over and I think that’s downright delightful. It almost makes me forgive the folks behind Saints Row 3 for removing the option for you to replay old missions. (Why would you take that out when so many of your missions are the type of elaborate set pieces you’d want to play again? But I digress.)

You could argue that driving a green, glowing pixel tank down a city street doesn’t make sense, but the Saints Row series puts having ridiculous fun ahead of realism or narrative. That’s probably the biggest difference Saints Row 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV; GTA IV would never give you a pixel tank because it breaks the realistic world they’ve created. Saints Row 3 figures “Sure, that’d be fun. Have at it.” It’s a decision developers probably have to make early on in their game design process so that their game has a more consistent tone. SR3 plays like an homage-laden, over-the-top Tarantino film. GTA IV has its funny moments but it’s really more of an intelligent action/heist drama, like if The Sopranos and Bad Boys 2 had a baby.

Other realism-breaking items in SR3 that make the game more fun: a giant purple dildo melee weapon, a gun that shoots mind-controlling baby octopi, a hover-cycle, a car that sucks up pedestrians and fires them out of a cannon.