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Super Noah's Ark 3-D

aka: Mega 3D Noah's Ark, Super 3D Noah's Ark
Moby ID: 11300
SNES Specs
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Description official description

Super Noah's Ark 3-D is a First Person Shooter based on the Wolfenstein engine with a biblical twist.

As Noah, the player travels around the Ark feeding the restless animals in order to put them to sleep; this is achieved by firing feed (ammo) at them using a variety of hand catapults.

The SNES version is largely a reskin of the SNES version of Wolfenstein 3D, the only notable difference being slightly altered behaviour for a couple of bad guys. Even your weapons are reskins that behave exactly like the guns from Wolf3D; Noah must be very skilled to operate a catapult at the speed of a machine gun!.

The PC version however, while still a reskin of Wolf3D in gameplay has some more advanced features; higher resolution graphics (along the lines of the Jaguar and 3DO versions of the game, albeit with all 8 directions like the original PC version), midi music support, floor textures (like Blake Stone) and a new game play feature in the form of a question mark pickup; picking one up pauses the game and brings up a random multiple choice question about content in the bible. Answer the question correctly and you get a bunch of ammo and points.

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Screenshots

Promos

Credits (SNES version)

4 People

Engine Programmer
Engine Tools Programmer
Music Composer (uncredited)
Sound Driver (uncredited)

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 44% (based on 5 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.5 out of 5 (based on 18 ratings with 1 reviews)

Odd, yet surprisingly playable

The Good
Variety in the levels

The Bad
Ridiculous difficulty

The Bottom Line
You'd think that a Wolf3D clone with a cutesy, family friendly, Biblical theme couldn't possibly be a good game, and yet here I am after several hours of gameplay. This game isn't exactly among the cream of the crop of shooters, but it's perfectly playable and a cool way to wile away a few minutes at a time. The level design is varied enough to keep you from getting bored halfway through.

At first, the whole "feed the animals throughout the ark" theme feels distracting, since it strains the suspension of disbelief; it's obviously a shooter game, but you're supposed to accept that the guns you are shooting are actually feeders that launch generic animal feed, and that every single animal attacks non-violently by spitting at you (including the vegetarian bear). Honestly, the attempt to adapt first-person shooter mechanics into a completely nonviolent game feels cheesy. Still, after a few episodes you kinda forget about the silly theme. Mostly because you're at that point you're more focused on trying to just barely survive.

See, the game's difficulty level starts out tame, as you'd expect from a kids' game. But about episode 4 the challenge increases to downright ridiculous levels. I kept myself to Normal difficulty, and still found several levels absolutely nightmarish. The enemies can take off a HUGE chunk of your health if they catch you unawares, and I mean instantly going from 100% to 30% health because an ostrich drooled on you. Worse, the game isn't always generous with health and ammo, and if you're careless you might find yourself having to (quite literally) count every bullet. I mean, seed. Saving before every room helps take off the edge a bit, but still, the gameplay resembles Russian Roulette at times -- either you take 'em out instantly, or they do the same to you.

If you're in the mood for a lightweight game, Noah's Ark can be a good choice. Just... be sure you know what you're getting yourself into.

Windows · by Havoc Crow (30173) · 2019

Trivia

Early history

The game started life as, of all things, a first-person-shooter tie-in to the grisly horror movie Hellraiser. However, the developers eventually realized that their target platform (NES) was too weak for their intended game, and besides the horror game would clash with Wisdom Tree's family-friendly Christian image. Development was promptly moved onto the SNES and the game redesigned with a nonviolent Biblical theme.

Rumors

A popular rumor has it that the Wolfenstein 3D engine was given to Wisdom Tree by id Software as a kind of 'revenge' against Nintendo for all the censorship that Wolfenstein 3D had to go through to be on the Super Nintendo. However, there's no proof of this, and Wisdom Tree bought a license for the engine like everybody else instead of having it "given" to them.

Another rumor (repeated in many sources) is that the game is merely a reskin of Wolfenstein 3D, with the level layouts being identical; this is, however, false.

Unlicensed cartridge

Super Noah's Ark 3-D is the ONLY commercial unlicensed (by Nintendo) Super Nintendo game in North America and possibly the world. Because it is unlicensed... it doesn't actually work in a Super Nintendo by itself. Indeed you must attach a working (legitimate) SNES cartridge on top of it in order to get it to work. This is due to the copy protection method used on the Super Nintendo. The Piko Interactive 2013 release for the SNES uses a standard North American SNES cartridge and, therefore, can work directly in a North American SNES without requiring another cartridge. Information also contributed by LepricahnsGold

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  • MobyGames ID: 11300
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Scott Monster.

Macintosh, Windows added by Arejarn. DOS added by Frenkel. Genesis added by Sciere. Antstream, Android added by lights out party. Linux added by LepricahnsGold.

Additional contributors: Shoddyan, Havoc Crow, LepricahnsGold, dewitman.

Game added December 12, 2003. Last modified August 21, 2024.