Centipede

"Just like the 20 other versions"

Ahh, Centipede, how I have memories of playing you. Back in the 80's you were an awesome arcade game. I remember my high score being only about 30,000 on the arcade, and I could never match that on the Gameboy version. Anyways, this is the Gameboy port. This game came out 16 years ago (1992) on this handheld. Wow, I feel old. Anyway, on with the review!

I can't give this a rating for Story, obviously, unless you want me to make up a fabulous story about how the player develops a hatred for centipedes and spiders and the other marvelous insects in the game, and the value of the mushroom trees. I'd probably even throw in a bunch of memes, and the story will involve a mixture of Chuck Norris and Mudkips. while thats tempting, I think I'll stick with the review.

Controls - 5/10 - Gotta love them simple controls.... D-pad for movement, A to fire/attack.

Gameplay - 5/10 - It's -- EXACTLY -- like the arcade version, the Atari versions, the other handheld versions, and the console versions. It's the same. I know you say, why fix something that's not broken, but it was too much like the others. This one came with three difficulty levels --- Novice, Standard, Advanced, Expert. This is another part of the games problem. Novice and standard are too easy, yet advanced and expert were way to hard. This game however comes with 4 different 2 player games, which is a good plus, if I actually had people to play with!

Graphics/Sounds 3/10- Again, exactly like everything else. One minor problem though: it is in black and white. Darn you Gameboy screen! The sounds are highly useful, especially in higher difficulties, as you can hear the spiders and scorpions coming, and each creature has a different sound! So to get better points keep your sound on.

Play Time/ Replayability - 4/10 The world record for the highest score took 9 hours...on the arcade version on one quarter. The average game I play takes about 10 to 20 minutes. If you dig the series, you can get some good replayability, cause it's perfect length for a bus ride or train ride (if you're like me and have to take a lot of public transportation). However, I can't stand bringing around my crazy and clunky old gameboy anymore. The other gameboy systems however can play gameboy games, maybe some day I'll buy myself one of those systems.

Final Recommendation - I'd say skip it. It's old, you can play it on a lot of a better systems, handheld, console, computer...the list is endless. Plus I must say good luck finding it anywhere... I can't remember the last time I saw a Gameboy game, let alone a ported gameboy game. If you are in love with the series though, I'd say give it a try, as you can put Gameboy games into GBC, Gameboy Advance, and DS systems. Just don't expect anything new!

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/04/08

Game Release: Centipede (US, December 1992)