Doom (Sega 32X) Review

The 32X. The giant, black, mushroom shaped tumor sticking out of the Sega Genesis meant to prolong it's lifespan longer than it should have been. One of the biggest commercial failures in the history of gaming. Even the ads for it made the joke that people make about it today. That it looks like the Genesis is mating with it.

They're having disgusting pig sex, Timmy.

But the thing most people tend to overlook is that the 32X had a pretty solid library of games. Star Wars, Metal Head, Tempo, Kolibri, Virtua Fighter, Cosmic Carnage, Knuckles Chaotix, and of course, excellent ports of Mortal Kombat 2 and Doom. Today, we're talking about Doom, which is probably the best home console port of the game (The N64 version is better, but it's also not really a port as much has it is its own game.)

The MKII port was just as good as the SNES version, and whether you prefer it or the one on SNES comes down to whether you prefer the SNES controller or the six button Genesis controller. The version of Doom however is a huge step above the SNES version because it's actually playable. Yeah, yeah, the soundtrack of the SNES version sounded better. By a long shot. The 32X version sounded horrible. But that's the only thing that the SNES version does better, or anywhere near as well, honestly.

The SNES version is almost unplayable. There's a delay between when you push a button and you shoot the demon in the face. The graphics are dark and muddy, making it almost impossible to see what's going on.

The 32X version is bright enough for you to see what's going on, there's no delay between pressing the button and shooting, and the controls just work really well. It takes a bit of getting used to changing the weapons, but aside from that, it works.

There are only 15 levels, but you can pick them from the title screen right off the bat, which is a huge plus.

Let's be real for a second, though. It's pointless to review Doom. Why? Because it's Doom. At this point, it's like reviewing Space Invaders. What are you going to say about that? "You shoot the UFO's and they go faster. Sound interesting? Then get it." Everything that can be said about Doom has been said. It's a simple, pick up and play FPS that's fun as hell. All you need to know is if it plays as well as the PC version, and the answer for the 32X version is that it does very well for a console version of the game.

It's also really cheap, which is a plus. It shouldn't cost you more than five dollars for a loose copy of the game, and any retro game store that has 32X games in stock at any given time probably has at least one copy of this.

So, yeah. I recommend it. But I could've just saved us all some time and said "It's Doom. Sound interesting? Do you have a 32X and five dollars to spend? Then get it."