# Defender 1 — user reviews > 69 indexed App Store user reviews of Defender 1 by APD Consulting, Inc., rated 5.00/5 from 1 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/defender-1/id1038282445/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/defender-1/id1038282445.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 0 ## What do users think of Defender 1? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 👍 Faithful recreation of original game - 🤩 Nostalgic experience - 💰 Good value for price - ✨ Good graphics - 🕹️ Joystick option available **Cons** - 👎 Awful, unresponsive controls - 🐌 Very slow gameplay - 💥 Frequent crashes - 🔇 No sound or intermittent sound - 🕹️ Poorly spaced controls - 📱 Unplayable on small screens - ❓ Controls not intuitive - 📉 Controls ruin experience - 🤔 Game broken/enemies don't move - ⏳ Ship doesn't continue moving - 🚫 Missing features (hyperspace, reverse button) - ✋ Controls too sensitive - 🎛️ Joystick needs improvement **Commonly reported bugs** - No sound on iPad - No sound on iPhone - Intermittent sound - App crashes often - Enemies don't move - Ship doesn't continue moving after thrusters stop - Lasers don't react properly when changing direction **Most requested features** - Update to fix sound issues - Update to fix crashing - Enable game controller support - Improve control responsiveness - Adjust control spacing - Add vertical-only joystick option - Add tilt control for travel motion - Add separate button for direction change - Add more stages - Improve graphics (less pixelated) ## Newest reviews (14 of 69) ### 2/5 — Nostalgia only *2025-12-19* Bringing back the old school classic was a great idea but a failure in execution. I like the joystick option for right or left hand play but it’s just not responsive at all. Needs another update to fix it and app shows last update a year ago…. ### 2/5 — Crashes to often *2025-06-20* Love this game, thanks for putting it together. Unfortunately it crashes often. Have to unload and reload to get rid of cache. Also little known hack of saving 3 or more astronauts then warping to a star gate isn’t included. ### 4/5 — Great game but no audio. *2024-01-08* Please update this game, it’s super fun but the sound works intermittently on all my devices. The app is due for an update! ### 4/5 — Great game! *2023-12-19* Please update this game, it’s super fun but the sound works intermittently. The app is due for an update! ### 4/5 — Excellent! *2023-11-27, version 5.1* nt but no sound on my iphone 13. Is there a fix? ### 2/5 — Controls are awful *2023-11-24* Controls are awful, too sensitive for small screens and no way to adjust. Don’t waste your money. ### 4/5 — Fun *2023-10-07* I think the designer did a fantastic job of recreating the arcade game it would be great if they could enable a game controller ### 3/5 — KEEPS CRASHING!!!!!$🤬🤬🤬🤬 *2023-09-20* It would be a 5 star game if it wasn’t for the fact that it CRASHES!!! Mostly when I’m having a great game! Please fix this!!! ### 4/5 — Controls touchy but not really a problem *2023-02-12* Just like I remember except I thought it was possible to rescue survivors on the floor. Not possible here ### 2/5 — No audio on iPad *2022-12-24, version 5.1* Great on iPhone but audio does not work on iPad ### 3/5 — Good memories rough execution *2022-02-15* The game is fun but the control is lag a little and the lasers don’t react properly when you change direction they do not streak across the screen but stop when you move at first. ### 4/5 — Some unfair criticism here! *2021-11-14* Reading the reviews I feel some of the criticism is a tad unfair and unjustified. To 'ththump121', I'm a gamer from the 80's and the Williams 'Defender' was my favourite arcade game, and I think this is not a bad effort by this developer. For a start, I have searched on my PC to play Defender online and graphically, it's as near to the original as anything out there. Nobody seems to have a clue, even a version titled 'Defender II' is crap! I think this developer has spent time studying the original Williams version on graphics and sound, as sounds are just about there apart from the actual laser fire, it's nothing like the original and needs more work. My only other criticism is the ship seems not react quite fast enough to the control in speeding up. These two factors are my only reason for giving 4 stars. Critics of this version need to remember the on screen controls are never going to be like using the actual controls of an arcade machine and so, a little more tricky to get used to. I think this game would benifit from a vertical only joystick, a sensitive tilt for the travel motion and a separate button to tap for change of direction. Maybe an update on these suggestions? I'm quite happy at the price £1.99 for this game. Comparing it to about half the price of a pint, good value for the developers effort. ### 2/5 — gun sound *2021-09-16, version 5.1* the machine gun doesn’t sound like original. ### 4/5 — Fliegen wie damals *2021-03-17* Das gute, alte Defender ist mindestens adäquat auf das Smartphone portiert worden. Es ist rasant, gut steuerbar und herausfordernd. Die Bildschirmgrösse kann man den Programmierern nicht zur Last legen 🙂. 2,50 Euro gut angelegtes Geld. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — No sound *2026-01-02* Visuals are ok but there’s no sounds . ### 1/5 — Don’t Waste Your Money *2025-03-09* The controls are awful in my opinion. They needlessly made the entire joystick one small area of the screen and same with fire button. Your finger will stray away from the tiny joy stick and fire button every time. I played twice and deleted it. Sorry to be harsh but want to save people money. ### 1/5 — ALL IT DOES IS CRASH!!! 🤬🤬🤬 *2024-08-15* Too many great scores and games ruined, due to the app’s instability….its fun, but only when it works (I would’ve given Zero stars, except for that fact…it does work SOMEtimes…) ### 1/5 — Literally the worst *2022-08-21* This is literally the worst game I’ve ever downloaded. The controls are lackluster and the Audio doesn’t even work. Not muted. Just no sound. You are playing in silence. ### 1/5 — Absolutely terrible *2022-07-05, version 5.1* Slow paced, terrible response, and a huge waste of time and money ### 1/5 — Yep not good at all. *2021-06-28* Looks good but Slow and need to sort control out, unplayable. Need reverse button and only up n down. ### 1/5 — No sound *2021-04-25* How do I get my money back. Thieves ### 1/5 — Rubbish. Refund required *2021-01-23* Don't buy ### 1/5 — Don’t buy it *2020-10-11, version 3.7* Horrible - ship doesn’t continue moving after thrusters stop. Controls are badly spaced. ### 1/5 — Shoot? *2020-09-03* Only has smart bomb. Where’s the shoot lasers button? Also very slow. If you want the original defender experience this isn’t it! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Defender *2026-08-16* Perfekt ### 5/5 — No Sound 💥 *2026-01-15* Really bloody good considering the constraints of making this work on an iPad! It soon all came back to me! Only thing is, I don’t have any sound - I’m using an iPad Pro M4 - which is a shame as the Defender noises were all part of the fun… Good effort, and well worth a couple quid! ### 5/5 — Great game *2024-10-25* Like other Defender fans I have always loved this game. I would like to give the developer a Big Thank, for recreating this game. It’s as good as the original, So well done, great piece of work. A Loyal Defender Fan😎 ### 5/5 — Defender *2023-03-28* I’ve loved this game since I was a kid. It would be awesome if you could add support for controllers like Backbone. ### 5/5 — Literally a blast from the past *2023-02-07* I love this! It’s as close as you could hope for to the original arcade game that I loved in the 70’s. Obviously it lacks the analogue joy stick so the rescues aren’t quite as satisfying but otherwise it tidied the trick. Only criticisms are that the controls block your view( but what are you going to do?), I think I remember pick ups being more frequent and there is no hyperspace button, but that would just take up more screen space. The best bit is that it doesn’t cost a fifth of my pocket money per go! I’ve noticed that it’s crashing more frequently as my phone updates. Is there anyone there that could fix this? ### 5/5 — Retro Fun! *2022-04-01* This is a faithful reproduction of the defender I played as a kid. Lots of retro fun to be had! I know some people didn't like the old joystick. I never used that one so I can't say, but the newer 8 direction virtual joystick works great. ### 5/5 — Like being back in 1982!!!!! *2022-03-06* Omg! Whoever says this game isn’t like the old one and the controls are too hard, they weren’t good at it in the first place! I LOVE this game! I mean I FREAKING LOVE it! It took me about an hour to start to figure it out. It’s probably as close as we will ever get to having the game in our basement. The ONLY thing is it’s a little hard to go up and down sometimes but what do you expect on a phone screen???? I miss the hyperspace unless you can tell me how to do it. I’m up to 100,000 so far and it’s so fun remembering the old days and the sounds are incredible!!!! Thank you for bringing this back from the past and to the future!!!!!!!!! 5 stars!!!!! ### 5/5 — Sehr gute Umsetzung *2021-01-18* Die Touch-Steuerung ist nicht so präzise wie mit dem guten alten Stick aber ich wüsste auch nicht wie man sie besser umsetzen könnte. Deshalb keinen Abzug. ### 5/5 — The game I grew up with *2020-06-27* This is awesome, the game I grew up with. Controls a bit clunky like someone said but THATS DEFENDER. Really well done and appreciated. ### 5/5 — Defender1 *2016-02-20* Been looking for version of this game for a while. Just as frustrating as the original - going to drive me mad. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-12.*