Defenders of the Earth


by Andrew Swann, Ben Daglish, Peter Tattersall
Enigma Variations Ltd
1990
Sinclair User Issue 101, Jul 1990   page(s) 51

Label: Enigma
Price: £9.95
Reviewer: Garth Sumpter

The only thing in the universe that's meaner than a ferret up an elephant's bottom is Ming the Merciless. And the only thing in the universe that can hurt him more than a spiky sea urchin dropped down the front of his trousers are the Defenders of the Earth.

Get the idea? Well Ming's got a stonker of a brainwave to keep the Defenders of the Earth out of his hair. You see, he's kidnapped the children of the super do goodies, that's Flash's son and the children of Msndrske, Lothar and the Phantom, and locked them all in a cell in the darker and colder than a plain chocolate choc ice of a dungeon within his fortress.

So the team of professional baby sitters must penetrate Ming's fortress, avoiding detection by Ming's security system, and rescue their kids before the Social Services learn of the whole episode and take them all away for good.

You are Flash (are you really?) and you must work your way through Ming's fortress, from flip screen to flip screen, armed with only a handgun and the ability to call other members of team down to perform certain set tasks. For example, if a door needs opening then a quick dab on the space bar will have Dynak-X send the best member of the team (even including Zuffy) to perform the task while Flash tries to provide covering fire without losing any of the shields that he begins the game with. No shields, no Flash, no problem 'cos the game is fast with whole battalions of basket kicking nasties running onto the screen from left and rlght.

Although the action's all there and the colour is very well done, the game is not the hottest around because of the initial levels of difficulty involved, but it should still provide excitement for the shoot 'em up monsters out there and the odd several thousand Defenders fans.


Graphics: 80%
Sound: 76%
Playability: 70%
Lastability: 73%
Overall: 73%

Summary: Fast and furious action, but tricky to get to grips with.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

All information in this page is provided by ZXSR instead of ZXDB