Global Defense for Sega Master System is a port of one of their classic arcade titles, SDI, which is included in the Japanese PS2 Sega Ages 2500 series accompanying Quartet (God, I love Quartet... but that's not what I'm here to go on aboit today). It is a combination of a horizontal shooter and Missile Command, where you control both your defensive satellite's movement and a cursor, dodging with one while shooting down bases and missiles with the other.
Each stage is split into an offensive half, during which you orbit the planet/area you are defending, attempting to destroy all of the enemy firepower before it exits the screen. Kill 100%, and you move on to the next offensive stage. Let anything by, though, and it's off to the defensive half. These are played almost purely like Missile Command, and you must prevent missiles from touching ground. Too many missiles pass, you die, and it's game over, regardless of your number of lives left.
Global Defense is tough. You have a fire button and a move button. Normally, the D-pad just moves your cursor, but holding the move button allows you to move your satellite instead. On PS2, you use twin stick control to move both simultaneously, and it also supports USB mouse control for the cursor, which really helps as things get crazy. The Sega Direct version came with a sweet mouse, of which Koa Zo was nice enough to post a picture here:
http://forum.digitpress.com/forum/sh...=1#post2026828
Apparently the arcade used a trackball for similar effect, but I personally haven't had the pleasure of playing on a real cabinet.
The graphics are nice, with beautiful planetscapes and stars worth defending and well-drawn sprites. The music is solid, and even better on PS2... (plus that version comes with Quar... nevermind). It is pretty tough, but more in the classic arcade sense as opposed to being unfair.
Played this one? Had a chance to play it on a real cabinet? PS2?