Centipede, Millipede crawling to XBLA this week

Microsoft has stepped up its Xbox Live Arcade output lately by releasing two games each Wednesday. This week the company is expanding on that with three game releases...sort of.

Microsoft today announced this week's slate of Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday releases, and it includes two downloads consisting of three games. Beginning at 2 a.m. PST on Wednesday, Xbox 360 owners will be able to download Big Huge Games' strategy game Catan, as well as a combo pack including Atari's arcade shooters Centipede and Millipede.

Big Huge Games made its name developing the real-time strategy PC series Rise of Nations, but its latest effort stretches back to the roots of turn-based strategy, the board game. Catan, based on the board game Settlers of Catan, drops three or four players onto an uncharted island and has them race to colonize it. Players can compete against one another online or try out one of the game's six different artificial intelligence personalities.

Arcade aficionados will remember Centipede and Millipede as a pair of track-ball-equipped shooters in which players had to eliminate encroaching arthropods through a field of mushrooms while avoiding spiders and other creepy crawlies. Both games will be playable in arcade-authentic and "evolved" varieties, with the latter including prerendered graphics with visual effects like motion blur and particle-based explosions.

Catan will be available for 800 Microsoft points ($10), while the Centipede-Millipede combo pack will sell for 400 Microsoft points ($5). Both downloads are rated E for Everyone.