Millipede

• Release Date: 1982
• Genre: Shooter
• Style: Fixed Screen Shooter
• Similar Games: Centipede (Arcade), Centipede (Commodore 64/128), Centipede (Game Boy), Centipede (Atari Video Computer System), Slither (Arcade), Centipede (Atari 7800), Centipede (Atari 5200), Centipede (IBM PC Compatible), Centipede (ColecoVision), Centipede (Texas Instruments TI-99), Slither (ColecoVision), Centipede (PlayStation), Centipede (Game Boy Color), Centipede (Dreamcast), Centipede (Intellivision)

Game Description

The sequel to the world famous Centipede, Millipede, just like its predecessor, takes place in an enchanted, mushroom-ridden forest. Once again, you control a magic wand that can maneuver in all directions along the bottom one-fourth of the screen. From the top of the play field, millipedes, which break into independently moving segments when you shoot them, descend toward you one at a time through the mushroom field. When you shoot a millipede, the segment you hit turns into a mushroom. The mushrooms act as shields for you, and you can shoot them for extra points or if you just want to clear off some room on the play field.

Other insects you can shoot include spiders, bees, beetles, mosquitoes, dragonflies, earwigs, and inchworms, which when hit slow down the action for a few seconds. The mushroom field rises one row when you shoot a mosquito and lowers one row when you shoot a beetle. DDT bombs appear randomly in the mushroom fields. When you detonate the bombs, a cloud of smoke appears, killing everything in its path. After every two to four normal waves, you are showered with bombing waves of insects, which are kind of like a bonus levels, except your wand is vulnerable to attack.

Roots & Influences

Millipede is the sequel to the 1981 arcade classic, Centipede.

Review: Overall

The sequel to the world famous Centipede, Millipede, like its predecessor, takes place in an enchanted, mushroom-ridden forest. Once again, players use a trackball to control a magic wand that can maneuver in all directions along the bottom 1/5th of the screen. However, Instead of shooting centipedes, players fire at millipedes (hence the clever title). The spiders make a return engagement, but new enemies such as bees, beetles, mosquitoes, dragonflies, earwigs and inchworms have replaced fleas and scorpions. Also new are DDT bombs, which appear on the field randomly and can be detonated with a single shot, resulting in several bug casualties if timed properly. Obviously, Millipede lacks the originality of Centipede, but it does have better graphics (including slanted, two-tone mushrooms), more variety, and higher degrees of challenge and intensity.