3 things for free: This time you can grab the remakes of the arcade classics Black Widow: Recharged and Centipede: Recharged for free and keep them forever. As in the originals, you direct a spider or a small turret and shoot intruders and obstacles away. However, there is only mouse control for the latter.
You can also grab an equipment package including bonus currency and three days of premium access for the action RPG Dauntless. You can read here how the free online title has changed since its release in 2019:
more on the subject
Dauntless: The Action RPG reinvents itself as an open world game
Black Widow: Recharged, Centipede: Recharged, and the Dauntless Pack are available for free on the Epic Games Store from March 3rd to March 10th.
Download here
But even free games cost time. That’s why we’re giving you all the information you need to make an informed decision here: Are the two arcade games something for those who don’t have a creepy-crawlies phobia?
That’s what Black Widow and Centipede: Recharged are all about
Atari lets you master 30 new challenges in each of the arcade classics with revised graphics and original soundtrack. Alternatively, there is also a cult arcade mode in both games. In Black Widow, however, one or two controllers are absolutely necessary, since mouse and keyboard are unfortunately not supported.
In addition to graphics and challenges, new features include collectible power-ups, a global and friend leaderboard and a local co-op mode with a shared account (so you don’t compete against each other). This mode can also be played over the Internet via Steam’s “Remote Play Together” function.
Otherwise, they’re typical arcade action shooters, where you hold down the fire button until you’re surrounded by barriers and enemies at an awkward moment and sent to the game-over screen.
You can get an impression of how old arcade titles feel in the official trailer for Black Widow:
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Black Widow: Recharged – Atari presents the revamped arcade classic
Is it worth downloading?
Arcade nostalgics will certainly enjoy Atari with its remakes of old classics, but outside of that niche few will recognize the names or warm to the old-fashioned gameplay.
Although roguelikes with a high degree of difficulty are always very successful, making skill games like this one artificially difficult by reducing the original three arcade lives to one seems unnecessarily hard.
In our podcast, colleagues Dimitry Halley, Peter Bathge and Natalie Schermann talked about roguelikes and other games that we shouldn’t really enjoy on paper:
GameStar Podcast Episode 95:
Games that we really shouldn’t find great
Have on Steam Black Widow: Recharged and Centipede: Recharged while mostly positive reviews, the total number of player reviews is in the low double digits. For a few fun (co-op) hours, however, the free games can definitely be worthwhile if you are longing for the old slot machine feeling.
Of course, whether the nice little content pack for Dauntless makes sense for you depends entirely on whether you like the main game.
Will you be grabbing the latest Epic gifts? Or are you not in the mood for arcade games or spiders at all? Tell us in the comments!
