A six year old video game based on the destruction of the World Trade Center is serving as a pretext for fresh outrage in the media following its re-release with upgraded graphics and sound effects.

In the original version of New York Defender, which is widely available online as a crude Flash game, the player is challenged to shoot down an endless series of planes that head for the twin towers in Space Invaders fashion. When enough planes get through, the towers collapse. (The new version is available at the developers' site, under "Chaos Games.")

When it was originally released in October 2001, this simple game was taken as a grim but appropriate commentary on the events of September 11. A writer for Slate reported at the time, "Unlike most shoot-'em-ups, New York Defender doesn't give players a sense of excitement or joy. Instead, it makes them feel powerless. It is, in essence, a grim message about the hopelessness of anti-terrorism: Try as you might to knock every enemy out of the sky, one will always slip past."

In 2004, game designer Jonathan Pitcher explained, "We only meant to fight our feeling of impotence. We reacted to September 11 like kindergarten children, by drawing planes crashing into buildings. It's just some kind of ............
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