Defender of the Crown was a strategy game for the Nintendo Entertainment System made by Konami. The genre of strategy game is not well represented on the nintendo, and playing this game shows that the nintendo perhaps was not built for this type of game.
The game is set in medieval England, when the king has been assassinated, leaving six knights (3 Saxon and 3 Norman) to fight for the throne. You, as one of the thre saxon knights, must conquer different counties of England, building up money and soldiers so you can conquer the enemy knights. While you are are loosely allied with the other Saxon knights, you can also attack them and take their lands if you wish.
The game is basically about controlling territory to get money to buy soldiers, and taking those soldiers into battle. There are three types of units: soldiers, knights and catapults. The succes of battle is determined by an unstated formula. On the battle screen, you can choose to pick one of five different strategies, none of which seem to make that much difference in the outcome of the battle.
In between the core game, there is a number of diversions, such as tournaments, raids and rescuing princesses. These games take the form of mini arcade style games. The problem with them is that they have abysmal play control and are virtually unwinnable. Also, they have no real effect on game play, and it is totally possible to win this game without playing them.
The fundamental flaw of the game is that, as a strategy game, it isn't very flexible. There is basically only one way to win the game, and it requires taking just the right set of moves in the first few turns. After that, assuming that the player sticks to the middle course, winning the game just takes some time. Just about every game has to be won using the same formula. Thus, the replay value of this game is not that high.
Overall, this game could have been good, but it suffers due to the limitations of the system it was made for.