The two difficulties also offer some variety to help hold your interest a little longer than most retro titles. Normal mode starts as with the insects slowly marching toward the bottom of the screen as you attempt to shoot them down before they can reach your level. The speed increases slightly with each passing round, making it more and more difficult to stop the bugs from getting to the ground. 'Throttle monkey' mode throws out the 'speed increases slightly' process completely, throwing gamers instantly into the insanity of the highest difficulty, with insects screaming downwards and spiders dancing across the screen as fast as they can from the very start of the level.
Purist old-school gamers may be in tears over the lack of a trackball to go with this game, but the thumb-stick handles the controls just fine. The game's simplistic one-button shooter style remains untouched, and plays well. Sadly, there is no Live play to speak of; leaving players to the allure of Achievement Points and nostalgia to pull them back in for more. The game's twelve achievements spread evenly between the two incarnations of the game, and offer challenges in both normal and 'throttle monkey' difficulties. The difficulty of the achievements feels just right to keep gamers busy for a few weeks out of more than a faded love for the shooter.
With two complete games, and two modes of each, it is hard to argue that Centipede & Millipede is not worth your 400 Microsoft Points. With a solid list of hard-earned Achievement Points you might just forget that Atari failed to deliver any online modes for the game. Well, almost.
