Defender
Defender is the greatest arcade console game ever made — definitely FAR better than Qix, superior in key respects than space invaders itself, and even though it didn’t offer a challenging stage, more rewarding than Galaga. Also a useful supply of life metaphors, though not quite so good as cricket. It has its own Defenderpedia.
Defender was an early arcade video game, of the generation after the original space invaders, which involved being a pilot in a small star fighter flying over a planet trying to rescue little sticky things and avoiding a host of more or less aggressive beasty things which are trying to kill you. One has a number of tools at one’s disposal, including a laser cannon that makes an impressive sound and fires a stream of annihilation (far more satisfying than the little pellets emitted in space invaders), a limited supply of smart bombs which blow up all bad guys on the screen but don’t harm the good guys, and the ability to randomly jump into hyperspace if things were getting really tricky (a move of last resort, as you have no idea how sticky the place would be where you wound up)
As such Defender was, and remains, one of the best sources of neat metaphors for the vicissitudes of life (but is still not as good on that score as cricket).
Glossary
- Smart bomb: a dangerous weapon that will kill all hostile craft within a 200m radius, whilst protecting your own little dudes. Only to be used when you’re really up against it.