Doom SNES

For the first time in 16-bit glory.

Something that doesn't really come up anymore nowadays (at least in as big of an issue as it was previously) is how different ports of the same game could play completely differently from console to console, despite using the same game as a template of design. Compare the original release of Doom on DOS to its PlayStation counterpart, for example. For one, the PlayStation Port actually uses the Atari Jaguar port as a template to build upon, which is probably the only time anything prestigious can be said of the Jaguar, with one major exception that we'll be getting to soon. 

It's obviously Atari Karts.

Of course, with the Jaguar being comparatively underpowered to what was necessary to run Doom on DOS, some of the architecture had to be trimmed down to save space and maintain a consistent frame rate. Despite being more powerful, and probably being able to render the original architecture just fine, the PlayStation version inherits the simplified level geometry.

Now with less fun!

Another casualty is the loss of Bobby Prince's iconic soundtrack. However, this blow is severely weakened by an equally strong soundtrack by Aubrey Hodges. Compared to the (plagiarization adjacent) metal inspired soundtrack of Prince, Hodges' soundtrack has a much darker and foreboding tone, giving great strength to Doom's horror roots. Certain areas, like the dark maze in E1M2, play much more tensely as a result. Hodges would later go on to also compose the soundtrack for Doom 64. 

The PS1 version also comes fully packed with Doom II as well. In fact, it even backports enemies and weapons to Doom 1 levels - that is, now you can find chain gunners in E1M1 for example. It also has some minor improvements to the engine, adding things like colored lighting.

Despite there being a few missing levels for space saving purposes, it's a very full and fun package, and it doesn't feel like a waste. For people who couldn't play Doom back in the day on their home computer, it was a fine alternative, and a worthy port.

The Super Nintendo version of Doom, comparatively, is reviled and hated for some really good reasons, but to spoil my thoughts on it a little early, I think the hate might be a bit unjustified.

How bad can it be? It's Doom.

I think historical context might be a little important to how I feel about this game, and this goes for most games that I play nowadays - I did not play this game on release. I was barely even born. The crimson SNES cartridge was not one that ever graced our household, I was only ever introduced to the game's existence by being introduced to it through an emulator on the family PC by my older brother (and no, Doom SNES did not run correctly on this emulator in question).

So this retrospective comes entirely from playing it as an adult, in 2024. A re-release of this part of the game has been announced at quakecon this year, to be released next year. I'm excited to see what kinds of changes they make, and what improvements they can muster, but this review is not about that version. This is a modern-day retrospective of the original 1995 SNES port of Doom.

Firstly, I'd like to start by addressing the elephant in the room.

The Bad:

You genuinely, literally, cannot see goddamn shit in this game.

Pictured: ???

Okay there. It's done. I've said the thing. The resolution is so low that I'm pretty sure you cannot actually see any full detailed unscaled sprites or textures in this game, even if you're within making-out distance.

Doom on DOS is (originally) displayed in a 320x200 resolution stretched to a 4:3 aspect ratio. The SNES displayed at a resolution of 256x224, but this game doesn't even utilize that entire space, opting to shrink the screen by about a fourth of its size and place a black border on the outer edge. This was not entirely unusual for certain games at the time, specifically Super FX games like Star Fox. 

Pictured: Magic or some shit idk 

Some ports of the game, like on the 3DO, shrink the screen size of the game to improve the frame rate. In fact, on the aforementioned 3DO port, there is a cheat code to expand the screen size to a more full resolution. However, doing so tanks the frame rate as a result. For the SNES version of the game, we don't have to worry about that as I'm pretty sure it would be nearly impossible render this game on a full screen and still have it be playable. Even in its shrunken state, the game barely squeezes out two digits worth of frames per second.

I genuinely can't remember if this is actually the 3DO version of the game, pretend it is if it isn't.

Despite only having a frame rate just
above legal death by game design standards, I never actually found it all that distracting for the most part. It's very noticeable at first, but you kind of get used to it. The game at least feels vaguely responsive, and the auto aim is generous enough that the occasional missed shot never really added up too much. At the very least, the frame rate is consistent, and doesn't just automatically tank during the more intensive scenes. 

To save on memory, they nixed all of the various rotations for all the monsters - now every single enemy is always facing the exact position of the player at all times. As a result, monster infighting is a no-go. It would be a detractor against the game if it weren't so unnerving at times - opening up any given room in the game always reveals hordes of monsters ready to fight you at a moment's notice, like they're constantly waiting to ambush you.

Dark areas actually look pretty great, ngl.

Something else that was sacrificed was the detail in z-axis textures. Specifically, that there is none. The textures were nixed entirely in exchange for solid color floor and ceiling. However, unlike Wolfenstein 3D, the color is variable. Floors can be lit or dark, and can be brown for dirt or gray for metal, or other colors. With the low resolution of the game, the lost detail doesn't usually cause any problems. However, one issue that kept coming up was hurt floors. Without any fancy animated or glowing effects or any kind of indication besides color, it can be difficult at times to determine what will or will not hurt the player. The short draw distance in Mount Erebus in particular makes navigating its massive outdoor lava filled space more tedious than normal - and I say that as somebody who actually likes Mount Erebus. 

The treacherousness of green carpeting! 

The controls also leave a bit to be desired. What's so frustrating about it is that they were so close to getting it perfect, but one teensy problem with it just that much more frustrating to deal with. You see, the d-pad walks yourself forward and backwards and turns you as you would expect, and your shoulder buttons strafe. However, you are unable to turn while strafing, completely eliminating the ability to circle-strafe. Even the SNES Wolfenstein port let you circle-strafe, even though there's next to no use for it in that game. 

However, complaining about the lack of this ability is like complaining about the lack of a grappling hook power up in Metroid NES. The simpler and more claustrophobic level design of the original Three episodes never really necessitates the use of circle strafing, and the only time it really felt especially missed was during the Cyberdemon fight. Even then, it just meant that I utilized the cover in the environment more than I did rely on my limited mobility. The fight wasn't necessarily more difficult, or rather than just needing a different approach than normal. 

He's still pathetically easy with a plasma rifle.

All of these flaws drastically slow down the pace of the game almost makes it feel scarier than the original, despite no core game design changes having occurred. Just like the scarier music of the PS1 port, it's the small changes that make up a difference that's more than the sum of its parts. 

Speaking of the music, one must ask how that fared in this port. For the most part, the Bobby Prince soundtrack survived the conversion to the 16-bit console. The guitar sounds kind of dopey, more like a muted horn of some sort, but it's a fair comparison. I personally like the slower ambient tracks, as they fit the instrument choice better. Demons on the Prey is a particular highlight for me in this OST.

You might notice that all of the negative points that I highlighted above, despite having a negative impact on the game, also had positive counterpoints. Nothing genuinely felt like an outright bastardization of the original vision, and instead we're just sacrifices to optimize the game on hardware it wasn't designed to run on. 

Iconic is iconic, it turns out.

And that leads us to

The Good:

Everything else.

No, really, straight up everything else is fine. In fact, it's actually great. When I said before that I actually like this port of the game, I was telling the truth. I'm genuinely impressed with it. 

First of all, any time I see folks ragging on this game I feel the need to remind them about some of the other games that were designed for the Super Nintendo. Y'know,
things like Super Mario World, Super Metroid, or F-Zero. If you wanted 3D graphics on this loveable block of plastic, you'd have to source some power from a Super FX chip like Star Fox did. Even then, the polygons were never textured and had to remain as flat solid colors.

As it turns out, a programmer named Randy Linden was impressed by the power that Star Fox showed and hacked together a version of Doom utilizing tricks and shortcuts on the console to create his own version of the engine from the ground up before the source code was released by Id.

I highly recommend DigitalFoundry's video on Doom SNES where he got a chance to interview Linden himself. Lots of nifty details on how this version of the game was cobbled together.

Thanks, Randy!

I mean, look at this game in a vacuum. Really, compare it to some of the releases that were coming out on the SNES around the same time. The fact that we have an almost smooth FIRST PERSON SHOOTER on SUPER NINTENDO is kind of amazing. 

Another game I can play on the same console.

Addendum: I actually really like the Wolfenstein 3D port on SNES as well. I think the original DOS release, smooth and clean as it is, suffers greatly from the lack of a map. If I'm going to play Wolfenstein 3d, it's either going to be on the ECWolf source port or the SNES port, because both come with maps.

Where's the damn elevator...?

And yes, it's also worth noting that Wolfenstein 3D also had some questionable choices in terms of changes made to the game. The blood and gore was almost completely removed, as well as any references to Nazi Germany, instead opting to replace swastikas with generic bad guy symbols. They also turned the dogs into giant rats.

Nazis are fair game tho

But all these changes are completely understandable to be able to get the game on Nintendo's console. After all, the Big N has their reputation to keep as a family-friendly company, so you can imagine the kinds of changes that were demanded of Doom.

Which, if sources are to be believed, was almost no pushback at all.

Who wants some?

That's right: Wolfenstein 3D's blood-drenched spiritual successor, DOOM, was released on the SNES uncensored. I almost couldn't believe it myself when I saw it, I thought for sure I must be playing some kind of unofficial hacked version of the game, but no, they really got away with almost the same graphics. The only notable changes that I found were that death animations were noticeably sped up (which may be a technical issue more than it is censorship) and gibbing is completely absent. There might be some missing decals and textures, or some other alterations I didn't notice, but without a side-by-side comparison I was really surprised by how little the game was actually changed. Interestingly, the GBA versions of Doom have green blood and reduced the rating to T for teen.

Not like it even mattered much on this screen anyways

That isn't to say that there weren't any changes at all - but the ones that were made seem to be for technical reasons and not censorship, as stated above. One change I find interesting is how the weapons were altered. Doom has a very particular and specific arsenal dynamic, with every weapon having its own specific ammo type, firing rate, and projectile type. Even when the game has a massive overhaul, such as Doom 64, the weapons only have slight statistical changes at the most.

However, the more I play Doom SNES, the less I find myself wrestling with my choice of weapon while playing. The weapons act differently enough that it forces a player to rethink which tool is the most appropriate for every fight. 

The most obvious change is with the shotgun. In the original game, the shotgun fires a set of pellets in a straight horizontal cone in front of the player, each projectile moving further away from one another as they gain distance. On the SNES port, it fires the same amount of power in a single slug projectile instead. As a result, it resembles the Jack of all trades all-purpose shotgun of Quake: able to be used at any distance for great power, but not great for crowd control.

Fun fact, these cacodemons can't shoot out at you from there anymore. 

At first, I thought the chaingun audio might be having problems, but it turns out the chaingun firing rate is much lower than it was before. The audio might still be broken though. Once I realized this fact, I found myself more willing to hold down the trigger when running into rooms I suspected to have opposition. I might be wrong on this, but the lower firing rate felt like it gave the chaingun more of a chance to trigger a hurt state, giving me the opportunity to juggle enemies.

See the slight discoloration of the floor? That's an exit.

The plasma rifle feels the most out of place, as it feels like the projectile's hitbox size was increased drastically enough that it collides with the level architecture constantly, and it's difficult to actually see what you're shooting at. I found myself not using it a lot, until I realized just how powerful it was. As long as you have the space to actually fire the damn thing, you can almost guarantee that whatever you're shooting that's going to be dead pretty quick.

Whatever's behind this plasma is going to be really upset in a second.

The bane of my existence in this newfangled arsenal is the bazooka.  The best way that I can describe the changes done to the rocket launcher are for me to invite you to imagine if somebody had programmed Lo Wang's nuclear missile launcher from Shadow Warrior into Doom. Using this thing was an absolute liability - more than a handful of times was I standing slightly out of range of the splash damage zone that would exist in the original game only to suddenly fall dead in SNES Doom.

A rocket took both me and this Baron out. From full health, on my part.

Whole tens of minutes of progress lost at a time when whipping out the bazooka, whether intentionally or accidentally. I'm pretty sure at the very least half my deaths can be attributed to self-immolation. It wasn't until well into my second playthrough that I realized the powerhouse I had on my hands. With careful planning and consideration, I found they were best utilized as a sort of shitty grenade - if I suspect baddies around the corner, just hit the wall from far away and let splash damage soften them up for me.

A more optimal position with heavy explosives. 

Everything else more or less works as you'd expect, with some small inaccuracies that don't really matter. The faster death animations sometimes make the weapons feel a little punchier, but I wouldn't say it's better or worse than the original - just different. Honestly, for a port developed from the ground up, it's surprising how accurate the game is to the DOS version.

Yawwwwwn

For those who aren't aware, most of the early Console ports of Doom used the Atari Jaguar version as a baseplate. John Carmack himself programmed that version of the game as a challenging side project for fun, because that's apparently just the kind of guy he is. There were some limitations he had to work around - this version of the game was unable to alert enemies by sound so there are various traps and rooms that needed to be redesigned, most notably off the top of my head the pentagram room in E1M9. Other areas had to have their architecture simplified to keep within hardware constraints. 

This simplified geometry followed most of the console ports around, even the more technologically advanced ports such as the PS1 version with its neat colored lighting. However, the SNES version got even further downgraded, with levels being greatly simplified and made much more linear than before.

Nah, I'm just kidding, the SNES version is more accurate than the PS1 version.

They still changed this room tho. (that's not a bad thing)

After some brief research, I found that lead programmer Randy Linden credits John Coffey with some very small level variations, such as removing a particularly complicated chunk of level or redesigning areas to play better on the slower SNES hardware. However, most of the changes were rejected by Id directly, who states they wanted the levels to be as accurate to the PC version as possible.

Which they are. 

It's at this point that I would like to inform my reader that I have now sat down and played through and finished this game four separate times completely. The first time, I approached the game from a PC purist standpoint - I booted into Ultra Violence immediately and started playing with default controls. The game was familiar, the levels were familiar, the monsters and the weapons were familiar, but the game was as different feeling as I could imagine it would be. As I do on the pc, I did play with quicksaves, which the original SNES port did not feature.

Lost Souls suck even in this version!

The further I got into the game and the longer the levels became, and the more progress I stood to lose at every death (which I, at the time, refused to lose and decided to just reload my save for convenience) I started to wonder about those kids in 1994 who took this little red cartridge home from Blockbuster and stuck it into their SNES for the first time. I thought about other games I considered "difficult" on the SNES, and came to the conclusion that, while it certainly is challenging, the game itself is entirely fair on the SNES port. 

Except for Slough of Despair.

I thought about that kid. I thought about them riding in the backseat of their mom's van after school. I thought about how I used to rip open the case of a new game as fast as possible on the car ride home so that I could consume the information on the box art, the blurbs on the back, the manual. I thought about the excitement of getting home, running to the family room with my prize and slapping it into my brother's SNES as fast as possible.

The game shows some legal info, the DOOM title screen, and launches directly into E1M1. No main menu screen. No load up. No intro cutscenes. You're right in the game ASAP. And me, in my excitement ignorance, would immediately play the game assuming it's on the "Normal" difficulty setting - which it is. I'm pretty sure the game boots into Hurt Me Plenty mode, as that's how I decided to do my
second playthrough. This time, I decided to remap my controls to be a bit more comfortable and accessible (Thank you, Retroarch) and beat the whole game again without quicksaves.

Smart weapon utilization is a must.

Something that became apparent to me immediately was that pistol-starting simply isn't a choice in this version of the game. Each episode will strip you of your gear on level 1, but otherwise, what you find is what you keep. The game doesn't have the courtesy to refill your bullets back to 50 if you enter a stage completely out of ammo (as I learned the hard way in E2M3... which is the second level in E2 in this version, so. The one with the cacodemons in the cage. Refinery. Whatever.) but it does have enough mercy to refill your health to 100. Your weapons and ammo count will always be the same as what you entered the level with, however.

I also ran out of everything here, too!

After running completely out of ammo in the middle of my second playthrough, I ended up playing with a greater sense of permanence to every single time I pulled the trigger. I also began to familiarize myself with encounters more and memorize the level layout more than I had before to find the most optimal routes. The new control scheme certainly helped as well, resembling something more akin to twin stick shooter controls but without circle strafing.

Notice my health immediately after firing this rocket at a pinky running at me.

Notice my health immediately after the detonation of said rocket. 

On my third playthrough, I put my newfound skills to the test and replayed the game on Ultraviolence with the same rules as before - no saves, modern controls. And within the afternoon, I crushed it. Later that same night, I replayed the game again on UV, but this time using the standard controls the game was shipped with.

Look, the final boss!

The game is certainly more challenging than if one were to play it on DOS instead, but it's actually not that much of a handicap. To be fair, the original 3 episodes of Doom are kind of easy when a player becomes familiar with them. The fights tend to come from one direction, in closed-off spaces that limit movement. Had this port opted to include Ultimate Doom's 4th episode, I would have had complaints. However, the ball-busting rate in the levels chosen to be included is relatively low, allowing for a brisk and challenging but fair and fun experience.

Okay fine, here's a better view of the final boss.

I don't believe the hate for this game is warranted. I've heard people call this version of the game terrible and unplayable, but I've honestly found it to be a very solid way of playing the game barring other methods. Hell, even if you had other methods it's still a worthy console port of Doom. Imagine pairing this up against the 3DO version (no disrespect Becky, you did your best on it and it failed through no fault of your own). It was around my third playthrough that the line separating "DOS Original" to "SNES Port" became blurry, and at some point I was just happy to be playing Doom.

Just good old classic Doom.

Small addendum: the biggest flaw I could find with this version of the game (besides a few missing levels, which is meh) was the lack of rocket launcher splashback. See, there's a specific secret in E3M7 that requires the player to blow themselves off of a structure with a rocket to the face to give them enough momentum to clear a gap leading to Episode 3's secret stage. Preferably, you'd be wearing an invulnerability power up when attempting this technique.

Jump from the ledge on the right to the hole on the left.

Imagine my face when I grabbed the invulnerability, made my way to the spot, whipped out my bazooka and shot myself in the face to.... absolutely hilariously no effect.

At least I can't spontaneously die.

You can just strafe jump to the hole, it's fine.