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A strange game, the main appeal of which is attractive graphics, now enhanced by real sound off CD. It was considered a classic four years ago but hasn't stood the test of time simply because the gameplay is somewhat feeble. You play a knight wrestling with a combination of strategy/management tasks (looking after food, training armies, invading neighbouring English countries) and arcade-style action, with some rather dull little joystick-waggling sub-games in which you battle into a castle or compete in a jousting tourney. Defender of the Crown 2 is soon to follow, and will cost you a fiver more.

verdict: 48%

Title Defender of the Crown
Game Type Adventure
Publisher Cinemaware
Players 1
Compatibility OCS/ECS KS1.3
HD Installable No
Submission Keith Scroggins (kws@radix.net)

Review
Its the time of Robin Hood! The Normans vs the Saxons. You play
as one of a choice of 4 Saxons, each with their strong points and
weaknesses. Your quest is to conquer all of Britain. The computer
controls 2 other Saxons and 3 Normans. While the Normans rarely attack
each other, the same is not true for the Saxons, watch your back, your own
allies will turn on you!

The game has a few different play elements. The basic object is
to take over all of Britain by capturing the home castle of each leader.
Once you capture the home castle, all of the territory owned by that
person comes under your control. But to get that far you have to conquer
the territories on the way. You do this with a campaign army made up of
soldiers, knights, and catapults. Besides fighting other armies, and
taking castles, players also conduct raids and participate in jousts. In
a joust, you can either play for fame or land. In a raid, you can raid a
rivals castle for gold, or if the chance arrives, rescue a saxon maiden
who will become your wife. All game control is done by using the mouse,
no joystick is used at all.

Most of the control of the game takes place at a screen showing a map of
Britain with the different territories and castles shown. When an attack
takes place, another screen is shown where your soldiers and the opposing
army are shown fighting, and you are given a few different options for
attack style. For a joust, you are placed at a screen where the other
rider is coming toward you and the player must place the lance in the
right place to knock the challenger off the horse. And finally for the
raid, a player is pitted against an enemy in a side scrolling sword fight
to either get the gold, or save the kidnapped lady. As with all other
CinemaWare games, beautifully drawn intermissions and cut scenes are
included.

This is a very early Amiga game, one that many retailers used to show
off the system. For the time the hand drawn graphics are beautiful. This
is one of my favorite all time games. The gameplay is nowhere near what
we have today, but it is a must play for everyone who owns an Amiga it
will run on. One problem with the game is that once you beat it, it will
probably just get shelved, it doesn't have enough elements to keep up its
re-playability.