NOTE: I said I would review Super Mario World and Pilot Wings 64, but I'm still working on those games they are quite large. So to keep my reviews going I decided to review the Atari 2600 titles because I already played them on my Atari 2600.
Defender, is a great game. It was an arcade game back in the day and like many arcade games it got ported to the Atari 2600. This port is not bad, its got addicting gameplay and simple to learn controls. So it should be good, right? Well read on!
GAMEPLAY B+: You are a little spaceship trying to defend "humanoids." Why did Atari call them humanoids and not humans? I don't know but what you have to do is shoot all the little aliens on the screen layout. Every now and then you will hear a loud beep. The manual explained the sound as "the sound of an excited chipmunk." Anyway when you hear that beep, that means a human is captured by an alien, all you do is shoot that alien ship and the human will fall down. To earn more points you have to catch the human and then return him or her back to the city below. The main problem with the gameplay is the suspicious collision detection. Sometimes the alien ships seem to be invisible every now and then due to flicker.
GRAPHICS C: This game has some good graphics, but they some major issues with them as well. The scrolling is quite smooth. However the main problem with the graphics is the fact that your space ship turns invisible whenever you shoot. You'll be firing quite often so your ship seems like its not even there. Another problem is some of the flicker. It might not be as bad as the Pac Man port on this system, but like I mentioned earlier. The alien ships seem to disappear every now and then.
SOUND B-: The sound is not special but there's some excellent sound effects in this game. I like how some of them sound it makes the game more satisfying to play.
ADDICTIVENESS C+: This game is not the most addicting Atari 2600 title, but its addicting enough to make it worth buying. Or playing on here. This game like many Atari 2600 titles is great for high scores. I try to reach 100,000 points a lot. I can never seem to reach it though.
DEPTH B+: The game goes on forever, but the aliens get harder and harder after each wave, unlike a game like Space Invaders, these aliens change places.
DIFFICULTY MEDIUM: This games difficulty is quite balanced. The slippery controls might be a problem but in general the game would fit the needs of any gamer.
OVERALL RATING B-TIPS
1 To earn more points you should save the humans.
2 Use smart bombs to destroy all the aliens on the screen. You only get 3 though.
Upcoming reviews
Super Mario World (SNES)
Pilotwings 64 (N64)
Asteroids (A2600)
Combat (A2600)
Pac Man (A2600) re- review.
If you have any suggestions for games you would like me to review please let me know.