Doom

"Many people thought this game was bad, I didn't!"

Story
One day, the marines built bases in Phobos and Deimos, the two moons orbiting Mars. They also built gates which surrounded their bases. But monsters broke through the gates, and went into the base, sending marines to combat, and you weren't here. During the demon invasion, Deimos vanished right in the air. When you finally heard about what was going on, all of your marines were dead, and they have taken the heavy weapons like the Plasma Gun and the Shotgun, so all you have is your Pistol, and it's up to you to save Phobos and Deimos.

Graphics: 7/10
Ok, in order to get this game on the Super Nintendo, they had to bring down the graphics. The graphics still look fairly good though. Also, they had to delete floor and wall textures, such as the dead Cacodemons in the starting room of Fortress of Mystery, or those sliding walls with human heads on Deimos Lab. Still, most of the enemies have been designed well, as still some of the enemies look good. Also, the graphics are easy to see in most areas, and some areas are dark enough where you can't see good well, and enemies could get a cheap hit on you.

Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay is still very good. But the bad part is you can't pick episodes 2 and 3 at low skill levels, but you can advance to another episode by beating the previous episode on some skill levels. You blast your way through 22 levels (5 were deleted), solving puzzles, and grabbing keys. At least this game also includes the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind, as other Doom games didn't. Even on hard skill levels the game is still easy, and it does take less hits to skill the Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind. So, even that the difficulty was lowered, I still liked this gameplay.

Sound Effects: 6/10
The sound effects have been toned down in this game. When you fire the Rocket Launcher, it has the sound effect of when an Imp or Cacodemon attacks you with a fireball. The Plasma Gun is missing it's sound effects too, but the Shotgun still sounds realistic when it reloads. Enemies roar more than once even after they encounter you. Plus, the sound effects of a Cyberdemon and Spider Mastermind walking are missing, but like I said, they had to get rid of some stuff in order to get this game on the Super Nintendo. Overall, the sound effects are OK.

Music: 9/10
The music in this game is still very good. Almost every music title from the PC version is here, but they used different instruments. There are some music titles that are missing, like E2M1's music, E3M3's music, and the story text screen when you finish an episode, but they were replaced by other titles. So, the music is overall excellent.

Replayability: 8/10
If you don't have the PC Doom, it may be fun playing this game again. But you can replay this game again to play on a harder skill level, look for the secret levels, or look for secrets you've missed. Otherwise, it may be boring replaying this game if you do have the PC version though.

Rent or Buy?
I would say buy this game. It's still a good game, but not as good as the PC or Playstation version. This game should be about $10 at a used game store, and this is worth your money, even if you are short on Super Nintendo games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/03, Updated 11/10/03