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Washed up old superheroes never die, or age, they merely get a dramatic new cozzie. The Defenders team is a kind of retirement home for superheroes so obscure and ancient that most people have forgotten about them. I mean apart from team leader Flash Gordon, who's ever heard of Lothar (the strongest man in the world), the Phantom (second strongest man in the world) and Mandrake the Magician (Paul Daniels with a better rug). If you ask me, the only one with star presence is Zuffy the mascot!

On the other hand, Mind The Merciless is famous, but only because his vases are so valuable. Still, when he's not down at the pottery he's got quite a nifty line in evil deeds. His latest escapade is to kidnap the children of the Defenders. Shock! Horror! Did anyone even know any of this weird bunch had girlfriends? In any case, considering their age you'd expect the children to be old age pensioners by now!

Nevertheless, the team is more than a little peturbed by this and plan a rescue. This is what Mind has specifically warned them not to do, otherwise he'll kill the crinkly children. But what the heck, they're superheroes.

Flash is promptly teleported into Ming's fortress, armed only with a pistol. The fortress is a horizontally scrolling maze viewed side-on, with flick-screen scrolling on the C64. Flash must find Ming's throne room to save the children. On the way, Flash has to kill loads of baddies. On the Amiga, special superbaddies - one like ED-209 - are summoned if Flash crosses a field generator.

At least the C64 game looks good backdrop-wise with detail and colour even if there's a lot of repetition. Flash is the best sprite, but that's not saying much.

I wish I knew why Enigma Variations (who previously did Gilbert The Alien) made the game so hard. After countless deaths, I managed to beat a massive spider thing (one of the better graphics), ran through a further half dozen screens and there was *still* no sign of a desperately needed energy pod. Frustratingly tough and very limited in ideas.

Amiga gameplayers have a lot with more time to take out the bad guys thanks to a slightly larger play area accompanied by smooth parallax scrolling. This doesn't make up for the fact that the ideas behind Defenders are *very* firmly 8-bit ones.

Running around a maze, leaping chasms and shooting thousands of heavily armed villains is a dated idea, overused by unimaginative budget games. The C64 game has some nice backgrounds, but the sprites are unremarkable. So there's little to keep you coming back for more repetitive punishment.

The Amiga game is better due to more attractive graphics and a slightly slower pace. Also there's some large and impressive monsters. Actual gameplay is still too repetitive and difficult, but at least it doesn't look so much like a budget title.

Presentation 58%
Good "let's get going" sample starts off each game, otherwise unremarkable

Graphics 70%
Nice parallax scroll with plenty of detail on backgrounds and sprites. "Mother" aliens are good.

Sound 68%
Good intro tune and some good in-game samples.

Hookability 60%
The way shot baddies fly away is quite satisfying, and the promise of different graphics makes it addictive...

Lastability 55%
...but it's all been seen before, usually slightly easier and more fun to play.

Overall 58%
Well executed but lacking original ideas.

Presentation 40% Animated presentation screen (the Flash sprite runs across it!)

Graphics 62% Plenty of detail on the backgrounds but the sprites are dull.

Sound 61% Nice intro tune but standard blasting FX in-game.

Hookability 46% Starts hard...

Lastability 42% ...and persistence reveals only more of the same.

Overall 43% Who will save Earth from the Defenders Of The Earth?