Defender review: the machine that dared you to walk up

You fly a small ship over the surface of a planet. Aliens come down to grab the people standing on the ground. You shoot the aliens, catch the falling people and set them down again. That is the plan. What actually happens, for the first dozen quarters, is chaos.

The cockpit is the first boss

A joystick moves the ship up and down. Then five buttons handle direction and weapons, including a smart bomb that wipes out every visible enemy and a hyperspace jump that drops you somewhere random. Walk up cold and you will press the wrong one at exactly the wrong moment. Nothing about it is forgiving, and that is deliberate. The controls are part of the challenge, the same way the flippers are part of pinball.

It makes sense that it was designed by someone who came from pinball. It is a game about hands.

The first few games were a lesson in which button was which. The rest were a lesson in everything else.

A whole world, not a screen

Defender does not stay put. The planet scrolls in both directions, and a thin map at the top shows everything happening beyond the edges. You are always deciding where to be. An alien lander picks up a human and starts climbing, and if it reaches the top, that human becomes a mutant that hunts you. Let too many go and the planet explodes, and the whole level fills with mutants.

This is what made Defender feel bigger than the machines around it. You were not just surviving a wave. You were responsible for something, and you could fail it.

What it meant back then

In American arcades, Defender had a reputation before you ever touched it. It was the machine the older kids played, usually with a small crowd watching from behind, and the one you looked at for a while before you dared to drop a quarter in. Walk into a bowling alley or a roller rink with a game room and you could usually hear it before you found it: explosions and someone muttering at the buttons. Being decent at Defender meant something. People noticed.

Playing it today

It is still frequently listed as one of the most difficult video games, and that reputation is fair. Give it patience. Learn to reverse and fire without thinking, use the map, and save a smart bomb for real trouble. Somewhere in the second or third session it stops feeling unfair and starts feeling like flying.