It was basically a souped up Defender game, I think it came out around 10 years ago maybe a bit more, It followed the same general gameplay rules as Defender but with much nicer graphics, powerups etc.

My flatmate just recently got an XBox 360 and we were talking about what games we'd like to see on the XBox Arcade, a great idea which I'm enjoying more than the full 360 games!!, but we couldn't remember what this game was called.

Raptor: call of the shadows or tyrian ?

Thanks kazzmir, but when I said Arcade game I meant literally Arcade! ie "Insert Coin!" arcade

To make sure we're talking about the same Defender game:
You fly across a planets' surface, shoot UFOs to prevent them from capturing people that are placed on small platforms on the surface every so many screens. There's also a little radar screen so you can see where the UFOs are.
As soon as all the people are captured the planet explodes.

If that is indeed the Defender game you are referring to, maybe the game you are searching for is listed in this section of Wikipedias' Defender page.

Thank you Dennis, Strike Force was the game we were thinking of!

Heh! Make that 15 years ago!

Wee hee... Strike Force rang a bell, so I did a quick search to see if it was the game I as remembering. I found this page that had a review of it.

What I thought was funny was that on the same page is a review for Street Fighter 2, in which they descibe Guile as being a Punk.

Yay! Sinclair User! Wow that's so old school you could Cane it and not get into trouble!
I guess thier favourate character in Street Fighter 1 was Birdy! Didn't he re-appear much later in Street Fighter XXVI Hyper Mega Giga Fighter ?

Glad I could help.:)

Birdie was in the Street Fighter Alpha series. I hadn't played the SF1 so I just thought he was new.

I'm still angry at Sinclair User for pretending they had merged with Crash but actually just taking the remainder of my Crash subscription money and sending me their rubbish magazine for a few months. Even their covertapes rarely worked.

Yea both Birdy and Adon were from the original SF1, they were both bloody tough opponents especially Adon who was a boss I think. There was also a black boxer called Mike who in IMO became Balrog!

Oh er yea! Grrr Sinclair User, bastards! Actually now that I trawl through long darkened corridors of my memory, Crash was the cool mag and SU was pretty naff!

Thomas:

Let it go.. It's been enough years.