Doom

aka: DOOM95, Doom: Evil Unleashed
Moby ID: 1068

[ All ] [ 3DO ] [ DOS ] [ Game Boy Advance ] [ Jaguar ] [ Linux ] [ PC-98 ] [ SEGA 32X ] [ SNES ] [ Windows ] [ Windows Mobile ]

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 62% (based on 14 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.0 out of 5 (based on 69 ratings with 5 reviews)

"Hey, there's blood all over my Doom cartridge!"

The Good
The Good:
+ One of the best versions of the Doom soundtrack
+ Coincidentally the most faithful version to the PC
+ Comes in a badass-looking blood-red cartridge
+ Death doesn't come with a hefty penalty


The Bad
The Bad:
- A save or password function would've been nice
- Sluggish framerate yields sluggish, delayed controls
- No circle-strafing


The Bottom Line
Presentation/Story: 70/100
It's Doom. Doom wasn't well known for its story, so after the title screen it just throws you right into the first level.

Graphics: 65/100
As far as Super Nintendo goes, the game doesn't look that bad. Sure, the textures on floors and ceilings are solid colors, but the levels are not based off of the Jaguar version, it's based off of the PC version instead. The framerate is pretty inconsistent, but it's rather understandable. If it wasn't for the Super FX Chip, Doom wouldn't be able to run on the SNES at all.

Audio: 85/100
The SNES version of Doom is well known for it's soundtrack and almost everyone considers it as great as the PC version, if not better. The sound effects on the other hand, is rather limited and muffled. Along with the inconsistent framerate, the sound effects would sometimes desync with what's happening on-screen.

Controls: 65/100
In terms of button layout, it's passable. L and R strafes, X switches your weapon, Y fires your gun, A opens doors and activates switches and B runs. The problem with the controls is the input lag, meaning that there would be a split-second delay between pressing a button and your character responding to the command. Some people may get used to this, others not. The most jarring thing about the controls is that there's no circle-strafing, which is rather strange considering that you're using the shoulder buttons to strafe.

Difficulty: Easier in some places, harder in some others
Doom on the SNES seems to have a strange restriction depending on the difficulty you selected. If you select "I'm too young to die" or "Hey, not too rough", you can only play Episode 1. If you select "Hurt me plenty", you have access to Episode 1 and 2. On "Ultra-Violence" and "Nightmare", You have access to all 3 episodes. The enemies are one-sided, meaning that they will always face you, but they cannot hear gunshots, which you may take advantage of. On the other versions of Doom, if you die, you usually have to start the level all over again with your inventory reset to just a pistol with 50 rounds. The SNES version on the other hand, while throws you back to the start of the level, it lets you keep the weapons you entered the level with. That's a plus.

Gameplay: 75/100
Doom on the Super Nintendo has been criticised for clunky, awkward gameplay, mostly because of the controls and framerate. While the gameplay is clunky, it's still rather playable. If you were to compare this version to the 32X version, you'd notice that the SNES version had a little more effort put in, containing 22 levels instead of 17, containing PC-designed levels instead of the Jaguar-based levels and squeezed as much as possible inside of an SNES cartridge. That's one hell of a technical achievement. Unfortunately, SNES Doom has no way to keep progress, so you can't save or use passwords. So if want to beat Doom, plan for a marathon.

Lasting Value: 70/100
Despite the flaws that the Super Nintendo version of Doom has, it's still playable and fun to play. I actually like Doom on the SNES. SNES Doom is sold in a red cartridge that's pretty cool to have in your collection. There's also multiplayer with the help of the XBAND modem, if you want to try that.

Score: 72/100

SNES · by StickFigures (167) · 2017

A pointless money grab of a port for a console that didn't need it.

The Good
I recently found my way to playing Doom on the SNES after I decided to take a break from making Master System videos for my Youtube channel. After playing the first two levels of the game I physically couldn't play it anymore. It was actually giving me motion sickness; stress headache and all.

I can appreciate what Williams, and more specifically Ray Landers, were going for when they endeavored to develop a SNES port of Doom. It's an interesting little piece of technology to show off to people curious about the Super FX chip the console uses to generate 3D graphics.

The novelty of playing Doom on the SNES is an interesting one and the instrumentation of the background music is quite good. Also this console port of the game contains every level and enemy from the PC original.

There are just so many concessions it doesn't seem to have a point to it.

The Bad
Doom on the SNES, although finished, feels incomplete.

According to many publications on this port of Doom it contains every level from the PC original and they are all faithfully recreated. A look at the first two levels of the game basically moots this point. While the levels might be faithful in the respect that the physical rooms might be present, lots of things like walls and other aesthetic elements have been removed.

In addition to this, there are no floor or ceiling textures and while this might not seem like a big deal it goes a long way to making the game look ugly and unfinished.

Enemies can only look in one direction eliminating the hilarity of monster infighting. The worst thing about the enemy sprites though is the way they scale. When they are a few feet away from you enemies become a mess of pixels moving around the screen occasionally firing a pot shot at you without changing their animation cycle. It's ugly.

This scaling problem extends to everything in the game, including wall and door textures. As soon as you move away from something, it loses detail and becomes a shifting, ill defined blob. The scaling is really harsh and it not only looks really, really ugly but it actually made me feel motion sick after playing for a little while.

The frame rate is also very low, making Doom guy feel like an 80 year old arthritis sufferer. This is the final nail in the coffin. The game is ugly and unrefined and then the frame rate turns out to be abysmal as well. It renders the game not unplayable, just not fun. It's slow, and ugly and it shouldn't exist.

The Bottom Line
Doom on the SNES feels unrefined and unfinished.

So what if it contains every level from the original Doom? That means nothing while it is busy being slow, ugly and exasperating. It is not fun to play and actively hurts you while you are doing it.

There are very few redeeming features to be found with this port of one of the most important games ever made. The SNES might have a huge library of great games, but this definitely isn't one of them.

SNES · by AkibaTechno (238) · 2011

A clunky herky-jerky port of a DOS classic.

The Good
I'm writing this short review mostly because of a stunningly different perspective on the technological achievements for the SNES port of the original DOS title, Doom. I don't know what version HE played, but it certainly wasn't the same one I did.

What's good about this SNES port? Well, for one, it's Doom. It's Doom in almost every way you remember it on your PC. So many monsters that at first glance you'd think it's impossible to overcome. Fight through the tunnels of Hell itself and conquer evil for the good of mankind. It is Doom. If you want to read more about Doom, a PC review would be much more informative.

As it goes on the SNES, though, it really is Doom. So people who didn't own a PC, or didn't have the hardware required to run it, had a cheap alternative to get in on the run-and-gun action. Also, if you're more used to using gamepads, you have that instead of a keyboard.

The Bad
But the SNES was not built to play a game of this calibur. Running through the halls in this game, even when there's nothing on screen but the walls themselves is like watching a slideshow. Quite frankly, this ruins the game. I remember getting this game for SNES in an attempt to fool my mother into letting me play this horribly violent game that was forbidden to play on the PC. After all, SNES has Mario, Zelda, Disney games...Doom? Surely it's a different game than the PC version.

Well, it certainly was that. Oh, all the blood and gore might have been there, but it was just impossible to enjoy it if you couldn't get more than a few frames a second out of it.

The Bottom Line
I think this game would have been killer on the SNES if some effort had been made to make it smoother. Get rid of some textures, lower the sound quality...something. Something more than they did. I don't know what exactly made it run so poor, only that it ran so bad it was virtually unplayable.

It was an okay port, really. I mean, it was Doom. But for those of us who had seen it run on a decent computer, it just wasn't the same.

SNES · by kbmb (415) · 2004

A valiant effort, doesn't quite cut it

The Good
This is about as good as graphics get on Super Nintendo. Also, it's Doom. There's nothing I can tell you about this game that hasn't already been said. It's arguably the greatest PC game ever made ported onto your SNES, and there's nothing wrong with that in theory.

The Bad
The execution is a different story. Doom, as it is, surpasses the Super Nintendo's capabilities, which means sacrifices were made in porting to a 16-bit system. Textural detail is lackluster, and a lot of lighting effects were nixed in an effort to smooth out the gameplay.

Unfortunately, it didn't really work. Playing the SNES port is like dragging your feet through the mud. When onscreen combat gets a little hectic, the frame rate drops and controller response becomes alarmingly slow. To top it off, only 2/3rds of the screen is used, framed in a black box that is quite noticeable.

Because of limited sound functionality, ambiance and sound effects overlap and cut each other off. The simplified MIDI soundtrack stutters and somehow sounds offbeat the entire time.

The Bottom Line
Midway made an admirable attempt to port this PC gaming classic to the Super Nintendo, and largely succeeded. The sacrifices made highlight the inherent problem that this game was, and always will be, best on PC. Playing the SNES cart only made me crave the PC original that much more.

SNES · by jTrippy (58) · 2009

A stunning achievement for the SNES.

The Good
Doom has been ported to probably every console in the world but to be able to port it onto the 16 bit SNES with no real changes is incredible. When you get into this game unlike the DOS version there is no menu you just get shot right into the game. The 3d graphics run smooth with no problems. Its everything the DOS version had except its on a 16 bit system. The SNES controller is much better than the keyboard and mouse and the game has been made harder to add more fun.

The Bad
Nothing. Being able to bring a game like this to a 16 bit console with nothing removed and to run without a hitch is all you need to know. There is nothing wrong with this game.

The Bottom Line
If you like Doom and have a SNES go buy this.

SNES · by MegaMegaMan (2257) · 2004

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Alsy, Big John WV, Tim Janssen, Scaryfun, lights out party.