Flash Centipede

As a tribute to the classic Atari Centipede arcade game from 1980, Emil Korngold has attempted to recreate the game in Flash. The game is still in beta form, and yet his attempt seems to capture much of the action and addictive gameplay of the original.

Other than using the mouse for movement and firing instead of a trackball, this version of the game is played in almost exactly the same way: fire upon the decending centipede to remove sections from it and remove it from play. As sections of the worm are hit, they turn to mushrooms that then cause the worm to turn and descend another line lower. Familiar enemies and power-ups are also included with their classic behavior, such as the spider with its erratic, unpredictable movement and the flea that leaves poisoned mushrooms in its wake.

Analysis: While this is the best implementation I have seen yet of Centipede in Flash, the game still has a few areas needing improvement. First off, the centipede begins much too fast for the smaller-than-standard play field, and this causes other problems as well. One of the more gratifying aspects of playing the original was when the centipede would hit a poison mushroom thereby causing it to move in a straight path down to the bottom. By moving directly underneath the descending centipede and firing, the player could rapidly eliminate each segment in succession from play. In this version, the centipede simply moves too fast and detroys the player before all segments can be eliminated. Furthermore, when a life is lost there is no pause in the action, which causes all lives to be lost, one after the other, and it is "game over" in one fell swoop.

Still, I am eager to see Emil make improvements to this fine implementation as it remains one of my favorite games of all-time. Click.