If you're the kind of person that never sees Saturday mornings, never mind Saturday morning television, then you may not have caught the 'all-new' Flash Gordon adventures in the form of Defenders of the Earth. It's the usual American cartoon tat, with 'classic' heroes teaming up with a bunch of right-on youngsters amid a hail of spaceships and laser
In Enigma Variations' new computer implementation of the cartoon you play Flash himself, romping through Ming the Merciless fortress fighting off his minions until the evil ruler is tracked down in the Throne Room.
Flash starts out armed with four shield-
At various points, Flash may came across an obstacle such as a gap in the floor, a locked door or an electric field. By activating a call signal, Flash can ask one of the other Defenders to help him pass the obstacle - for example, Mandrake can magically create bridges, the Phantom can kick doors and Lothar can break locks.
If all Flash's energy packs run out, Dynak-X transports him back to safety all ready to go back and fight another time.
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
The intro music to Defenders of the Earth has been faithfully converted to the Amiga: in other words, the game's there is the usual tacky Saturday matinee 'anthem' that kids can sing as they leap around re-enacting their favourite characters' antics.
The graphics have a colourful cartoon-
LASTING INTEREST
The gameplay is fairly basic, and each level is pretty similar to the last with the exception of a few more robots and guards to encounter. To add to this, the going is frustratingly difficult, which will have even dedicated shoot-em-up fans turning the air blue with profanities and threatening dangerous (and probably illegal) action against the computer before throwing the joystick down and leaving the room.
JUDGEMENT
It's rather poetic that such a run-of-
It's fun for a couple of games, but frustration sets in soon after, discouraging budding Defenders from struggling through, no matter how big a threat Ming is to the universe.