As seen in: The Guardian Legend (NES)
Distinguishing feature: Transforms into a star fighter.
Strengths: She is a freaking girl-bot that transforms into a star fighter, dammit.
Weaknesses: May be slightly too awesome.


Profile by Jeremy Parish | March 12, 2010


Guardic was a simple little shooter that told a classic tale about a star pilot who dealt with the twin threats of an alien invasion and the MSX's limited scrolling capabilities the only way he knew how: By blowing up the invaders one screen at a time. But "latter" he learned the "really" threat was an alien fortress far, far away, so he built himself a new Guardic starfighter, called the Guardian, and sent it to face down this threat on its own.

We don't know much about this star pilot, but we can at least guess that he was probably very lonely out there in space. See, the Guardian wasn't just a ship; it also had the ability to transform into a robot girl wearing a bikini. The Guardian was Compile's answer to Samus Aran, who hid her femininity inside a tin can and only revealed her true self once danger was cleared away. The Guardian was the tin can, but she didn't hide her lady-ness: Even when she was folded up into a space fighter, you could still see her face quite clearly on the underside.

The Guardian's mission was a simple one: Destroy the fortress world of Naju before it could hurtle evilly into Earth. Oh, sure, destroying a planetoid might seem like a tall order for you or me, but then we're not a scantily-clad girl who can turn into a spaceship, are we? You might not think that's an advantage, but in fact it is: The Guardian was able to get about Naju's core on foot, unlocking internal corridors that she could traverse in ship form in order to activate the planet's self-destruct mechanisms.

Granted, the bikini didn't really seem to offer any particular advantages, but who are we to question the ways of genius scientists who can create a sentient robot girl with the ability to save Earth from certain destruction?


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