Arcade Classic No. 2 is a compilation of Centipede and Millipede. These two games are basically the same, and the development team put more time into Centipede. It has more multiplayer modes, and I think it plays better.
Arcade games from the 70s and 80s were a little odd. As I look back at them and learn more about the business side of things, the more I can see how the market got flooded. Centipede and Millipede are examples of the companies releasing the same game. There are differences, but to the average player, they would have looked the same.
When arcade games were brought to the Game Boy, they felt like companies trying to squeeze some more cash out of an older game. A few of them would try to do something different, but most of the time, the games feel like cash grabs.
TLDR: One good game, Centipede, and one disappointing game, Millipede.
Narrative
Neither game has a story, much like other arcade games from this period. Having a story wasn’t important for an arcade game; they were supposed to be quarter munchers. They were supposed to be easy to play and hard to master.
It is interesting to see how the game has changed from port to port. Centipede originally had a little elf boy defending their garden from bugs. As you shot the Centipede, mushrooms would appear. It is a strange game.
Millipede plays the same, but faster, and has a few other tricks. The scrolling is the only thing that I could point out. It is an interesting game and something that speaks to how the arcade business worked.
It was easier to release the same game with one or two changes than to release a new one. You can see this with the Galaxian, Space Invaders, and other arcade games from the 70s and 80s. Atari would do this with both the Atari 2600 and their arcade games.
I wonder if there was a story in the manual. It would be nice to check. This is how some games did it when they were brought to the home console.
Centipede
You play as a spaceship, I think. Your goal is to get a high score by shooting bugs. The types of bugs are Spiders, centipedes, and something else that I can’t identify. They don’t look all that great.
There are a bunch of game modes in this version of Centipede. Here is a brief list:
- Single Player
- Two Player Alternate
- Two Player Compete
- Two Player Team
I think having an alternate mode is a spectacular idea. It eliminates the need for extra equipment, making the competition for getting a high score a bit more fun.
You start on the bottom of the screen, and the enemies come down from the top of the screen, except for the spiders, as they appear closer to your ship. Unlike other arcade shooters, you’re not locked on the bottom of the screen. You can move in all directions, which is great as some enemies can get into a position where they can’t be shot right away.
The game controls well despite the Game Boy lacking a trackball. Overall, this is a good version of Centipede. Sadly, the other game on this cartridge isn’t as good.
Millipede
Millipede plays like a sped-up version of Centipede. It embodies some of the problems with the arcade games in the 70s and 80s. They were good, but companies would release too many iterations of the original idea.
This port of Millipede isn’t all that great. It has the base game and a two-player mode, but that is it. Everything you did in the single-player mode of Centipede is repeated here. It feels a bit cheap as all of the extra modes in Centipede are left off of this cartridge.
I don’t have much to say about Millipede. It is a fun game, but it plays the same as Centipede. I like the game, but it is just a port of the arcade game with no extra features added to it. Everything I said about Centipede’s gameplay is repeated here.
N/A. Much like Arcade Classic No. 1, I don’t know how to put a score on this compilation. The port of Centipede is the better game of the two. Millipede, while a good version of the game, lacked many modes on Centipede.
Pros
- You get two games on one cartridge
- Both games control well
- The games look good
Cons
- Not much replay value
- Lack of features on Millipede
- Repetitive
Conclusion
This was another case of one game being good and the other being average. Neither game was bad, but I was disappointed with Millipede. Unlike the first Arcade Classic, I think both games are fun, but Millipede was missing many of the features that were included with Centipede.
It felt like the developers put more time into Centipede. That feels like the more polished port, as it includes more features. It was also more fun to play. Both games overcame not having a trackball, which you would use to play the arcade games.
I’m looking forward to the other games in this series. They’re all ports of arcade games, but I would like to see what the developers did with them.