Welcome to another edition of Retro Corner Reviews, and we will talk about the Super NES port of the original Doom. The grandfather of FPSs released in 1993 for PC and often is considered a hallmark of the industry that would introduce many to the genre. The infamous shooter also released around the time Mortal Kombat came out and together they changed gaming forever. However, it didn't take Id long until they literally ported the hell out of the game to nearly every console at the time. Fortunately, Id was smart enough not to put this on the Game Boy like Acclaim tried to do with Mortal Kombat. It also reminds me of when QT Interactive decided to port Duke Nukem 3D to Tiger’s Game.com monochrome handheld. The game was nearly butchered as badly as the Mortal Kombat trilogy on the Game Boy—Doom would have ended up the same way and barely resembling the original work. For this edition, we go into how the Reality Engine with the Super FX 2 Chip helped run it on the console. The first Doom isn’t the only 3D title to come to the system as Star Fox and FX Stunt Racers were out by 1994. However, the frame rate in those games has always been the issue unless it was 2D visuals such as Yoshi’s Island. Gameplay Most of the concepts from the PC version with using weapons, and gunning down enemies while collecting items were left unchanged. There are 22 maps from the original three episodes included here when compared to the Sega Genesis 32X port that had 17 levels. Unfortunately, the Command Center level with four other maps and Thy Flesh Consumed episode are not included because of the cartridge's limited 4 MB. Randy Linden — the programmer — also managed not to remove the Cyberdemon and the Spider Mastermind which is a plus considering the other ports are missing these. The levels are basically the same with the enemies, and items being where they should be aside the graphical difference. Randy Linden did a great job of not altering the core level design as there are no sacrifices. The special effects like smoke and plasma from the weapons may have gotten removed, but they still have great usefulness. I did find the shotgun limited because it doesn't have the same impact and comes off as some rifle. I also noticed that some weapons like the Rocket Launcher and the Plasma Gun were a little more powerful than on PC. It was probably meant to dumb down the difficulty for casual players—An example is the Baron of Hell who takes three rockets to kill as opposed to six from the PC Original. As you can tell the enemies in the left image — the three Imps in front — are so pixelated from a distance that I passed them off as props at first until getting closer. It just tells me Doom can't run properly on the Super NES when the game also has a darkened tint. I thought we were going over a Super NES game and not a Genesis title? The second image shows the Cyber Demon boss battle and the D-pad made this almost impossible to beat him. It's true you could side strafe with the L and R buttons, but the layout is not even close to the keyboard and mouse controls. The worst thing was also getting stuck on corners especially when facing regular enemies for some odd reason. In the other versions this isn’t a problem at all that uses a similar setup but no matter how careful I was, those corners were my biggest obstacle. I can tell this game simply wasn't for the Super NES as many key gameplay elements are gone. First off, they removed circle-strafing in any form because of the limited buttons on the Super NES controller. It did make this difficult to invade enemy projectiles while on PC the gameplay benefited from circle strafing. The controls are another thing as they respond slowly and are clunky at times. For some reason, there is always a second delay when I move and use the weapons. It's obvious these old school controllers don't work with FPSs because of the limitations. If that wasn't enough now, you can't save in this port and must complete these episodes from start to finish. I sometimes don't understand the publishers about why they don't want to add battery packs to these games. It's annoying because by the mid 90's that was a standard feature, especially in this instance. I don't want to sit there for an hour completing an episode all the way through. Finally, we come to the frame rate, and it's downright terrible to the point that the experience is ruined. It literally runs at 10 fps which is terrible for early 90s FPSs in general. I can't even move in any direction without a delay, and it's only when you gain momentum when its normal. Even the Genesis 32X version had a way better frame rate while also retaining most visuals effects from the PC original. Rating: 8.0/10 Graphics/Presentation I have to give this to Randy Linden as he came up with a unique program known as the Reality Engine. The console port doesn't run the Doom Engine, and it's obvious why the Super NES couldn't. The Reality Engine with the Super FX 2 Chip did the best it could to help the Super NES run the game. However, Doom simply wasn't meant for the system because graphically many features are missing. I can deal with some sacrifices like the resolution set at 256 × 224 with a black border—Or most transparent mid textures such as the grated fences, and not to mention changes to the sound effects. However, when you remove the special effects, textures and even the Satanic symbolism it ruins the experience. The sprites are very pixelated, and it's even worse from a distance. I could barely see them coming towards me from a distance in the dark textured areas. The special effects and sounds are basically recycled on to the same enemies most of the time. An example comes from the Pink Demons and Zombie Men sharing the Imp's sound. Even the effects of the plasma guns such as the BFG reuses the Baron of Hell's green fireballs and its tune. As much as I commend the programmer for creating the Reality Engine to run the game—The problem is, was this really worth it if the game is not going to run well. Obviously, Randy Linden still did a phenomenal job as those lighting effects are all here. The first picture shows a hall lit up by a string of bright beams coming from above through the ceiling. That’s impressive for the fact, he was able to bring that type of effect over since it creates a creepy vibe. Now, the second image displays the special effects of the Plasma Gun with the recoil from the blast. The 10 fps might be terrible, but the weapon’s sprite design looks surprisingly good. However, no matter how many platitude statements we make about the port it still plays poorly. The game might not run well because of the system’s limited performance for 3D graphics but this area is one thing the port can champion. I respect the work Randy Linden put into this version but at the end of the day the effort wasn’t worth it. If they can't use different types of sounds and special effects, this only proves my point that Doom doesn't work with the console. Not even a custom engine built around the hardware with the Super FX 2 Chip didn’t help. It gets worse because some textures for the floor, ceiling and even pools of liquid are gone. All that is there are flat surfaces with simple solid colors representing the textures. Of course, this now brings me to the censorship as Nintendo and Williams Entertainment didn't learn anything from the first Mortal Kombat. The gore is gone whether it's the death animation of the demons or human sacrifices and torture. They even removed blood splats from the impact of the weapons. If that's not bad enough, Nintendo asked Williams Entertainment to remove the Satanic symbolism. The game is rated M for Mature, but yet, they want to censor anything related to gore and controversial topics. The reason Satanic symbolism is a big deal is it created a tense and dark atmosphere for the levels—The game is already rated M for Mature so that means they could get away with it. Lastly, the only thing this studio got right was the soundtrack as this is the closest port to resemble the PC version. Rating: 7.8/10 Features/Content As mentioned before, there are 22 maps of the three episodes aside from Thy Flesh Consumed and five missing stages. It's amazing how one developer was able to place most of the levels using a 4 MB Cartridge. The developer left nothing unchanged from the core content except for some secrets being rearranged in a different level. The best thing about Doom was seeing your progression on the result screen upon completing a stage. It comes down to the kill count, items collected, and secrets hidden around the levels. The game would remind the player of what they missed, and this only made me want to come back to these levels again. I'll admit that finding the secrets was challenging because performing certain things were required to get to them. Sometimes a switch and passage would be hidden from view, or I had to activate a platform by standing in a certain spot. That is what's great about the secrets as you had to put effort into finding them. The only thing I found ridiculous was a no save feature as for some reason the publisher didn't want to spend money on a battery pack. There wasn't even a password system developed as seen in Doom 64 so honestly, I don't see why they couldn't develop one. At that point, having a battery pack inside a game like Doom was a standard. I always love seeing what my results were at the end of a stage. Whenever something got overlooked, it always made me want to go back, and replay the level. Unfortunately, I was unable to capture any footage on the XBAND gameplay—It was the only time this version ever had content close to multiplayer. However, I did watch a recording of someone playing Doom with XBAND from 1995 that showed how the program worked. It's safe to say that was the dark age for online gaming, especially for 16-bit consoles. If a framerate is worse compared to the offline campaign thanks to using a rate of 2,400 bits per second, then yes, it's awful. That also isn’t factoring reports of people pulling cords from the XBAND cartridge because they didn’t like losing during a play session. It showed online multiplayer had a long way to progress as this wasn’t going to get better for console gaming until Xbox Live in the 2000s. Unlike the versions on the 3D consoles, i.e. PS1, Atari Jaguar and Sega Saturn there is no way to access multiplayer anymore. That’s because the online service called XBAND was discontinued over 25 years ago. Yes, you heard me correctly; the Super NES did have an online service of its own but not many games worked with this device. Only 14 titles were supported which included Doom, Mortal Kombat II and 3 and Super Street Fighter II to name some. From what I learned; the online multiplayer featured only a two player death match. However, there is no local co-op or two player deathmatch available on the cartridge itself that PS1 and Saturn versions had. As stated above, there was no way the Super NES was going to support an intense 3D game in a split screen mode. The technology in the system isn’t there to allow this but only through a third party dial up modern. That means you couldn’t connect two Super NESs together with dual copies of Doom as the 3D consoles could. Even if you could play on the XBAND, the gameplay was very limited any way compared to any conversion from the Fifth Gen. Doom Slayer’s sprite only faces at one angle and the sound effects (despite still playing music) was disabled. Rating: 8.2/10 Final Rating Randy Linden did the impossible and was able to bring over a hardware intense PC game to a 16-bit console. Whatever sorcery this developer performed, it obviously worked as he was able to make Doom run on the Super NES. The gameplay and levels' challenges are left unchanged with all the enemies intact. Now, the secrets would only add replay value that made you want to play these stages again. The developer handled the soundtrack with great care, and it's mostly due to the Super NES's quality sound chip. When compared to the other ports like the Genesis 32X version, the music and sounds are superior. Despite using the Reality Engine with a specialized Chip, the game suffers due to technological limitations. The clunky controls react slower now that circle-strafing got removed. There wasn't a save system of any kind forcing the player to play through each episode. The frame rate is terrible as there is always a delay when attacking the enemies. The graphics in some instances came off blurry and pixelated as I can't even see the enemies from a distance. That’s especially true for the special effects as they are mostly changed, and some aspects of the environments were affected by censorship. Even the gory effects and blood around the levels with dead bodies and human sacrifices are gone. I won't say this is a lousy port because obviously effort went into the overall package—the game simply wasn't meant to run on the Super NES. Gameplay: 8.0/10 Graphics/Presentation: 7.8/10 Features/Content: 8.2/10 Final Rating: 8.0/10 Very Good
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Retro Gamer has over 25 years of gaming experience and played many classics since the Golden Age. She has been an avid fan since the day the NES graced her life and changed it forever.
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