"Blood and gore, you'll scream for more!"

INTRO
So I was standing in this one video shop in my podunk little town, and as it turned out, they were getting rid of some of their video games. So I see this game, Doom Troopers in its box with its instruction book for 2 bucks. Although I had never heard of it before, I decided to buy it. This is probably the best two bucks I've spent in a long time!

STORY 5/10
The story is your basic save-the-world-from-evil-mutants sort of deal. it doesn't progress as you go on, and it isn't even very interesting from the start. But come on! Its a 2d side-scrolling platformer on the SNES! You can't really expect anything involving.

GAMEPLAY 10/10
This game is, without a doubt, the god of all 3rd person shooting adventure games on the SNES. In the 1 player game, you can choose between 2 tough guys who each have their special weapons and strengths (in 2 player mode, you can do a cooperative game with you and a friend as each character). Once you pick your warrior, you then go through the levels shooting evil guerilla demons and their bosses. So you go through the levels and see a guy coming after you...BANG! You shot his head right off of his body! No, wait... he's still alive! Dripping blood and coming after you! There's a lot of weird stuff like that in this game to really add to the fun and bring you back for more. It doesn't really ever get boring, although this game does have its occasional frustrations (especially with soldiers in the trees who are hard to evade). But, this game is definitely going to be the most played out of your collection!

GRAPHICS 10/10
The overall graphics for this game concerning landscapes, characters, frame rate, and animation, are all just a little bit better than your typical SNES game. But the high point of the graphics isn't the major issues that I stated previously, its the little details that make this game so much more interesting. For example, remember how I said that you can shoot a guy's head off and he'll still come after you? Well, he does come after you, after you see a nice shot of his head flying off and blood spurting out of the mutant's head like some crimson Old Faithful. Also, when you finally kill an enemy, his body kind of rots and you can see his guts pop out and drip to the ground. If you shoot a guy out of a tree, his harness will snap and you can see him fall to the ground. Also, the splash effects for when an enemy jumps out of water are quite nice as well. Explosions are done very well, and the flash from your gun is very nice. But still, what will have most of you little hooligans smiling will be the abundance of blood and gore for this game. Disembodied heads and gooey entrails, yea!

SOUND 10/10
Everything about the sound in this game is just absolutely stunning. First off, the music is perfect for the mood of the game. Level 1, for example, has a nice thudding tune that really gets your energy up and gets you pumped to do battle with some mutants. The other levels have the same energetic tone of their music, but vary the tunes to make each level's music new and interesting. The sound effects are also amazing. You have the realistic sounds of gunfire, and you also have this cool sound that you get when one of your bullets hits the metal of an enemy's helmet. When you take a bullet from an enemy, your character gives off an appropriate ''Ooof!''. However, my favorite sound effect is when you kill an enemy. Yes, the enemies actually scream in this game! Yep, I've met a lot of games in my day where you thanked God for the mute button, but Doom Troopers sure as heck isn't one of them!

CONTROL 10/10
The control in this game is very simplistic and easy to learn. You move with the D-pad. You shoot with A and jump with B. Y executes your close attack, and X launches your special weapon (which is different for the 2 different characters you can pick). L and R help you climb up cliffs. As always, Start pauses your games. The control scheme of Doom Troopers is so simple that a 2 year old could figure it out.. although you probably wouldn't want a 2 year old playing this sort of game, would you?

BUY OR RENT?
BUY! It is so worth it, especially if you love shooting games, good 2 player games, or games with a lot of gore. You can probably find it for around 5-10 bucks on ebay, which is a pretty good deal considering that this is a game you will still love and replay even after you beat it. If you don't trust me on the awesomeness of this game (and how dare you call me a liar, you impudent frog-licker!), go on over to Blockbuster and rent it. I promise that you won't regret it!

FINAL SCORE 9/10
A more interesting story would have been appreciated, but this game excels in so many other areas that its stupid to be picky. This game is truly a gem, and just the thing to fill up that empty space in your SNES collection. One things for sure, once you see a mutant's head pop right off and hear him scream that unearthly scream, you'll be begging for more!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/24/02, Updated 06/24/02