Secret Library had created this little multiplayer gem of a game. It really is multiplayer, allowing for up to 4 people around 1 iPad.
You pick a colour and position yourself in your coloured corner. On the screen will be the coloured discs for active players and 1 purple spot. Your goal is to get that purple spot before anyone else does. Simples? Not quite. Touching down on your coloured corner causes your disc to move. If you look closely enough at your disc you will see a rotating line. Your disc will go in the direction that the line is pointing at the time that you press your corner.
Quick reactions are needed to ensure that you zip off in the right direction. If any players collide then you bounce off each other and you will need to re-try your move, unless you are lucky and bounce off in the direction of the purple spot. Once a player has obtained a purple spot, they gain 1 point and a new spot is placed in the play area. The first person to get 13 spots wins.
Of course it doesn’t end there. At random times you will be asked to touch yourself (or rather your disc) and the first person to do so will either gain a power-up, or give a power-down (is this is official name for the opposite of a power-up?) to opposing players. Power-downs can include slowing movement of your enemies or increasing the speed at which their direction indicator spins, therefore making it harder to time for the desired direction.
Ok this all might be a bit confusing but trust me, when you are playing it, it makes sense and – by golly do things get intense. Tactics creep in. Do you go straight for the purple spot, or do you play nasty and try to stop others reaching it by bumping into them. Bounce off walls, use stop-start techniques, whatever you can to get there first. Do you just press down to move constantly and hope for the best? Perhaps you are with people who panic and just constantly press and end up zooming off in the wrong direction. Perhaps if you take your time you will win first. Hare vs tortoise could very well apply depending on who you are playing against.
As a 2 player game it’s maybe got limited playability, but with more players on the field it’s more interesting and games are likely to last longer. Centrifeud suffers from a lack of game modes. Maybe this is something they can add in later. One suggestion I saw was to remove the walls around the edges meaning you could potentially fall off the gaming area. Perhaps the ability to increase the score needed to win. What about a mode where you have to pick up the purple spot and bring it back to your corner to earn your point! Players bumping into you can steal it from you. Oh the possibilities…
Once you’ve had your first shot it’s a simple game to play that you will come back to with different groups of people. It may be limited, but kids and adults alike will enjoy and it’s a bargain for it’s price tag.
8 Centri-funs out of 10
Article by Fiona Cassidy