Bad Caterpillar - first play (Steam version)
22022-01-19. First play of Bad Caterpillar, which is a Centipede clone that originally was released on XBLIG (Xbox Live Indie Games). The Steam version offers some improvements over the old. Disclaimer: the developer, Fun Infused Games, is a friend that I met through the XBLIG development system. I decided to write a critical review anyways. Also a disclaimer: I've been wanting to design my own clone of this arcade hit for a long time -- since I was a kid -- so I already have many thoughts and ideas of how I feel the game should be.
Initial reactions:
Pros:
- intro music kicks ass!
- some of the best "box-art" that I've ever seen! Seriously good work.
- levels pacing moves quickly, very little boring areas
- advancing to next levels occurs quickly, so there is no downtime
- many power-ups are available
- the Split power-up was quite empowering, with it shooting sideways upon collision; very cool idea!
- the level designs are such that they empower the caterpillar to advance downward.
- the game is left vertically designed, thin and tall, like the original, to minimize the area of coverage needed.
- the game doesn't punish you badly when the caterpillar reaches the bottom of the screen. The original arcade would shoot out little segments that annoyed you like crazy; it was almost sure death, almost like Space Invaders' invaders reaching the bottom means game over.
- after playing one game, high score is shown with ranking (the display has some bugs) and it does make you wish to play again... that's a good sign.
Cons:
- 31:41 - if you pause with SPACE and frame step with PERIOD you can see that the collision detection of your ship is a full ship's size away from the butterfly that caused my death.
- due to no on-screen bullet limit (original arcade had 1), and no "fire again / faster" if up close, you lose the empowering effect of hammering out the entire caterpillar in one swoop as each bullet kills each segment, and you immediately fire again
- the monotone "dew, dew, dew" from the constant fire rate, which never changes (aside from a rapid fire Laser power-up), even when you're in close to the enemy. is incessant.
- due to no rapid fire when up close, there is no need to be aggressive in your positioning, like most classic shooters afford
- the butterfly, while it looks random motion like a real one, provides options of cheap deaths
- not a fan of dying when I am cleaning up the side of the screen, and an enemy randomly appears off of the side and kills me instantly
- a little unclear on the player selection weapons limit, but it appears most of the game you are collection power ups only to lose the cool one you just had, but since it will run out, you have no choice but to collect everything.
- the player selections have various speeds that are wildly different; first choice was speed 3 and that was so disempowering that I could not move fast enough to get to where I want (same speed as caterpillar) and also I couldn't backtrack to grab power-ups. Ouch. Speed 5 is mega fast which allows for pure domination.
- the wave power-up should impact in a wide scale manner -- I noticed that it simply moves the small projective in a zig-zag which actually makes you miss the thing you're aiming at, rather than help you hit it. This is a disadvantage.
- some power-ups appear partially off-screen, and I am unsure if they are collectable.
- all enemies require several hits to be destroyed, and since your fire rate never increases, and you cannot fire faster once one bullet has hit, you are left to hope for power-ups to help you dominate. This did not impact the game as badly as I expected, but it's still not ideal, given that the fire rate is so slow that a segment of the caterpillar can travel through your auto-fire beam without being touched. At 18:45 - the final death, given the shot rate of 1 shot every 8 frames @ 60 Hz, the spider was hit twice (partially thanks to the collision detection allowing much freedom), but it wasn't enough to kill him. Thus my arcade skills with this kind of aiming were not rewarded.
- some bullet motions cause them to travel through the first mushroom that you have your face shoved in
My playlists:
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- Voxel: https://youtu.be/watch?v=XCVWEuhCCDM&list=PLjnbT4UISq0bQF1g85tE9jTrKfEtdRYlY
- Road: https://youtu.be/watch?v=ck5ALX11YU4&list=PLjnbT4UISq0bnfd1RC3M4PgTgkmhlkikV
- Ray Casting 3D: https://youtu.be/watch?v=zjswXUTMP2o&list=PLjnbT4UISq0YcFtRFjFQqK0g6ONNCtrvY
- Side-Scroll Shmup: https://youtu.be/watch?v=fF4X8zN-Raw&list=PLjnbT4UISq0Y_7IAN_zUzxgZnfhXxo_0Q
- MonoGame Tutorial: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WW1dJnfXWb0&list=PLjnbT4UISq0adw__Y9B2eXA0LL35TyORU
My websites:
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- my GitHub: https://github.com/JDoucette
- my company: http://xona.com
- my Blog: http://thefirstpixel.com