An arcade game of blasting bugs makes it to your home game console.
Gameplay unlike the arcade version the Atari game opted to use the joystick. Like in the arcade game you could maneuver your wand around attempting to blast the centipede. The main objective of the game was to totally destroy the centipede before it destroyed you. This of course was hampered by mushrooms and various other bugs that would come to distract you to from the centipede.
The mushrooms would block your shots at the centipede so you would have to clear them to get a clean shot. But after you cleared them part ways through the level fleas would start dropping from the top of the screen and repopulate the screen with more mushrooms. So you would have to decide take a shot at the fleas and keep them from putting more mushrooms on the screen. Or keep after the centipede and hope you take it out soon.
The other bugs also included a scorpion that would poison mushrooms. This was bad because if the centipede came in contact with the poisoned mushroom it would dive straight down and head for the bottom of the screen. This would then cause the centipede to start it's crazy attack at the bottom of the screen until you were either destroyed or you were able to destroy the centipede.
A spider was also added. The spider would move all over the screen removing some of the mushrooms but it was also a distraction because if it touched your wand it could destroy it. So you had to concentrate on the spider and pick you shot to earn some points off the spider.
Graphics even as an arcade game centipede was very basic in design. So when it was ported over to the Atari it kept it arcade feel. The screen was done in multiple levels and colors.
Sound basic bleeps and bloops. Each bug had it's own sound so you would know which one was coming on the screen. Also the centipede once it reached the bottom of the screen would go into this crazy mode and the sound would adjust to this change. It could be annoying and distracting but it also got your heart going trying to stay away from the centipede.
Value as a single player game it was okay. Since this game was released and the centipede arcade game was still popular owning this game was worth it. To help improve your arcade skills with this game made it worth the purchase.
Tilt: One of many arcade games released on the Atari centipede was worthy of being in one's collection. It was also and to this day still fun to me. A good game that required decent hand and eye coordination to be able to master it.