"T.N.K III" is a vertically scrolling shooting game released by SNK in 1985. In the last years of the great war, when authorities get word that an enemy nation is developing weapons on a small island, they order a special task force to destroy the enemy's development facilities. Colonel RALF of the special task force learns that this is crucial for victory and decides to take on the sabotage mission alone.

— Arcade Archive description

An arcade game from SNK surrounding Ralf Jones; who later returned in Ikari Warriors; piloting an iron tank to fight off enemy soldiers. Was remade for the NES as Iron Tank.

tropes:

• Action Bomb: Blue soldiers drop One-Hit Kill landmines when killed, which includes being run over by your tank.
• Adaptation Expansion: Iron Tank, the NES adaptation, was greatly expanded from its arcade counterpart, with branching paths, bosses, new enemies and weapons, and a "Blind Idiot" Translation ("Watch out, use radar, gigantic enemy objects up ahead!").
• Adaptation Title Change: The game is retitled from TNK III to Iron Tank on the NES version.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: The translation is quite spotty such as the NES version’s "Watch out, use radar, gigantic enemy objects up ahead!".
• Engrish: "Congratulations" is translated as "Congraturation".
• Land Mine Goes "Click!": The game and its NES adaptation, Iron Tank, feature blinking and beeping anti-tank mines. Instantly fatal to touch.
• Market-Based Title: The game was originally titled T.A.N.K. in Japan.
• Mooks, but No Bosses: The game has a few Giant Mook vehicles, but no traditional bosses, with the game cutting to a "Congraturation" message at the end of the last area. Averted in the NES adaptation, Iron Tank which added bosses.
• No Swastikas: Averted in the original arcade game, which marked the "Last" area on the map with a swastika in both Japan and the US, but played straight with the western localization of Great/Iron Tank, which scrubbed all incidences of the swastika and Balkenkreuz, replacing them with either blank white circles or circled X's.
• Reformulated Game: The game was a 1985 tank-based arcade shoot-em-up and spiritual precursor to Ikari Warriors, was completely revamped for the NES as Iron Tank three years later. The basic gameplay and most of the graphics assets and power-ups were carried over, but the game layout is almost entirely different, with the addition of multiple branching paths and proper boss battles, as opposed to Mooks, but No Bosses.
• Transplant: Before he appeared in Ikari Warriors, Ralf Jones was actually in TNK III before he permanently moved over.
• A Winner Is You: All you get for beating the arcade game is a congratulatory message, full of errors and Engrish. After that, the game (redundantly) gives you a Game Over.
  CONGRATURATION!!
  YOU BROKE THROUGH
  EVERY AREA
  IT'S PERFECT PLAY
  AND GAME IS OVER.
  TANK YOU!!