A new edition of Retro Arena just went live as the fight gets heated between two Doom ports. Like many have said for nearly three decades, Doom revolutionized the industry and created a new genre. So what happens when something gets popular? It gets milked and ported to death by the third parties wishing to cash in on the success. Just as it happened to Mortal Kombat, Doom was no stranger to porting either during the 90s. The game would appear on PS1, Saturn, 3DO and even Atari's Jaguar and on the GBA later in 2001. However, we will focus instead on the 16-bit ports as I am still surprised for them to appear on those systems, despite the limited tech. When designers set their minds to something they sure can get the desired results as seen from Randy Linden and John Carmack.
The first game saw its development get handled by Randy Linden and his team for the Super NES. As mentioned many times, he would develop the Reality Engine solely to make the game work on the system. With the help of the Super FX2 Chip would make the impossible a reality (no pun intended). On the 32X, Carmack handled the port's direction with Sega's team to help bring the game to the Genesis' new add-on. The new technology as many of us have said was the Genesis on life support because the console was on its last two legs. Many still question the dumb move on Sega's part months before they would release the Saturn. The 32X version did push out better graphics but we all know it takes more than great visuals to make a good game. However, will Doom Slayer thrive on the Super NES with its custom engine? Or is the 32X's extra power for Sega enough to become the true slayer? Let's find out... Doom: Super NES vs. Genesis 32X
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An older edition of Retro Corner is available to view, and it's a review of Resident Evil 2 on the N64. After all these years Capcom finally remade the second Resident Evil for the current consoles. I honestly can't believe it took them this long to decide they wanted to redo a classic and among the best in the series. Even though RE2 remake looks amazing it leads me to one question. Why didn't the publisher do this with the first GameCube engine during the 2000s? For years this led many to question why couldn't they when Capcom already had the assets to do so. That literally has boggled my mind because it would have worked and they could've release RE2 by 2004. The RE4 engine getting developed might have something to do with that as the sequel was being made after RE0's release. Capcom was probably focusing on RE4, so they could get the game out in 2004 so I guess it makes sense.
As for this review, I wrote this over two years ago during the Halloween season while going over the Ghosts N Goblins series. The N64 version was more enjoyable for me than the PS1 editions on many occasions. The fact I am playing RE2 on the N64 still blows my mind even till this day. Capcom took a PS1 title that was nearly a Gigabyte across a two disc game and put it on a 64 Megabyte cartridge. That was unheard of during the time but whatever sorcery they performed is truly a technical marvel for gaming. Another thing I really loved was the exclusive features not found in any other edition like on the Dreamcast. I could go on about this port but let's save that for the review for obvious reasons. The port has really aged since the late 90s especially when RE3 produced a better game compared to its predecessor. Resident Evil 2 (N64) Review A new edition of Retro Corner is up as we take a look at the first Smash Bros on the N64. During the 90s, crossovers like the Verses Capcom series filled the arcades in gaming. Sure there were Battle Toads and Double Dragon probably the first one in gaming. However, Smash Bros also took this concept further outside the niche Capcom targeted with its verses series. Here's an interesting fact about the first game and Nintendo originally had no plans to bring this to North America. They apparently perceived it as some Mario Party spin-off at first. Something clearly changed their minds, but it weren't surprise me if Marvel verses Capcom convinced them. I'm sure there are many gamers who remember that funny commercial that got them into this series. I always looked forward to it on Kids WB when Pokemon aired during the afternoons after school.
The first game has aged since its release in 1999 on a console that was usually starved of the fighting genre. When Mortal Kombat 4 and Killer Instinct Gold are the only decent fighting games then Nintendo knew they did something wrong. It also didn't help that PS1 had Street Fighter 3 and the Tekken series to boot as well as a bunch of others. Not only was the N64 starved of RPGs but of the fighting genre as a whole. I do believe Smash Bros helped fill in that empty gap that third parties like Namco usually did on the Super NES. The same thing would happen when Ogre Battle 64 and Paper Mario helped fill that hungry RPG gap. The N64 was always known for its FPSs, Platformers and party games then the other popular genres. We all know that in Melee is where these mechanics and features really got refined in many ways. Super Smash Bros (N64) Review A new edition of Retro Corner is up, and we come back to the Doom Slayer's first outing. As you already know, Doom needs no introduction as just like Mortal Kombat, it also would take its genre to new heights. It's the grandfather of FPSs and would take the genre further during the 90s. Lately, I have taken up playing Brutal Doom V21 and doing another session with the Doom Slayer Chronicles mod. Let's just say it's one of the best mods out there thanks to its beautiful rendered environments and macabre detail. Brutal Doom really enhances the gameplay in many ways from the extra guns to its modern mechanics. Most of the time, I can't put both mods down because of the addicting the gameplay and features. The mod community can really do things with any vanilla game and make it even better.
For this edition, we check out the Genesis 32X port during a time when it was literally put on most systems. I already reviewed the Super NES version over a year ago due to getting into the Brutal Doom mod. Even though Randy Linden created the Reality Engine to help run the game on that console, it still had many problems. It's one thing to bring a RPG like Eye of the Beholder from the PC to the Super NES. However, bringing the first release of Doom is another thing due to its massive size in the game's maps. Even the Super FX2 Chip couldn't help the Super NES port get a decent frame rate. That leads us to the 32X and it's a system often touted as one of Sega's mistakes the company made. I mean releasing a special add-on for your old console months before the Saturn released in 1995 was truly a dumb move. However, can the life supporting add-on make this version more closely to the PC, unlike most ports? Doom (Sega Genesis 32X) Review |
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