Defender: For All Mankind

Saving The Human Race!

NA release: 4th November 2002
EU release: 24th March 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: Inevitable Entertainment
Publisher: Midway
NGC Magazine Score: 50%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

This is a surprisingly interesting 3D reboot of the classic arcade game Defender. It has design elements that are from the arcade game, but slowly builds upon it with new stuff – perhaps a bit too slowly. The tutorial covers some of the basic stuff from the arcade game: shoot aliens, protect colonists and pick them up to return them to bases. The way the aliens move is even reminiscent of the arcade game, which does make them difficult to hit. It’s very clear that this isn’t a random game with a classic name stuck on it, it builds upon the original.

But as you work your way through missions, you start learning new things and the game partly becomes a real time strategy. Rescuing colonists let you build tanks, which you can then pick up and place. You’ll also need to find energy cells to power turrets. However, the way the game explains its concepts can make it easy to miss, so much that one special kind of turret – one that shoots lightning – is listed as a cheat code because this lightning is actually a repair beam.

The flying itself is also quite fun once you unlock speedier craft. The controls on GameCube are a bit strange as it was designed for four shoulder buttons, which has now been mapped to clicking L and R. So pull R and you’ll accelerate, but fully click in and you’ll hover in place and be able to strafe. Pulling R back lets you slow down and even reverse, but click it in and you’ll pause on the spot but be able to turn around. It takes some getting used to, but it does give you easy access to a ton of manoeuvrability.

And on top of that, the c-stick can be used to pull off some Star Fox 64-style moves like barrel rolls, a U-turn spin and a full loop.

The structure of the game is a bit of a let-down, though. You have a limited number of lives and can buy more, but if you fail a mission with autosave on, you’ll have to try again with fewer lives. There’s also no way to replay previous levels, so you can’t rebuild your supply. Defender is quite a difficult game (even on easy) so being stuck on a level with no way to do anything else without starting from scratch is rather annoying. It’s a shame, because by the time the game’s systems start opening out and becoming more interesting, the game also becomes more relentless. It’s still satisfying to play, though, and the voice acting and story (complete with a sassy computer) is surprisingly decent.

Fun

While this remake may manage to capture the manic nature of the original and repackage it 21st-century style, Defender is extremely unlikely to win any awards in the visual, sound or gameplay departments. While the game fulfils its space-shooting duties well enough, there’s absolutely nothing here that raises the stakes beyond the stunningly average.
Rich Owen, NGC Magazine #79

Remake or remaster?

A re-release would be neat, but a sequel/reboot that embraces the RTS side a bit more would be great.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Defender: For All Mankind.