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Defender 2000You whomped the aliens from the Alpha Proximian Empire in classic Defender and sent them home to cry. Now they want the planets that Earth is mining for desperately needed, life-sustaining minerals. Your job is to protect the space miners as they perform their vital work. The aliens will try to capture them and use their life-energy to turn their ships into hyper-fast mutants. Rescue the captives and destroy the aliens or Earth is history!CATEGORY: Shooter PLAYERS: 1 or 2 PUBLISHER: Atari Corporation DEVELOPED BY: LlamaSoft At a glance...
Defender 2000 - REVIEWJeff Minter's second 2000 series classic game revival - Defender 2000 was a much anticipated release. The question is, was it worth the wait?You start off with three game types. Defender Classic, Defender Plus, and yes, Defender 2000. For those of us familiar with Tempest 2000, the game architecture didn't change much. Defender Classic is about as close as you can get to the arcade version, with the same sound effects sampled in for good measure. Other than the fact that you're sitting at home, watching this version unveil on your TV screen, you'd almost swear you had plopped in $0.25 cents to start the game. Defender Plus is a psychodelic voyage into Jeff's dementia of how an arcade game should be like. It has incredible graphics and animation, but for strict playability, I personally found Defender Classic or 2000 mode a viable substitute. The Plus version, was just TOO busy for my taste. Now for the REAL MEAT of the cart. Defender 2000, offers awesome animation, INCREDIBLE MUSIC -- Thanks to Imagitec Design, and subtle animation details that really make the game rock! This mode (and any other Defender mode for that matter) is not for the faint-hearted. It is fast paced, and reaction time is short! You don't dare blink during this mode, and if you do, chances are you'll die, or wonder how you got past the level. Defender 2000 offers 'help', provided you can get them, including: AI-driven ships, 3-hit shields, blaster upgrades, and this little popcorn-like shooter that plays havoc when activated and an AWESOME spectacle to witness. Yes, there's even a warp level which mimics that of Tempest 2K's 2nd warp mode. The background music during this phase is unique and very techno-ish even for Imagitec -- excellent. However, based on all this, you'd think I'd say this game was God's gift to the Jaguar? Well, not exactly. Perhaps it was a code-flaw, or that the Jag is just too fast, but, playability is quite difficult in all modes. 90-95% of the time your eyes are watching the radar rather than the screen below, since everything is scrolling by so quickly. Makes it difficult to aim-and-shoot, much less rescue your humanoids. Eventually, you'll get used to this, but, it's a real learning curve when you first start. Graphics wise, D2K rocks. Music is superb and doesn't interfere with your game session. Playability, other than Defender Plus, and that your eyes need to be glued to the radar scope is above average. Game control is crisp, but feel another controller would of been a better choice. After 30 minutes or so of play, your left thumb does begin to hurt. |
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