Along with 5200 Pac-Man,
Defender showed very quickly why the Supersystem was super. 2600 Defender was
actually pretty good-for the 2600. But it wasn't remotely like the arcade game either
graphically or in intensity. The 5200 version is very close to the Williams classic, and
certainly represented a quantum leap that made the 2600 cart seem, well, puny. All the
familiar evil alien guys are here and they do the nasty things they are supposed to do.
The sounds and explosions are at least reminiscent of the arcade experience, if not dead
on. If you can find a working joystick, response is very good.
In attempting to master Defender, I found myself getting offed very quickly over and over and over. Then, quite suddenly, I got the hang of it and was able to play for long sessions. My expereince was the same on the arcade machine, which I later bought. The classic Defender ports for the Jaguar and the PSX are arcade perfect and feature slightly more difficult gameplay than the 5200 version. But this cart holds up surprisingly well
