Color
   Empire and Union have been at war. After suffering massive casualties on both sides, a stalemate is called but behind the scenes, Empire is massing more weapons of war. With armies and the air force bolstered with fresh armor, the conflict brews anew. With a new threat on their hands, Union has no choice but to launch the experimental VKL503 helicopter into service to destroy Empire. As is often the case, the player is given an impossible mission - take on the entire Empire (at least in the first two levels) by his lonesome. In the third level, you lead the vanguard against Empire while Union tanks motor below and aircraft speed on ahead but they're basically just for show since the enemy forces attack as mightily as ever.

Control
   Under Defeat features a versatile experimental VKL503 helicopter as the weapon of choice against an entire empire hell bent on stopping it. At first glom, Under Defeat looks like Zero Gunner 2. But it's not. While the helicopter may pivot on its central axis to shoot at left and right angles, it won't rotate 360˚ like ZG2's Apache, Comanche, and Hokum.

The control scheme for movement and partial rotation is as follows:

» Move joystick by itself and the VKL503 pivots in the direction of movement.
» Hold the shot button to keep the orientation of the VKL503 the same.
» The pivot scheme may be set to "NORMAL" or "REVERSE" at the outset.

Weapon
   Standard weaponry consists of vulcan shots and a screen shattering bomb but lay off the SHOT button for a few seconds and the option meter at the lower left portion of the screen begins to fill. Once full, a clutch sound will be heard and you may press the SHOT button to deposit a little cannon onto the playfield. Once born, baby cannon shoots vulcan fire, rocket fire, or cannon-fire in the original direction of your helicopter when it was launched and lasts for about 6 seconds. If you twist the helicopter to a different orientation, the mini cannon stays at the original orientation which is useful when you're aiming to clear a stationary enemy or gun battery below as you fly away to take on fresh foes flying in from the top of the screen.

Bridgehead Assault
   The first mission in Under Defeat is dubbed Bridgehead where the VKL503 copter swoops in to the whir to helicopter blades as an expanse of land streams below. The first greeter is a watchtower that notices your arrival and spits a few fast moving fireballs at you. Swerve around the tower and blast it away while minding the top of the screen as reinforcements slowly approach. As you make your way through the early part of the level, the terrain below will be pockmarked by your weapons of destruction which leave unbecoming craters on the earth below. Another common sight as your swath of destruction cleaves through the enemy territory is thick, black smoke swarms that billow up from the charred hulks of destroyed enemy helicopters and ground installations. Some explosions are particularly impressive where metal shards spray from the impact blast with smoking black trails as they arc upwards and away. The wind blows in an easterly direction since that's how the smoke drifts and watchtowers leave shadows which point to the northwest. If you watch the trees below, they'll weave to and fro as explosions rock the local vicinity. A blasted installation located in the center of the screen will cause the trees around it to wave away from the blast radius.

   The first level boss is a thuggish silvery helicopter who charges into the screen with guns blazing. However, it's not very well prepared for the battle and it'll soon be smoking from multiple locations on its body as it flounders and eventually crashes into the countryside. In the second level, the music takes on new urgency as the player homes in on a massive battleship with a spiteful conning tower that needs to be sunk to the bottom of the seas. In the early part of the level, the helicopter flies over an enemy shipyard with only a single tank providing offense. As the level goes on, more tanks appear along with moored battleships which provide some decent crossfire action to twitch your helicopter around.

Bonus Pickups
Red - Bomb (Maximum of 6 bombs in your bay)
Aqua - 5000 points + Rocket fire
Yellow - 5000 points + Vulcan fire
Green - 5000 points + Cannon fire

Limited edition
   The LE package includes an 11-track CD which is mounted on the main spindle inside the game's DVD case. The actual UD game is mounted on the center divider inside. The disc is dubbed "Extended Tracks" which contains music composed by Chinji Hosoe with arrangements by composers such as Keiichi Okabe, Satoru Kousaki, Yousuke Yasui, and Takayuki Aihara. Guest guitars are riffed in from Atsuhide Nakayama, Makoto Asai, Yuichi Tamagawa, and others. The track list is as follows:

01) Can't come back
02) Toward a mistake
03) Way back that was shut
04) Storm of fine weather
05) tears which died
06) Can't come back
07) Toward a mistake
08) Under Defeat medley mix
09) Tears which died
10) huge dead end
11) To the far off sky

Closing tidbits
» The game may be played in squat horizontal aspect mode with side borders or in arcade perfect vertical aspect or TATE mode where you'll have to rotate your 800 lb Wega on its side. There's rotating monitors in the market which shift from landscape to portrait mode which is more convenient if you're not in the mood for heavy lifting. Coupled with an XRGB-2+ and a decent sound system, you'll have the perfect way to play DC vertical shooter ports.

» In the practice mode of the game, players may select which level and sublevel to play. To hone your craft, multi-view replays of a level may be viewed where your dodging and shooting skills are on display for everyone to witness and be awed at.

» The Gallery Mode of the game features character sketches and assorted CG from and inspired by the game.