Defender 2000 is an acquisition of mine this year, playing it for the first time. I have owned Protector SE for many years and enjoy it greatly, but have yet to finish the game. I have instantly fell in love with D2K, I mean I was really hooked after the first game where I got my butt kicked and didn't even score enough points to gain a free life. I was like "ahh ok pal, let's try this again". Now I play at least one marathon session every week, and that marathon consists of a single game that takes 2 hours. My highest score currently is 3.4 million.
When you search for threads on this game at AtariAge, and read numerous opinions, it really seems like this game is actually one of the more polarizing of Jaguar titles among gamers here. There's really only a small few that profess to really dig the D2K mode, and actually openly prefer this game to Protector SE. I'm one of them now. I really think this game blows away Protector SE, and that's not to take away from that game, but D2K really feels like a high tech game the Jaguar should have had, as opposed to the very 16-bit (or less) Protector. Most of the people who play D2K come away hating the 2000 mode and praising the 'Plus' game, or just flat out hating every thing about D2K and loving Protector. I think both are great games and both worth owning.
I know the arguments against D2K, with the sprite size, the ultra fast motion, and the biggest gripe being the screen scrolls up and down. I agree that these aspects seem offputting on first impression. However, once I started grooving on the radar screen and just going with that, while intermittently scanning the playfield with my eyes looking for enemy bullets to dodge, my gameplay skills improved drastically. It makes the game kind of abstract but I still love it this way.
The soundtrack is another amazing gem which stays fresh by cycling every 5 stages, along with the gorgeous background graphics. The amount of on-screen enemies, pixel shatter, and the high speed scrolling would make you think this game would slow down. But, no matter how many enemies and bullets are flying around, you never encounter any slow-down! This game is ridiculous in that aspect, not even modern shmups seem to be able to eliminate slowdown these days (though some people will tell you that's all done on purpose). I know that Minter himself wasn't necessarily happy with the end result of D2K, but it's still programmed as an elite game, and highly polished in that regard. No glitches that I've seen, a big soundtrack running at all times, and tons of bullets and enemies exploding all over the place constantly.
Now, I think Protector SE is a nice game. You can see the entire playfield at once, it plays like classic Defender except with better controls. It has a nice powerup system, and a simply hypnotic rapid fire. It does seem to address all the issues that people hate about D2K. However, it doesn't show off anything that the Jaguar system can do. There's some nice looking background pictures, and some really nice enemy sprites, but when either of these are compared directly to D2K, that game wins hands down. Protector SE does have an edge in it's lighter learning curve though, and that has been a big gripe with D2K from what I've seen from past posts. D2K is just too damn hard for some, and I agree the game is damn hard! But I appreciate the challenge and the assumption that I'm not a novice gamer by the programmer.
Anyway, I love D2K, I like Protector SE. I recommend both.
When you search for threads on this game at AtariAge, and read numerous opinions, it really seems like this game is actually one of the more polarizing of Jaguar titles among gamers here. There's really only a small few that profess to really dig the D2K mode, and actually openly prefer this game to Protector SE. I'm one of them now. I really think this game blows away Protector SE, and that's not to take away from that game, but D2K really feels like a high tech game the Jaguar should have had, as opposed to the very 16-bit (or less) Protector. Most of the people who play D2K come away hating the 2000 mode and praising the 'Plus' game, or just flat out hating every thing about D2K and loving Protector. I think both are great games and both worth owning.
I know the arguments against D2K, with the sprite size, the ultra fast motion, and the biggest gripe being the screen scrolls up and down. I agree that these aspects seem offputting on first impression. However, once I started grooving on the radar screen and just going with that, while intermittently scanning the playfield with my eyes looking for enemy bullets to dodge, my gameplay skills improved drastically. It makes the game kind of abstract but I still love it this way.
The soundtrack is another amazing gem which stays fresh by cycling every 5 stages, along with the gorgeous background graphics. The amount of on-screen enemies, pixel shatter, and the high speed scrolling would make you think this game would slow down. But, no matter how many enemies and bullets are flying around, you never encounter any slow-down! This game is ridiculous in that aspect, not even modern shmups seem to be able to eliminate slowdown these days (though some people will tell you that's all done on purpose). I know that Minter himself wasn't necessarily happy with the end result of D2K, but it's still programmed as an elite game, and highly polished in that regard. No glitches that I've seen, a big soundtrack running at all times, and tons of bullets and enemies exploding all over the place constantly.
Now, I think Protector SE is a nice game. You can see the entire playfield at once, it plays like classic Defender except with better controls. It has a nice powerup system, and a simply hypnotic rapid fire. It does seem to address all the issues that people hate about D2K. However, it doesn't show off anything that the Jaguar system can do. There's some nice looking background pictures, and some really nice enemy sprites, but when either of these are compared directly to D2K, that game wins hands down. Protector SE does have an edge in it's lighter learning curve though, and that has been a big gripe with D2K from what I've seen from past posts. D2K is just too damn hard for some, and I agree the game is damn hard! But I appreciate the challenge and the assumption that I'm not a novice gamer by the programmer.
Anyway, I love D2K, I like Protector SE. I recommend both.