Centipede

I was never a huge fan of the original centipede. I understand the appeal, but I never really found it fun. So perhaps I am not the best person to review the remake on the Dreamcast. Of course, even if you are a fan, if you like this I have some great E.T. carts to sell you.

Now it's at this point that I will have to admit something. I have only spent about 30 minutes playing this game. However, the experience does not condone long playing sessions. This is due to 2 things. First off, the controls are just not tight enough. The stick is WAY too sensitive, so moving and aiming is pretty much a guessing game. The bullets you fire seem to take a moment before actually leaving your ship, making aiming even harder (of course, the bullets move slowly but that was part of the original, so I'll forgive them that). The second problem is that the levels just aren't interesting, either aesthetically or as far as actual design. The graphics look ok but really, the whole thing is the same. The design itself is not interesting at all and you will find that it's really just shoot bug, save wee person (more on that later).

The game does implement three drastic new features. There are now weapon upgrades, which can be obtained by picking them up in-game. This leads to the second feature, level design and freedom of movement. You can even jump. Sadly, this creates plenty of problems since the different camera angles all totally kill something about the game. The default is a lot like the original and is best for actually playing the game, but everything is very washed out and foggy. The closer in you get, the more detail you get (things actually look like what they are as opposed to blobs) but at the price of visibility. First person-mode limits vision so much that you may as well not bother. Actually, maybe you shouldn't bother anyway.

The last innovation (?) is the story ... erm ... yes. I'ts very simple. The wee people are being attacked. The randomly select this guy to pilot a ship that they made. This guy doesn't know anything about combat; he is just a "bean counter." Regardless, he does this thing anyway. I actually liked the opening cut-scene more than anything else in the game. It looks really nice, and I like the looks of the characters. I'm also curious if the main character (Willy) was made an everyman (everyweeman) so that the demographic for the game (people who played the game as kids and are now stuck in crummy office jobs) would be more attracted to him. The really awful thing is I'm probably right.

Really, no one should buy this game. If you like the original and you see this for 5 bucks, get it because it contains the game. (Could they have legally left it out? Namco certainly doesn't think so. Stupid Pac-Man.) Or you could buy an Atari collection that has it and get other good games. It may cost like 10 bucks more but it sure lasts longer.