Centipede

"the original wasn't gret, and the re-make isnt that much better...."

You know how sometimes you just pick up a game and say, "Hey, this looks pretty cool!"? well, im pretty sure I was wrong when I did the same thing to Centipede. Now don't get me wrong, the game is good, but its not great.

Well, I thought the oringinal Centipede was pretty damn cool. And I was pretty damn good at it. But the new Centipede is totaly diffent. Its not just your lame, one direction shooter. Its totally diffrent. And in a good, but bad way. First off, its 3D and you can rome around a bit. Next is the new enemies. They totally suck! There is this one 'bug' that can shoot things at you. And it has deadly aiming. It'll hit you if your not looking, and these yellow turd things that it shoots sometimes come from nowhere and kill you. On to another bug, or should I say spider. This guy can come from above and just zero in on you. The Spider will jump from a cliff and bam, your dead. There are some other really annoying bugs out there but I think its time we move on.

The story is this: An eclips of the moon and/or sun that happens every 100 years brings these big-ass bugs to life. the "Wee People" must fight for their lives to so they can have their Wee Druids use there Crystals to solve the mistery of why this happens. Well, you play the role of one of the Wee People known as Wally. You ride around in a little hover-craft type thing with a gun that will only fire again if it hits something. Say you fire a shot at a wall, you cant shoot again until it hits or a cirtan amount of time passes. The only real way to get a rapid-fire shot is to get close to the target and hold down the trigger.

Every thing is pretty much the same in all the levels (24 of 'em). Kill the long centiped then the rock like things change colors and you have to find the next one that comes out. Then another pathway opens up and you go fight the next round of bugs. The good thing is that there is a censor that tells you when you get close to one of those deadly bugs. In addition, you can pick up a arsenal of special weapons and laser power ups. These things really come in handy but seem to be used fairly quik. And even if you play it alot, you'll still find it hery hard at times. Because there are no codes anywhere on the net for it (Yeah, I looked. I'm a compulsive cheater. So sue me). And, in almost every single level, you have to save the Wee People and Druids, but if you shoot them, 3 little things pop up. If you touch these things, your dead. So don't kill them!

Graphics and sounds are pretty good. Nice textures and colors for the back and fore grounds. The enemies are really well done. Not too rough, just right. Sound effects are pretty cool it the game. Although not as good as some others, you can hear good and even some of the bugs make nosie. But with the real version its just pretty lame. Pretty much something you'd expect from a GameBoy or one of the old school Nintendo's.

The controling of the little pod thing he rides in is pretty simple. Using the Analog Joy Stick helps alot because you turn and twist killing and trying not to get killed. And this time you can even jump! Be it only a little one, it does help in some areas to get items and other stuff. And when you pick up special weapons, you can scroll through them nd pick what one you want to use. It helps if your saving a bunch of them up. But you cannot keep the laser power ups. Infact, they run out in about 15 seconds. So once you get it, start blasting away or else its useless.

But maybe one of the better features is the ablity to play the real Centipede. The 'ol fashion kind with the failing things and the scrolling bugs. But this is sorta diffrent because the Spider thing comes after you! It trys to hit you! Its not random movement, it really trys to kill you! But if becomes hard because it takes 12000 points to get another life. And you only start with 3 of 'em!

All in all, the game is not bad, but its not too good. I wouldn't recomend picking it up, but rent it if you can. It's fun to pass time. Have fun with it and dont get too mad at it. It sucks at times but then again its pretty cool. But it's not worth 50 bucks...

~~ Rhydant

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99