The main mechanic involves you selecting from a range of available units each of which has a cost depending on its strength, skills and effectiveness.
It’s difficult to define exactly what genre TABS fits into (although it is definitely attempting to be a strategy game) because of its ludicrous nature and abject levels of hilarity. Despite the fact that there is a surprising amount of depth and strategy to the matches once you actually start to really dig into it, the battles themselves are ‘hands off’ with all of the unrelenting action being driven by AI on both sides of the divide. In true classic gaming form, this is Red Vs Blue taken to the extreme as you find yourself posed with the task of defeating your opponent (AI/Human) by any means necessary. Googly-eyed characters and a simple-yet-solid graphic style give this the appearance of a game aimed at a much younger audience, yet the minute the first fight gets underway you know that you’ll come back to this again and again. A cursory glance at some screenshots did little to deter my mental eye-rolling as I tried to feign interest in what looked like a game which had been knocked together by a five-year-old with little understanding of computer programming. Having been pushed towards playing this for the first time by a plucky 8-year-old with a penchant for Minecraft, I was apprehensive about whether or not this would be my cup of tea.
Regardless of this, it’s still ridiculously entertaining. As such, there are quite a few bugs in this game. Disclaimer: despite being around for the best part of a year, TABS is still listed as being in the preview stages of development.