When I first heard that Midway was bringing back its old series Defender, the first thing on my mind was... what the heck is wrong with them??? Bringing Defender back to try to get sales from the 102 year olds who enjoyed Defender way back when, it sounds like a poor excuse. But when I saw this game at my local GameStop for $39.99, I picked it up just so I can write this review and prove my previous statement correct. But after playing Defender I found myself drawn into this world full of mutant alien scum called the Manti. Giant bugs who took over the world, and my mind found itself in kill or be killed mode. And I soon found out my first thoughts on Defender were wrong.
Yellow Light


Defender is not a sequel of the 1902(heheehe) classic. It's in fact a remake of the same game. The whole story is about a mutant alien race called the Manti. Who took over earth and most of our solar system. You play as Commander Kyoko(voiced by Traci Lords) on her quest to come up in rank(she's a rookie with the title commander???) & rid the solar system of the Manti threat. Helping Kyoto on this quest the giant space station "Memory", a weird guy named Dr. Mudo(not Muto like Midways other game), & Colonel Adams. After you boot up the game you will be met by a pretty decent title screen with quite a few options to choose from. Most notable are the 2 Player Modes what lets you play Cooperative Campaign & Deathmach. The other being the video's section that I enjoy much. To see the making of Defender is pretty cool. More games are popping up with those "Making Of" videos and I hope it’s a trend that won't go away anytime soon.

While playing Defender I had two things on my mind. Why didn't they do this in Starfox??? And they should use this in Starfox Armada(GCN). I mean sure it takes some getting used to. But I found the control layout of Defender to be awesome. The C-stick is used for your tricks the mid-air U-turn, loop-d-loop, & left/right Barrel rolls. And this comes very much in handy(remember the pain of those moves in Starfox 64). Also unlike most flight shooters(ala Rouge Leader) there’s no auto accelerate. Acceleration is controlled by the R shoulder button. It’s analog so the harder you press down the faster you go. But if you press it down to the click you will come to a full stop.
Green Light

The stages of Defender are mostly a wash, rinse, dry, & do it again(over and over) gameplay. The new Defender has you picking up the colonist and dropping them off at a drop zone. Of course, the Manti aren't just going to let you get away with their dinner so you have a short time to get the colonist to safety. The Manti will try and capture the colonist as well. If a colonist is captured, you have to be careful to rescue the human, by killing the Manti and catching the human as he falls(in slow motion). Failure to rescue the colonist will result in a mutation where the Manti that captured him becomes a more difficult and pretty damn fast opponent to beat. Since it's so hard to aim anyway. The more humans you rescue, the easier the level, and the more points you earn.

There is also a multiplayer split-screen mode, where you can play cooperative, or deathmatch games. The split screen works pretty well for the cooperative mode, but the deathmatch lacks something with being able to see where your opponent is at all times.