Gameplay:
The Xbox Live version doesn't tell you much about the story, but if you read the Atari 2600 version's manual it has a neat couple of paragraphs that help your imagination out a bit. According to that manual, you are the pilot of the Universal Space Ship “Defender” and are tasked with protecting the “humanoids” of Earth from “warlike Aliens from some unidentified solar system”. The manual breathlessly describes the different challenges you encounter like a page out of some 1950s pulp fiction book, but the upshot is that you are trying to shoot all the “Landers” before they can carry all of the humans up to the top of the screen where they are mutated into human/alien fighting ships. There are many other types of alien ships to shoot, each providing different challenges.
All ships, including your Defender, are destroyed with only one blast or collision, making this a pretty challenging game. If you score enough points, you are awarded new ships however, so if you are a good shot, you can keep playing the same game for quite a while. The Aliens of the Atari 2600 version seem to be a bit slower and have worse aim than the ones in the Xbox Live version. Defender is rather unique among its peers like Gradius, Rtype, Robotec, etc. in that it is one of the very few games in which you are challenged to kill as many bad guys as possible while simultaneously seeing how many innocents you can catch in mid-air and bring back to the ground.
Controls:
Xbox 360
You have the option to use the original arcade controls or the “updated” controls. With the original controls, you have to hold down the right trigger to move forward and you move up and down the screen with the thumbstick or dpad. Hitting the left trigger will make your ship change directions. Unlike many side scrolling shooters before and since this game, all versions of Defender give you the option to fly either to the left or right. If you go for the updated controls, using the thumbstick or Dpad makes the ship fly in all directions. Pressing the “B” button sets off a bomb that kills every alien on the screen, which is useful, but you can run out of bombs. Hitting the “X” button can do moving from one part of the level to another (a.k.a. Hyperspace). As you may have guessed, hitting the “A” button shoots your lasers. When playing this version, I prefer the original controls as I find that I change direction accidentally too often with the other control set.
Atari 2600
As you might imagine, the Atari version has much more simplistic controls since the controller only has one button. Hitting the big red button fires lasers. If you hide behind the buildings and hit the button, it sets off the bomb that wipes out all aliens on the screen. These bombs run out too. Hiding behind the buildings also makes you invulnerable to attack, so you can fly through the buildings and across the city looking for ships about to beam up humans, then pop up and shoot the aliens. It's a very fun way to play the game that you can't do in other versions. I find the controls on the Atari version easier to use than the Xbox 360 version. Maybe its due to the fact that I've played the Atari version ever since the game first came out (lots of years of practice).
Graphics:
Xbox Live
You can play the game with either the original arcade graphics or the updated graphics. The arcade-style graphics look exactly like they did on the coin-op machines that I used to play at my local pizza parlor when I was a kid. Nostalgia aside, I prefer the updated graphics because they are more detailed and the humanoid abducting animations are funnier to watch.
Atari 2600
Given the hardware limitations of this 30 plus year old console, you can imagine how dated the graphics look compared to the Xbox 360's updated version. They are more colorful than the original arcades ones though. The ships are less detailed than the originals, but the main difference is the scenery. In the Atari version, the humanoids are blinking dots against a blue cityscape of skyscrapers. In the other versions I've played, including the updated Xbox Live version, they are stranded in a barren desert with mountains in the background.
Sound:
The sound of both versions stays pretty true to the coin-op arcade although the Xbox 360 is able to reproduce those sounds quite a bit more accurately than the bleeps and bloops of the Atari 2600. My favorite sound in both versions is that of the hapless human going splat if you don't catch him in mid-air.
Replay Value:
Like most good arcade games, Defender is very addictive. Both of these console versions preserve that “I gotta beat the high score!” feeling of the coin-op version. The challenge of seeing how high of a level you can get to is compounded by also trying to see how many humans you can save and how few ships you can lose.
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Rating:
Xbox Live:
Story: 6
Gameplay: 7
Controls: 5
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Replay value: 8
Overall: 8
Atari 2600:
Story: 6
Gameplay: 7
Controls: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Replay Value: 8
Overall: 7
Own, Rent, Avoid:
Own: Both versions are worth owning, especially if you love side scrolling shooter games.
Last Thoughts:
In the end, I had to give the edge to “new school” over “old school” Defender. As much as I prefer the control scheme and the ship-hiding quirk that makes the Atari version so fun to play; I had to hand it to the Xbox Live version for superior graphics, sound and online multiplayer. If you have an Atari 2600, Defender, underrated as it is, is a must for your collection.
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Written By
John Enfield
06/01/09
 (Atari).png)
