Defender Of The Crown

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The year is 1149. King Richard has just returned from the Crusades and granted the Knight honorable title to 6 men who aided him on his campaigns. Some years later, the King is murdered and the Holy Crown is lost. To save the Kingdom, you will severely test your skills, swordsman abilities and military leadership. But should you succeed you'll finally win the Crown of the Kingdom and the love of many beautiful damsels! Quite tempting don't you think? As a Saxon Knight, you take part on a strategy game aiming to gain power and find the lost Crown. You can choose your character among 4 different Knights, each with his own statistics, powers and weaknesses. The game is played on a UK medieval map where you can move your armies and conquer either Saxons' or Normands' territories. Read the map, plan your raids or even team up with Robin Hood and then plunder the enemy strongholds and slash your way through for valuable gold that's needed to build your army of mercenary vassals stronger. You can also participate in jousting tournaments to gain (or lose) new territories or to increase (or decrease) your fame! As a jousting hint, just steer your lance to the center of the opponent's shield and then press the fire button at the very last second. Still, your victory or defeat in jousting will depend on your character's abilities in these tournaments! Defender Of The Crown is a great game to play and if you haven't tried it yet, go on and do it. It surely needs some practice but if you finally master its moves and its gameplay style, it will grant you with some amazing gaming moments.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Defender Of The Crown is considered a state-of-the-art game that showcases what the Amiga 500 could do when it hit the market. The visuals are sophisticated with lush colors and impressive effects. It must be noted that this game was used as a landmark on the video games production values! All the Amiga version's scenes are presented with 32 colors while there are several nicely animated backdrops (which are missing from the Atari ST and PC versions). Each indoor or outdoor scene has its own unique details. Raiding takes you to an awesomely detailed castle where a sword-fight takes place. The action starts outdoors and then is transferred to the inside of the castle’s great inside. Also every jousting sequence is particularly beautiful; there you ride your horse on a first-person perspective and you aim your lance with the Amiga mouse (or the relevant keys) towards the opponent that attacks! As for the game's sound, it features a variety of greatly done sampled sound effects (sword clangs etc) plus some medieval style music tunes that accompany you on your hard quest. Defender Of The Crown is a true Amiga masterpiece back in the mid 80s.