Interface

No Mouse!?!?

FPS purists have long bemoaned console shooters because of the lack of proper tools (mouse and keyboard) for the job. Does anyone remember Quake64? I can’t count how many times I fell into the lava on DM4 (as if that doesn’t happen enough on the PC with rockets bouncing you every which way) just trying to navigate my way around with a controller. Forget about aiming up and down within any reasonable amount of time. So how can anyone possibly control Doom on a dinky GBA?

Ouch

Die die die

Taking fire

Fortunately, Doom isn’t a true 3D shooter. This means it isn’t necessary to look up and down, because the game auto aims along the Y axis for you automatically. That takes care of the aiming up and down problem. The game comes with six built-in control schemes – unfortunately you don’t have free reign to map the unit’s four buttons and control pad yourself. The scheme that made the most sense to me utilized the control pad to move forward and backward, and aim left and right. The B button shoots, while the shoulder buttons strafe left and right. A is the multipurpose activate button. Holding A down while moving allows you to run. A is also used to flip switches and open doors. Finally, it is used to switch weapons – hold down A and hit the left shoulder button to swap down a weapon, or the right shoulder button to move up one on your arsenal.

Of course, no controller is going to be as flexible as playing with a mouse and keyboard, but given the unit’s limitations, the control scheme of Doom GBA is quite adequate to the task. Making the adjustment was awkward at first, but within a few minutes I made the transition and was comfortably running around, blasting imps and cacodemons. Inside of 10 minutes I was able to circle strafe around enemies, albeit with some difficulty.

He looks familiar

Can't reload fast enough

Pumping rounds

Menu Irritations

One of my big complaints about the interface centers around the game’s menus, particularly the save system. Predictably, you’re only allowed to save in between levels. While it would have been nice to be able to save in the middle of a mission, the space needed to remember the dynamic state of an incomplete level just isn’t available on a cartridge.

What makes this fact even more annoying is that it’s too easy to accidentally not save after a completed level. After your time and score is tallied up, you’re presented with a list of the game’s four save slots. My instinct is to select one of the save slots (filled or empty), press a button, and then be asked “Are you sure you want to overwrite this saved game.” The first few levels I played I kept hitting A and B to try and highlight a slot but I’d get immediately kicked up to the next level without being given the opportunity to save. This was rather stressful b/c I had to make sure I didn’t die in that level before I’d get another chance at saving. Finally I figured out that you use the control pad to pick a slot, use left and right on the pad to say “Yes” or “No” that you want to use that slot to save, and THEN hit a button. It’s all undocumented of course.