The Super NES gets a port of Doom, but it's not all it's cracked up to be.
In the graphics department, most of the items look pretty close to the PC counterparts. However, the SNES wasn’t really built to handle the 3D processing power of Doom, so they had to take liberties in the game to make it not run like a slideshow. And in the process, it looks horrible. Many of the game’s levels are simplified, and lack the complex nature of the original PC maps. A few of the levels from the PC version aren’t even in this version, including a third of episode two, The Shores of Hell. At least all but one enemy is present in the game, unlike some ports.
This game runs dog slow, as if it’s running on a very old 1980’s computer. There are times where the game frequently changes framerate, usually when going through wide-open spaces does the game chug. The whole game also has this black border around the game instead of taking the full screen. It looks real tacky. Not even a background or anything like the PC version. All the enemies only have animations for one side, and that’s facing the player. So in the process, there will be many occurrences where enemies will “see” you but will not attack you until you shoot at them. Enemies also don’t have animations walking side to side, so it seems like enemies walk like crabs when they move. It also appears that most sprites have fewer animations than their PC counterpart. Floors and ceilings also do not have textures, only solid colors, so that red floor could be carpet or a lava pool, and it looks confusing at times.
The game doesn’t really work well in the sound department. Many times sounds will cut off, will not play or will play later than they’re supposed to. If you shoot the chaingun, you might hear 20 or so shots but actually shot only 5-6 bullets. Some of the game’s sounds also are a bit different from their PC counterparts. That isn’t necessarily bad, but it should have been as accurate as possible. The original game’s music is faithfully recreated on the SNES sound chip, but it’s nothing to write home about.
The game has more than just those faults. For instance, all three episodes are there, but you can only play episodes two and three on higher skill levels. For instance, playing on “I’m Too Young To Die”, the lowest skill level, only lets you play episode one, Knee-Deep In the Dead. Higher skill levels let you play episodes two and three, but you need to go through another episode to play it first, you cannot play it on the offset. And here’s a minor pet peeve: The moment you power on the game, you’re instantly thrown into the beginning of the game on the “Hurt Me Plenty” skill level, without giving the chance to set your skill level or episode without hitting the pause menu. This should’ve been changed.
There is multiplayer, but good luck getting to play it nowadays. Doom for the SNES used an XBAND modem, and the XBAND service no longer exists in this day and age, so you can’t play multiplayer. Without XBAND, the game is strictly a single player affair. The problem with making a port of a PC game onto a console that wasn’t really built to handle the technology makes it suffer. And this version of Doom suffers because of the SNES hardware, and in the end becomes an average game. If you want a good Doom experience, go buy it for the PC. Don’t let the red cartridge entice you.
Pros: Faithful recreation of levels, decent music, all the enemies (except one) present
Cons: Runs very slowly, graphics look very average and under detailed, non-accessible multiplayer, certain episodes only accessible from higher skill levels.