Welcome to a new edition of Retro Corner and we return back to the first Doom game. As you have heard many times from me Doom was a corner-stone for FPS when it came out on PC in 1993. The grandfather of FPSs was literally ported to death from the Super NES and PlayStation One to even on Game Boy Advance. However, Sega did get a port of its own, but for the Genesis' 32X add-on. The thing about the 32X is the way it lasted for six months and among Sega's many mistakes they would make. It basically was the Genesis' life support because after six months the Saturn would hit store shelves in Japan of April 1995. Check out my review of Doom on Super NES to see the comparison. So, how different does this version compares to the Super NES port? Gameplay With 32X being the Genesis’ life support, you think gamers would get the complete experience. Sadly enough that isn’t the case here as this port is missing several things from the gameplay. At least the core level design hasn't changed that much for the first two episodes. If there is one thing they got right is the frame rate as no second delay or slowness isn’t present. Sometimes the frame rate can ruin the experience as seen from the competition. The Super NES port came off too slow since there was always a second delay when firing a weapon. The levels (1 - 17) are all as they were on PC with no changes to the level design or the stages themselves. The controls came off slightly better than Nintendo's as I had a good grip with the movements. Controlling Doom Slayer (his name isn't Doom Guy) didn't feel that clunky most of the time. However, as many PC users always say, nothing beats the keyboard and mouse when it comes to first person shooters. Probably one of the things that really annoyed me is the fact the BFG got taken out because of Inferno (episode 3) being removed. You can't have a proper Doom title without the BFG and its awesome powered blast. As it was on the Super NES, the 32X has its fair share of problems that feels waterdown. Circle-strafing also got removed here since the three or six button controllers are not even close to the keyboard's style. The only way to dodge a projectile is to manually move left or right. Even then you could still get hit by fire balls despite invading these attacks. The entire Episode 3 also got completely removed and was a ridiculous move to pull. Wasn't this port supposed to come off superior? I can't fathom how Sega is giving gamers half of the original released Doom. The 32X format can support memory from 4 MB to 8 MB so there is no excuse to exclude the Third Episode. What makes this worse is how a few enemies got taken out. The Cyber Demon, Specter and Spider Mastermind were all removed due to time limitation. It just doesn't seem to stop with Sega especially when they knew Doom needed more development time to run properly on this add-on. Only E1M9 called Military Base and E2M9 of Fortress of Mystery got included as secret levels. It's clear regardless what 16-bit console Doom is on will not run as good as a 32-bit system like the Saturn or PlayStation. Rating: 7.7/10 Graphics/Presentation The 32X helped push the graphics a little better than on the Super NES. There were more than detailed wall sprites and they even included floor textures. Most of the textures were retained from PC as seen from the toxic green water. The frame rate is much faster compared to Nintendo’s port as not one time was there a second delay before doing something. We all know the game runs faster thanks to the Genesis’ processor running at 7.67 MHz compared to Super NES’s 3.58 MHz. The enemy sprites are always facing forward as none of them have angled positions. It does show the limitations of even this add-on despite giving the system near Super NES specs. However, I'll give Sega props from allowing Satanic symbolism and demon sacrifices in the environments. That was one of my gripes with the Super NES edition as it was heavily censored by Nintendo. Sega at least left in the scenery that gave the environments a tense feeling to them as if you were in Hell. The gore effects from the enemies and along the scenery were left in like when an oil barrel explodes next to an enemy. The enemies literally splatter into chunks of flesh which shows that Sega didn't want their version to come off censored. I also noticed some textures got taken out like the pillars and computer screens from the Hanger (Level 1). Even some wall textures replaced others in certain parts of the stages often. I guess time restrictions from development hindered it from running properly on the system. Just as it is on 16-bit consoles, the 32X suffers from several problems of the port’s own. The first thing you will notice is a border around the screen’s video. Sega promotes this add-on as something that would make the Super NES’s specs seem weak. Yet, why is there a border around the screen? According to the developers they got worried about performance issues. Then why put it on the Genesis if the custom engine and system can’t run the game properly? I can’t imagine that being the reason the Super NES game of Jurassic Park was in a goggle layout for its FPS gameplay. My biggest question is was this really worth getting it on the 32X? I mean to get this title; a gamer needs to spend $150 for the extra hardware plus $60 for the game just to experience a slightly better version then on the Super NES. They were better off waiting for the PlayStation One’s Doom (that had Ultimate and the second game in one package) a year later than buying an expensive version. The biggest problem comes from the sound quality, and it’s the worst rendering of Doom porting I have ever experienced. The music got it the worst as I muted the game the entire time and just put on Andrew Hulshult’s rock remixes from Brutal Doom. The soundtrack literally sounded as if the designers made fart noises from their mouths to make the music. You figure with the 32X giving extra power to the Genesis they could have done the same for the sound chip. Rating: 8.2/10 Features/Content There are not that many features in this edition when factoring how its development came off. I'll start with the positives and unlike most versions; there is a level select where you can pick the difficulty of any stage. It's both an improvement, and a fault when considering Randy Linden forced the players to choose the higher difficulty settings. As mentioned the biggest issues stems from not getting the complete package like on the Super NES. It was one thing for the Super NES port to leave out “Thy Flesh Consumed” (the fourth episode) but to leave the third one out is just stupid. I don’t believe it had something to do with the cartridge size either. Randy Linden was able to bring most of the levels from the PC game to the Super NES, but the designers here couldn’t do the same with a 4 MB cart. There are only two secret levels of 16 and 17 but the House of Sonic expected gamers at the time to spend nearly $220 on such a title. A buyer would be better off saving money for a proper PC or a PlayStation in 1995 if they wanted to play Doom the proper way. It's true that some things got omitted from the PS1 port, but that was much closer to the PC edition compared to on 32X. Rating: 7.5/10 Final Rating There was certainly effort put into the port in some form but for the asking price this wasn't really worth it. As stated before Doom missed nearly half the things the first release had (not including the Ultimate edition). On Super NES, the same game got all three episodes except for the Command Center level. That version didn't even need an extra piece of hardware to make it work. The 32X cartridges should've been enough to fit all parts of the game. Unfortunately, time constraints during development really hindered this version from being a complete game. The poor sound effects and music are still the worst rendering of the soundtrack that I had to sit through. For a $60 game that needs expensive hardware to run is a steep price to ask. That's especially true when it only features 17 levels and missing the usual stuff. The only thing this one can champion is better graphics and a great frame rate. However, you need the entire package to make it work and in this case that's truly a problem. It wasn't a bad game but still not a quality port especially when John Carmack helped with the work. Gameplay: 7.7/10 Graphics/Presentation: 8.2/10 Features/Content: 7.5/10 Final Rating: 7.8/10 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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