I mentioned the other day that Chopper Command was a lot like Defender. How can this be? One is set on Earth and has you piloting a helicopter, and the other is set on an Earth-like planet and you are piloting a spaceship.
The main difference between the games is that instead of the enemy forces simply trying to destroy a convoy, these aliens are attempting to kidnap the people on the planet’s surface to turn them into ‘mutants’. Ideally, you’d want to destroy the ships before they have a chance to kidnap the folks on the surface. Failing that (and you will fail) the poor schmucks will get snapped up and transported to the top of the screen. If they make it, they’ll be lost, transformed into ‘mutants’ that you have to kill. It’s not all over if your guys get picked up. They’ll let out a noise when they get nabbed, and the ships fly pretty slowly toward the top of the screen, giving you a few seconds to rescue them. Of course, after you blow up the ship that’s got your buddies, you have to catch them and deposit them back on the surface, lest they splatter on the ground.
Kill all the aliens and a new wave appears, faster and more aggressive than before.
I found the game to be kind of dull, so I would let all of the people get kidnapped right away. Doing that would make all of the enemies you fight the ‘mutants’ and makes all of the buildings disappear (civilization falls, it seems). Though even that couldn’t hold my interest for long.