Defender was one of the most loved games of all time. As you may remember, the story of Defender is basic fly your ship and blast the evil aliens that are trying to kidnap the people that are sprawled across the map. This new version has three game modes, which will take you down memory lane and attempts to recreate the game in a completely new way. The three modes of gameplay are Classic, XG, and XGP. The Classic is a copy of the original game, uses the old line like mountains, and uses the same graphics as the original. The XG is the same as classic with a different background. The XGP mode of play is the most different play mode. It is still the same game but with the ability to use different ships and all new backgrounds.

As I stated before the concept of the GBA conversion is quite simple and does a good job. They wanted to port the original game and put it on the little screen. They have also added the two other XG modes, which add a bit of fun and detail to the series. In addition, they let you play against your friend with the GBA link cable, which is only available in the XGP mode. The concept is to destroy the aliens and save the people from being abducted into space. With the basic concept, it relies on the fun that the game was in the past and the name to bring you a fun time.

Being that it is a Game Boy Advance game; the graphics are actually decent. The game is a scrolling game and 3D is not something they were particularly interested in creating as all three game modes are just slightly different variants of the old game. The Classic style has the black background with the little boxy laser shooting ship. The Aliens look like small Space invaders however, it does bring back memories.

Originally Dated 12-21-2002