Reviews

This is a good fast paced little shooter. One of my old favorites. Once you get the hang of the controls ie there is no left/right, just a thrust key and turn key, there really is a lot of fun to be had. Lots of different little aliens that behave in different ways. Very smooth movement and scrolling, bombs that destroy all on screen, a cloaking device and teleporting device.
A few graphical glitches here and there are the only problems but they're not so bad that it ruins the game.
128k version has much better sound effects than the 48k version. Both versions make very good use of colour. Great for playing for short amounts of time. Very addictive. 4/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeIjKuE1pTA

Guardian 2 : an above average interstelar game with many things to offer : hyperspace ship , H-bombs , laser beans , space mines , etc.

A good release for 1990 and a good entry to the 90s ZX Spectrum .

The sense of speed is high but the controls can be confusing at times .

This game initially looks older than it is. This sideways scrolling space shooter was released in 1990, but is very much from the mould of early arcade classics defender and stargate.
The game plays very smoothly, very quickly, and there are enough extras to keep things interesting for a while. This is one of the best examples of the genre on the Speccy, but has conspicuously basic presentation compared to games like rtype, zynaps or cybernoid of the same era.

1990 Hi-Tec Software (UK)
by Steve Evans

Despite the smooth engaging gameplay, I think it would be unfair for me to rate 'Guardian II' too high.
The game was release in 1990, after several classics like 'R-type' or 'Zynaps' have been considered the best within the genre. If this was meant has a tribute to the original arcade 'Defender' it served its purpose very well, but someone else already done it in 82 with 'Orbiter'. And altho the Steve Evans version is way better, it just looks like an update of that old game.
My main problem is there are other better shoot 'em-ups around, starting from the '83 classic 'Penetrator' to the then modern 'R-type'.
And besides the engaging 128k sounds everything here looks outdated, not to mention the weird key controls chosen, a real pain in the ass (curiosly exactly the same keys as Orbiter). In fact I'm having a really hard time understanding why would Hi-Tec produce such a low-tech looking game. Specially after being selected by Hanna-Barbera and other big names of the cartoon industry to represent them on tape. That surely meant something.
It may be one of the best Defender type games around, but had this been released 6 years earlier and it would have been a blast, now it just looks like firecracker.

An excellent Defender clone. Fast, furious and extremely tricky.

A sequel to a game never released on the Spectrum, this is a Defender clone and is probably as close to the arcade version as you can get. However, its fast pace was a problem and became a real detriment to this game. I mean it is technically solid and it looks great, but it never clicked with me as I hoped due to its sheer speed which made things awkward, confusing and difficult. A real shame as I had high hopes for this one.