QuakeCon 2002Doom II GBA hands-on

At QuakeCon 2002, Activision had a feature-complete version of the classic first-person shooter Doom II for the Game Boy Advance on display. Developed by a studio out of Australia, Torus Games, this game uses a custom 3D engine designed specifically for Nintendo's handheld.

Surprisingly, very little has been lost in the translation. Every level, weapon, and monster found in the PC version has been brought over, although some of the more gory animations and two of the music tracks from the game have been left behind, in order for the game to obtain a teen rating and for memory concerns, respectively. Another minor change is that some of the larger levels in the game have been split into multiple pieces in order for the game to run smoothly all the way through.

Anyone that has spent any amount of time with the original Doom for the GBA will be able to pick up the sequel and play, as the control scheme is completely unchanged. A notable addition is that the game plays faster than the previous iteration, mostly due to the new engine used in this version of the game. In addition to the single-player game, there are also multiplayer capabilities--four-player deathmatch and two-player cooperative modes, by way of a link cable, with each participating player required to have a copy of the cartridge in order to play. While the single-player game was fully playable, the demonstration units were not linked together, so we were unable to test out any of the multiplayer features at this time.

At this point, Doom II is running well, and basically all that is left in the development cycle is some fine-tuning here and there. While Activision was unable to comment on a possible ship date for the game, retailers are reporting a late October release, and from what we saw, the game should be ready by then with no problems. Expect more coverage on Doom II for the GBA as soon as we get our hands on it again.