Centipede (Arcade) Review
Classic Arcade Action at its Finest
~by tankMage (August 2025)
Score: 95/100 (Excellent)
Centipede is one of the games I count among the great titles of the late 1970s and early 80s. It’s one of those games that was made before I was born and was always just “there” much like Pac Man and Galaga to name a few. It’s also a personal favorite of mine, because there’s nothing quite like Centipede. The premise of this game is simple: The player controls a ship that shoots a bullet at a centipede that marches down the screen. Shooting the centipede anywhere but its front or rear segment will cause it to break apart. Destroyed bits of the centipede will turn into mushrooms which block shots until destroyed. The are also spiders and other things that crawl across the screen. You have to watch out for all this stuff, because touching a creepy crawly will destroy your ship.
Despite its simplicity, there’s a lot of strategy that goes into playing Centipede. Mushrooms need to be kept under control, because they can get in the way. At the same time, mushrooms also block the movement of most enemies, so they can be used to herd the centipede. Only one bullet is allowed on screen at a time, which means hitting something makes the player shoot faster. The patterns of the creatures speed up and change as the player defeats centipedes. Consequently, this game can get very chaotic and challenging.
Arcade gaming seems to be its own subset of the retro-gaming world and I’m not really sure how much recognition Centipede gets, but I imagine it’s held in high regard. While I don’t see it mentioned often, I think it deserves a spot among the legendary titles from this era. It’s fun, engrossing, challenging, and addictive.
Story
Like many games from this era, Centipede does not have a story from what I gather. It’s more of a concept that allows players to make up their own story, if they even bother to do so. The only thing I could find out was that the “ship” is called the Bug Blaster. This brings up questions like “Is it a ship that blasts bugs?” or “Is it a bug that blasts other bugs?” I’m not really sure what the answer is, so I’ll leave it to you.
Gameplay
Centipede may lack a story, but it’s all about gameplay. The action starts as soon as you drop a coin in the machine and hit the button, like many titles from the early 80s. I explained the way the game works at the start of this review, so I won’t rehash it. Getting a high score is the main objective and the game will award the player bonus ships every 12k points. Racking up points isn’t easy as the game gets more difficult the longer the player survives.
The beauty of Centipede is you can pick it up and play it for a few minutes if fun or spend hours mastering it. Regardless of what you do, the experience is fun and rewarding. Of course, a lot of arcade titles from this point in time were the same in this respect, but Centipede’s nuance and quality set it apart from its peers. There are a surprising number of strategies players can use to survive thanks to the mushroom spawn mechanic and how the ship handles. Plus, the intense action makes even short sessions exciting.
Challenge
Everything on the screen moves fast and the game will start throwing new situations at the player after the first two rounds. Both aspects of the game come together to make Centipede fairly tough. At the same time, the game never feels cheap. Players get an extra life every 12k points, which isn’t hard to do, so it’s possible to play for a while on a single credit.
Graphics
Games were starting to look better back in 1980, so Centipede has a good bit of detail. It can also generate quite a few colors. In fact, the color of the board changes every time the player destroys an entire centipede. This mostly affects the way the mushrooms look since their base color and their outline change, but it also impacts everything else. Some of the color combos are really nice, while others made my eyes bleed. Imagine bright yellow mushrooms outlined in purple blasting your retinas and you’ll have an idea of what Centipede is like.
Sound
This game doesn’t have music and there’s just a few bleep-bloop sound effects. It’s kind of to be expected from a game made in 1980, so it’s fine.
User Interface
I played this game on the original cabinet many years ago and on an emulator for this review. In both cases, the controls worked great. The trackball used in the original machine was better in my opinion, though it was not easy to master. On an emulator, the trackball is replaced by the stick, directional buttons, or whatever you use to control the game. While it works fine, it’s certainly not the same as a trackball. Consequently, I highly recommend playing the real thing if you get the chance, but it’s still fun on an emulator.
Final Thoughts
I know I didn’t have a lot to say in this review, but Centipede is a simple game. It’s a lot of fun and easy to jump into thanks to its simplicity. It’s also one of my favorite arcade games from this era, so give it a try.
Thank you for reading my review for Centipede!
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