Centropods

The Good
Triple-A game companies such as Atari (under their label Atarisoft) may have released popular arcade games, but this did not smaller companies from releasing clones. One of these was Centropods, a clone of Atari’s Centipede made by two different companies. The VIC-20 version was handled by Rabbit, while the Commodore 64 version was done by Comm*Data. I will be reviewing the former version, which is much better than the C-64 version, which I called out as a blatant rip-off of Cosmic Split.

The game feels and plays much like its arcade parent, but there are some impressive features that are not found in Atari’s game. You’d better not stay in the same spot for too long, or else Pac-Man comes along and tries to gobble you up. Also, the further you progress in the game, the more fast it becomes. When I played my last game, it even got to the point where my experience was like playing a tape on fast-forward, but with the sound on.

I like how Rabbit chose not to draw the graphics in standard PETSCII. All the sprites – including the spider and centipede – resemble those from its arcade cousin. The scores at the top of the screen look space-age, and the number of lives between the two look the same as your gun at the bottom of the screen. The sound effects are on par with those in any other arcade shooter released around the same time.

One thing I like about the game is the way it employs rapid fire. It allows you to hold down the fire button, instantly destroying anything in the laser’s path and finishing the wave quickly. You can use it to destroy the playfield, but what fun is that when you can trap the centipede between two mushrooms?

The Bad
There is nothing wrong with this game at all.

The Bottom Line
Centropods is an excellent clone of Atari’s classic shooter that any VIC-20 user should enjoy, regardless of how much memory they have installed. It retains the same mechanics that made the original great. The graphics and sound is excellent, and the introduction of Pac-Man is neat. Any fans of Centipede should have this in the library. Two thumbs up. Way up!

The Good
The title screen is well designed. Just by looking at it, I could see that the game is set in space. Enjoy it while it lasts, because once you press the fire button, you will never see it again.

The Bad
Unfortunately, it gives you the false impression that this is a platform game featuring an astronaut, with UFOs and eyes that watch your every move. In fact it is just a rip-off of Cosmic Split, which I already reviewed here. The game offers no enhancements, has the same exact sounds, and even has similar graphics. At least the status area is cleaned up.

The Bottom Line
Just like some developers at the time, Comm*Data was lazy and took it upon themselves to take PSS’s game and market it as their own. Apart from the nice title screen, there are no other enhancements or improvements to the sound or graphics. Centropods really doesn’t deserve five minutes of your time.