Wolfenstein 3D

"A hilariously edited but surprisingly well made 16-bit FPS."

Back in 1992 iD software released Wolfenstein 3D for the PC. It was basically the first first-person shooter. It was responsible for creating and popularizing the FPS genre. iD went on to make Doom, Doom II, Quake and so on.

The original Wolfenstein 3D for the PC was set in Germany during World War II. You took on the role of a a Polish-American soldier named William "BJ" Blazkowicz. It starts off that William is a prisoner of war in a Nazi fortress. After using his concealed knife to stab a guard and steal his gun, he sets off to escape from the fortress and then continues to infiltrate Nazi compounds.

The game featured voice acting. Each type of Nazi guard and each boss had a short array of German phrases they would yell out when they spotted William and when they were shot. Even William himself had a short yell. Wolfenstein was pretty gruesome for the time also. It had blood and skeletons hanging in cages. The guards bled pretty well too. Sometimes after killing a boss, their bloody and gorey death would be replayed in the "Death Cam". Along with human guards, dogs were also killable.

Wolfenstein 3D featured only 4 weapons. A knife, pistol, automatic shotgun, and chaingun. The graphics were actually 2D, but with a 3D interface. All the maps were flat. Remember these were the early days. In each map all you had to do was find the exit, which may require you to get keys or defeat bosses.

Graphically, the game was impressive, but William's face was a low resolution as well as his weapons. The guards and walls were alright though. They featured lots of swastikas and pictures of Hitler, as well as many types of bricks and vines.

The popularity of Wolfstein 3D prompted ports to several video game consoles at the time these ports were different from the original in various ways. The port to the SNES is what this review is about.

Nintendo of America had a strict censorship policy at the time and so the graphic Wolfenstein 3D had to have a big makeover. It was funny playing the SNES version after playing the PC version.

First of all, all references to Nazism were removed. Swastikas were turned into plus signs, all blood and skeletons were removed. The guards and bosses spoke English, dogs were turned into rats, and to top it off, they removed Hitler's mustache. Now of course, Hitler ain't Hitler without his 'stache, so they renamed him Staatmeister. Direct references to WWII were also removed. Instead, William was infiltrating bases of the "Master State" in the 1940s. XD

The game featured entirely new maps and music and some graphical changes. The level graphics seemed to have a lower resolution but it was still playable. The health bar looked much better than the PC version, as did the weapons. This version of the game even featured two new weapons: A flamethrower and a rocket launcher. =D

The music was far less darker and more upbeat so you felt like you were prancing around the Master State bases while filling their guards full of holes. :)

A very interesting aspect to the game was the control. Control in FPSs had been a major concern ever since the beginning. The original controls for Wolfenstein 3D were the arrow keys for movement, shift for changing left and right to strafing, and Ctrl and Alt for shooting and opening doors. Sound uncomfortable? It was. Since about Quake PC FPS players have been using WASD and the mouse to achieve precise control. Transferring this accuracy to consoles that use gamepad controllers has been tricky. These days it usually involved mapping forward, backward, and strafing movement to the left analog stick and aiming to the right, with shooting done but a shoulder or trigger. It's not as precise. Honestly, I think that is the wrong approach.

Wolfenstein 3D for the SNES however, has less controls but controls better than the PC version. It really had good controls for a console FPS, too bad future console FPSs didn't adapt it's control style. The d-pad did forward, backward, and turning, the A button opened doors, and the B button fires. Strafing is done by the shoulder buttons. Remember this was the old days and the maps were flat, so there was no aiming up or down. These controls allowed for fast but precise movements. I really felt more into the game with these controls. I played the game much better than I did on the PC.

The SNES version of Wolfenstein 3D took some (lame) bosses out and put in (awesome) bosses from the sequel(but storyline prequel) of Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny(PC). That was an excellent touch. The menus are cleaned up, the titlescreen is a bit different saving is done by a short password. The ending credits are nice too.

The core gameplay is the same from the PC version. You navigate William through sometimes maze-like levels, gathering treasure to increase your score, shooting guards, and occasional boss, and collecting up to two keys to open doors to new areas. Tons of fun unless you get lost. Each level is chockful of secrets. After each level you are given your score and the percentage of treasure, enemies defeated, and secrets discovered. It is quite a challenge to get 100% in all those areas.

All in all, this version of Wolfenstein 3D is hilarious and fun. If you liked the original or one of the more accurate ports and have a good sense of humor, try this game out. The brilliant game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has said, it's easy to make a player cry, but it is hard to make a player laugh. This game can manages to make you laugh.

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Controls: 10/10
Overall: 10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/07