Joysticks: Use the two 4-way joysticks to control your tank. Push both joysticks up to make it go forward, down to make it go backward, the left one down and the right one up to make it turn to left, and vice versa to make it turn to right, and both of them left or right to make it roll over. Pushing the left stick to the left and the right stick to the right will cause the tank to stop moving, pop a wheelie, and let it fire off a nuclear missile at the enemies.
Firing Buttons: Use these buttons (there is one on both joysticks) to make your tank fire shots at the enemies. It can have up to three regular shots on the screen at a time, and must recharge for 2.5 seconds after firing a nuclear missile (except for when it gets raised into the air by a Jump Zone).
Start Button: Push this button to start the game. Unusually for an upright arcade game, it does not have a 2-player mode (but "Assault Plus" does).
The protagonist of this game. Its objective is to seek out and destroy the enemy headquarters, and must blow up all the cannons at the end of each stage in order to open the exit and proceed to the next stage; circles with arrows in them will appear on the screen to point it towards the exits but it will lose one life whenever it is hit by an enemy bullet or missile. In the Japanese version of the game, the text "PLAYER 1UP MISSED" will appear on the screen whenever this happens (except when it is on your last life) - but in the US version, the text "YOU WERE HIT" will appear instead.
These pentagonal elevators can give you an advantage over the enemies and a spectacular view of your current playfield; when your tank drives onto one, it will be raised up into the air and get a bird's eye view of the surrounding terrain. From this overhead position, your tank can fire nuclear missiles down at the enemies, just like when you push the left joystick to the left and the right joystick to the right to make it pop a wheelie - and once it has dropped down to the ground again, your tank can drive onto it and get raised up into the air twice more, before the colour of the zone changes from flashing red to solid black (which indicates that you cannot use it any more). However, using them in the later stages can wake up stronger enemies which take more hits to kill.
