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Funkmaster V Reviews
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7800 Rank: 10th Best Overall
3rd Best Official Release
Genre: SHMUP
Awards: None
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You Gotta Smoke Shrooms... to See Pink Mushrooms |
Pros:
Fast and furious gameplay/ Great 2-Player modes
Cons:
Arcade purists will miss the trac-ball |
That Goes For Cyan, Too |
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Overview: Centipede is one of those Classic Arcade titles that ended up on almost every Atari platform. So by the time it was released, it might have been hard to get excited about Centipede again, especially if you have bought it a few times before. But! Atari did a great job recreating
gaming classic, whether you cared or not. Like most early Arcade games, it lends itself to the world of the bizarre. In essence, you are a guy/bug/thing/elf/gypsy/archer/tart that shoots bullets (that are called arrows, wow this guy is fast with a bow!) at various things in a mushroom garden. Your main target is the Centipede that bounces its way down a path of mushrooms. If you hit its head... no problem. But once you hit a Centipede section, it magically turns into a mushroom, which acts as a barricade/bumper for the rest of the Centipede. Soon you will have Centipede parts running all over the place. This would be pretty horrifying in real life. Once all of the Centipede's sections are destroyed, background colors change, and a faster or trickier Centipede comes out on the scene. You endure wave after wave of Centipedes until all of your lives are extinguished. One thing you will quickly realize, is that your worst enemies are not the Centipedes, but the Spiders. If this was not a family website, I would cuss them.
Graphics: Graphics are pretty spot on with the Arcade game. Well... the graphics may look a little fatter than the arcade game... but its 2020 and I dont think we can fat shame anymore. Also, the screen being wider instead of taller. That's not a fat joke. I feel like wider TV's have made this game more difficult on consoles than the original arcade, the 7800 version included. The Centipede is virtually on top of you before you can take a bite of magic mushroom.
Sound: Again, the sound is pretty close to the Arcade version. There is that annoying spider jingle when he appears, the flying flea drop noise and the theme song to the scorpion. Not bad!
Gameplay: The gameplay is solid. I always thought Centipede was a hard title because of all of the craziness going on. Centipede feels like a controlled-wreck, with doom looming around the corner. Its not IF you will meet your demise, but when. Trac-ball support is missed, but the Pro-Line sticks do the job, although control is a tad stiff.
Interpretation: Since the Atari 2600 version was a very good game, you wouldn't expect Atari to screw up one of its flagship titles on the 7800... but, as with Realsports Baseball, we have seen shameful Prosystem regression before. But not here. In fact, this version may be preferable to the arcade version for some. And I will tell you why in the next section.
Value: What could make a 7800 port of a flagship IP superior to its Arcade daddy? The simple fact if you have friends or not. Well... I'm sh*t out of luck... but some of you with nerd friends, children that you can force to do things, or mutant plants with opposable thumbs, you will be in a good spot. As with Asteroids, Atari included some really cool multi-player options here. You can do alternating turns (yawn), simultaneous team play or simultaneous competitive mode... where you can kill each other. YESSSSSSSS KILLLLLLLL YOUR MUTANT PLANT. In a title featuring monsters with 100 legs... these modes give the port... more legs. Sorry... that cracked me up while I was typing it.
Overall: Well, overall...this is Centipede. With the addition of the 2 player modes, this proves to be a great version of the game. Some prefer the 5200 version of the game, but those people are called communists. Do not give them your credit card numbers or go to their meetings. If you do, you'll never act again.
Other Reviews:
Video Game Critic: A
CV's Atari 7800 Panoramic Froo-Froo: 4.0 out of 5.0 (Very Good)
The Atari Times: 6 out of 10
Additional Info: I would like to take this time to thank Mitch Orman, owner of The Atari 7800 Page for allowing the use of his screenshots for this review.
***There is a trac-ball version of Centipede avaialble at AtariAge.com. If you have the 2600 trac-ball peripheral, you can be getting down like old school gangstas whiddit for a mere $30 plus ship.
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