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If you've had a micro of any description for the last three years, you will doubtless have seen several skits on Defender plus one or two straight renditions. Guardian by Alligata was surely the best of a bunch that included quite a few stinkers.

But now, the marauding, frenzied foes have boomeranged back again, thinly disguised and with aliases, defying you to send them to happier hunting grounds.

The normal rugged terrain, only shown in outline in the past, has been given the full in-depth treatment, and now you get a well-defined lunar surface. Your joystick no longer prompts a ram jet but a very vulnerable looking chappie in a spacesuit sporting a jet pack. He's carrying a ridiculously powerful laser and the customary arsenal of smart bombs - which he must keep tucked in his utility belt. Invisibility and invulnerabibility is but a stab of the F7 key away, but you have to earn extra units by nifty shooting.

Your task is to escort the humans to the 'dropzone' intercepting the planters (nasties) who release androids which mutate your chums into nemesites (more nasties). Blunderstorms (nice one!) send out lightning flashes and a deadly drizzle. Then there are baiter contraptions, spores which release trailers plus the essential anti-matter. The scrolling is smooooth with no annoying jerkiness or flicker: although Defender characters must be small the definition could have been improved had dark blue been avoided. This is a neat, hectic entertainment package. Classic blasting.