In another exercise in grabbing every possible license in hopes it will yield a hit RPG, this is The World of Tank Girl (1995). It hit shelves in February. The film came out at the end of March and, er, tanked. The books stayed on shelves. They are probably still there.

I saw the movie in 1995 and it was pretty bad. Wikipedia tells me that it eventually became a cult sensation. Wikipedia also told me, “A ‘naked Ripper suit’ incorporating a prosthetic penis was created for Booga and used in a filmed postcoital scene which was removed from the final version of the film at the studio’s insistence.” I don’t think I wanted to know that fact, but it illustrates the fact you could tell back in ’95 that the studio hacked the hell out of movie because they didn’t understand it. You can also tell that it probably influenced a lot of stuff that’s come since. It surprises me zero percent that Margot Robbie optioned the rights for a reboot.

Anyway, cult hit or not, I don’t think anyone wanted this game. There are forty pages of rules here, including a detailed chapter on vehicle combat. If ever a game has screamed for a cinematic, hand-wavy system, it is the bombastic, often surreal and ultraviolent Tank Girl. The character is Chaos on two legs, and this game has the gall to think it can be made of rules? No. None of this works. Tank Girl is cool. Jamie Hewlitt’s art is cool. This game can stay on the shelf. And it did! Sometimes the market is right.