Review from HVo Devoted Gamers

Wow, its been a LONG time since I have played a "classic" arcade game, way too long actually, which is why I decided to review Star Defender 2. I forgot how fun it is to play a game based on pure hand eye coordination. I stumbled upon Star Defender 2, It was released 4/25/05. This game is basically remake of the classic Galaga(Midway), where you pilot a small fighter ship at the bottom of your screen and pit yourself against swarms of enemies that are out to destroy everything you hold dear.

Hell, everyone needs some time to relax after a big game of deathmatch on your favorite First Person Shooter (FPS) right? This game provides just that. Although I don't know if relaxing is the right word for it, it had me sweating by the time I hit level 4 (HA!) The game boasts over 100 levels of intense action, packed into 8 missions, each with a boss at the end. And the bosses arent just bosses, they are badass watch your friggin ass and use some strategy bosses.

The Story: At the beginning of the 23rd century we lost our planet. The war didn't last long as the enemies attacked unexpectedly. Humanity wasn't prepared for the battle and was defeated. They came from another Galaxy - Star Defender thousands of migrant tribes of Biods - they were like Locust, which swept off everything alive on its way. Only few managed to survive in that war. Our army lost the battle, our houses razed to the ground. And at the moment when everything seemed to be lost, several lucky pilots did the thing, which no one expected them to do. They broke loose from the enemies' encirclement on their small Star Defender fast pursuit planes and left the solar system. There was the only one way for them to be chosen - to go to the Cynosure and ask its inhabitants for help. Once the Earth did a favor to the people of Cynosure and now it was time for them to repay.

Controlling Your Ship: So basic, a monkey could play. The whole game can be played with just your mouse, you use your mouse to move left and right on the screen, youe left button to shoot your main guns and your right button to shoot your missiles and homing missiles. The controls are very responsive, which is damn well a good thing. There were many times in this game where I had to move left, right, left, left, right, all within one or two seconds in order to dodge incoming projectiles, and my ship, as well as my mouse held up to the battering of movement that insued. As you may have gathered, there is not up and down movement, which in my opinion is partly a good thing. It would have been nice at time to be able to move atleast a little bit up or down, but it adds to the challenge only having horizontal movement.

The Graphics: The graphics of Star Defender 2, for an arcade game, are very wonderful. The backgrounds are quite nice, and very well done with planets, egg sacks, metal masses, floating gas clouds, and stars to be seen, maybe so well done that they distracted me from the hordes of bullets and missiles flying at me! The enemies are just awesome, they aren't "static" meaning that even when they aren't moving, they have their own animations that make them actually look like they are alive and not just a few pixels on your screen. The ships weapons are very well done and their effects look spectacular, not just simple dots like old Galaga was. This game just spews tons of different types of bullets and projectiles at you, so much so, it makes it hard to concentrate on the enemies! Image Your ship is very cool looking, and when you move from side to side your ship rolls left and right, making it actually look like your moving left and right. The weapon animations are very well done, including the homing missiles which I really liked. The "Status Bar" on the right hand side doesn't hold anything back either, and shows off some very nice graphics, it not only displays your score/lives/power-ups/missiles/info, but makes it look damn good in the process.

The Sound: Well, you can't expect too much from an arcade game. But everything you can expect is there, great music that I guess could be described as futuristic techno, without the annoying parts. Seriously, the music did its part in getting me entranced into the bullet dodging game that was underway. There wasnt much in the way of other sounds, which was a bit dissapointing, but I understand, as there isnt much really in an arcade game such as this to add sound to. My ship itself had some nice sounds while shooting its weapons, and I really enjoyed the fact that they werent too distracting to the point of annoyance. Some of the arcade games I have played in the past I had to shut down because the repetetive sounds just got on my nerves, but that didn't ever seem to become a problem with this game.

The Gameplay: Pure hell. In the good way of course! During the first level I found myself thinking "Oh boy, I'm in for another boring Galaga clone." But once I got to level 4 or so, I knew it was a bit more instense then that. The projectiles dont just come straight down like alot of Galaga clones, I found myself trying to avoid diagonal shots, explosions, homing missiles, and even homing ships that were a pain in the ass to dodge, but thats what arcade games are about, challenge. It took me 7 tries just to get to the end of the first mission, and another 5 or so tries to defeat the boss, it may have just been the vodka, but once you reach level 6 or so, it starts to become quite a challenge for your fingers to keep up with your eyes, which in my opinion rocks. Also, there are 4 different difficulty setting, "For Kids" which is quite easy, to a point. "Easy" which is the default, and it hard enough! Medium, and Hard, which is extremely tough to beat. Difficulty settings increase the rate at which your enemies fire and increase their armor.

What arcade game would be complete without power-ups?! There were a slew of power-ups for me to grab when I defeated certain enemies, one, simply named "power-up" that doubled and tripled my bullet amount, after that it increases the power of your triple bullets (with nifty graphics for triple bullets I should add). The obvious extra life power-up. The Armor power-up which allows you to take shots without being damaged for about 10 seconds or so, and a very cool Time-Freeze power-up which slowed down the enemies to a cripple and allowed me to blast them all to hell for about 10 seconds. Heaftier power-ups include including a nuclear bomb, missile strikes, double damage, etc. Another great thing about the game, is when you are shot, you dont die immediatly if you have a power-up, your power-up level is just decreased, Once it hits level one however, you better watch your ass!

I really enjoyed the missiles as well (right click), you can get two types through power-up drops from enemies, regular and homing missiles. The homing missiles obviously home in on the nearest enemy, and the normal ones that just go straight forward. These absolutely decimate the enemy ships, but are in short supply, and must be restocked through power-ups, so I found myself having to use them wisely, and mostly saving them up for the bosses, or for when I was down to my last life ;o)

One thing I very much liked about the game was how even the same type of enemy gets stronger as you progress. So, maybe in level 1, those 10 enemy fighters may not be giving you much trouble, but once you reach level 6, 7, or 8 they are shooting 10 times as many projectiles, and overall becoming more of a troublesome force to combat.

There are over 25 different enemies you will end up fighting in this game, not including bosses, and they give you hell. The Fighter class enemies are an easy match, usually being able to be killed with 3-5 shots, and shooting simple vertical bullets (dont be underestimated though, when there are 20 on the screen shooting at once you will see what I mean). The Torpedo class ships attack you with their ship, meaning they dive after you and sometimes home in and follow you a bit, they can be quite the bothersome enemy as well. Annihiliator class ships have amazing weaponry and shoot multiple shots at once, as well as having dense armor. I found myself having to destroy these first because they posed so much of a threat. There are also turrets, which are stationary but have very powerful guns and are usually lodged behing all of the other enemies. ImageThe Barrier class ships also add quite a challenge, they dont shoot, but are hell to kill. And once you kill them they launch deadly spikes in 8 directions, something that got me killed more then I can count when one of my homing missiles accidently got ahold of them without me noticing. A quick glance at the bosses and you know your in for a major fight, they are friggin huge, and have several different parts to their body as a whole, each one shooting massive weapons, lasers, bombs, etc. I certainly enjoyed the battles with these mean ass baddies.

And finally, this game is hard, VERY hard. But so fun I just couldn't put it down, I found myself saying "Just one more time..." about 50 times in a row. The first mission doesnt give you much trouble, but once you get into the later ones you will be getting your ass handed to you repeatadly, I remember going into Mission 3 with full power-ups and 6 lives, thinking "There is no way I will lose!" 2 minutes later I had to restart, the sheer mass of projectiles just had me fighting tooth and nail to stay alive. I just ADORE a challenge! Too many games are easy to beat, this one has the staying power to keep you fighting hard for hours on end, and redoing a mission doesnt get boring either.

Final Thoughts: One of my only gripes about it, is when you die, you come immediatly back without a noticable "invincible" period which means you could very well die 2, or 3 times within a matter of seconds. If they add an invincible timer of maybe 2 or 3 seconds after you come back, the score would be raised. But I do have to give them props for updating the game as well, less then a month after the game came out they added another mission (including several new levels), and fixed a few bugs, which is always a plus in my book. Also they have a high score list on there website, so you can compete with some of the other top players of the game for high scores, which are very easy to upload from the high score screen to their site, fun stuff. So if your looking for a fun, fast paced, challenging arcade game, this would be it.

If you like arcade games, which I think most people do, if not just for recuperating from the intense FPS or long hours in your favorite RPG, then I think you will find this game right up your ally. The game takes not only intense hand eye coodination, but a smattering of strategy at certain points as well. The graphics are well done for an arcade game, and the sound and music certainly add to the game. The power-ups, well being obvious are well thought out, and the enemies are very diverse and challenging. You can download the free one mission demo of this game from awem.com.