Laser Disco Defenders

On July 12, 1979, nearly sixty thousand angry music fans took to Chicago's Comiskey Park to make a powerful statement. Burning records and causing a lot of damage, the angry mob hoped to bring an end to the scourge of disco music. It worked, as many seem to credit this fiery outburst to be the unofficial swan song for the music genre. But apparently they should have double-tapped disco, because it continues to linger in our music, television and movies. And now, thanks to Laser Disco Defenders, those infectious beats have even invaded dual-stick shoot-em-ups.

Set in the distant future, this is a goofy action game where a quartet of style-conscious astronauts are attempting to take out the evil Lord Monotone before he ruins music for everybody. Their plan is to use a series of wormholes to secretly board Monotone's flagship -- The Screeching Solo -- and knock it offline once and for all. If they can do that, they'll win a series of funky new rags and save the galaxy from a future filled with music they can't dance to.

For as silly as the premise is, the action plays out like a normal dual-stick shooter. Players rush through a series of short levels in an attempt to kill all of the enemies and open up a wormhole to the next stage. These levels may become more challenging as you near Monotone's secret base, but the goal is always the same: Kill all of the enemies and get sucked through the wormhole.

The big gimmick here is that your shots don't disappear when they hit an enemy. Instead they seem to bounce off of everything, adding yet another hazard you need to dodge. This sets up a scenario where you don't want to shoot too many times, since you're just going to have to avoid all that fire when trying to make it through the wormhole. This is a game about aiming your shots perfectly and not making each stage harder than it needs to be.

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Fighting through Laser Disco Defenders' short campaign multiple times will help our funky heroes unlock new outfits and weapons. We start out with a gun that shoots long and precise laser shots, but will quickly unearth guns that will give you quick and spread shots. While these weapons make taking out the enemies a little easier, they also create more shots you need to dodge. It's a tricky balancing act that has a style all its own.

On top of the different weapons, our four heroes are also given a few power-ups to play around with. They'll be able to temporarily slow down time, create a devastating lightsaber weapon and much more. These are useful and can help swing the battle back in your favor, but I wish they had more to do with the disco theme.

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Sadly, the same can be said about the level designs. It's as if the developers dumped all of their best ideas into the characters and fashion, completely ignoring the locations. The backgrounds are bland and rarely match the theme. I still had fun dual-sticking my way through a bunch of intense firefights, but I would have preferred something a little more related to disco. There's a lot of great 1970s imagery to pull from, which makes the boring level designs that much more disappointing.

Aside from the dull locations, I think some fans of the genre may find Laser Disco Defenders a little too easy at times. The standard single-player mode is incredibly short, though it encourages you to replay the stages over and over in hopes of completing a bunch of side missions that unlock new outfits and weapons. This is a great addition that added a lot of replay, but I do wish there were more missions to take on. The amount of content in Laser Disco Defenders feels a bit light.

While I would have preferred the developers play up the theme more than they did, I can't deny that this is a fun little shoot-em-up. It doesn't have a lot of content and the levels are bland, but the action is intense and it gets most of the fundamentals right. Laser Disco Defenders is an enjoyable shooter that should satisfy fans of the genre.