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Crash reviewed Defenders Of The Earth on the Spectrum last month, and now the SAM Coupe version rears its not-so-ugly head. The Defenders' kids have been kidnapped by Ming the Merciless and held in a dungeon.

It's up to Flash Gordon, with more than a little help from his friends, to rescue them. Not that his pals are there in person all the time, but when a door needs to be kicked down, or a computer tackled, they can be called. Flash is armed with a pistol, but as there are plenty of Ming's minions about all the firepower he can muster is needed.

The first two things that struck me on the SAM version were the speed of the main character - he runs along so fast it would probably take the likes of Sebastian Coe to stop him - and the fact that he actually looks like Flash, unlike in some other versions! Sound is good with a neat rendition of the TV cartoon title tune, and the graphics are very impressive indeed: a vibrant, colourful pallette is used to great effect.

Defenders Of The Earth just goes to show what the SAM Coupe can deliver! More games, please!

Mega! The very, very first Sam Coupe game reviewed in Crash! And it's a whopper. Defenders Of The Earth was a good game on the Spectrum (76%) but converted to the SAM Coupe it's even better!! The playability has not been affected much: although the game is still really good fun it might have just got a little faster.

Of course, the main difference is in the graphics and sound. The in-game music is brilliant, but the sound FX leave a lot to be desired. Graphics style is very similar to the Amstrad CPC. Though very impressive, I'm sure Defenders Of The Earth does not use the SAM to its fullest. That's always been the tradition with games for a new computer, but as the amount of software being produced increases, there are bound to be bigger, better games made. Still, this marks a great start to SAM software.