Sound and Gameplay

The sound effects that kept you up at night

All the original sound effects and music from Doom made the transition from PC to GBA intact. The clicking of the flickering lamps above create a stark contrast to the gurgling of imps lurking around that corner ahead. Or was it that corner behind you? Are you sure you checked every nook? *Whoosh* That was a fireball that just whizzed past your head. Barons of Hell scream out menacingly as they toss their green plasma at you. Pink demons snarl and growl as they charge headlong into the rat-a-tattat of your Chain gun. Feeling nasty? Whip out the chainsaw with its satisfying whirrrr as it cuts through your enemies.

Chop him up

Better whip out a gun

Ow ow ow

The music in Doom GBA is also faithfully transferred over from the PC version. The catchy tunes never seem to leave your head – you’ll find yourself humming them during idle moments if you play too much, just as you might have done years ago. To give you an idea of how closely the sound and music match the original: one time I brought my GBA to campus with me and started playing a little Doom before class. It didn’t take 30 seconds before the guy three seats away from me asked “you can play Doom on that little thing?”

Gameplay

For the most part, the gameplay in Doom is unchanged from the original. The levels are laid out as you remember them (with some slight variations), enemies are the same and found in the same places. All the secret areas and secret doors are in the spots you so painstakingly discovered them in the PC version. The only thing that seems to be missing are a couple of the bigger bosses at the end of each episode.

Eat plasma

Getting low on ammo

Really low

All the original weapons are in the game as well – you start the game off with your pistol and you fists, then immediately find the shotgun, which will be your bread and butter throughout. The chainsaw, chain gun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, and BFG are all in Doom GBA too. If you were going to buy Doom GBA looking for some new experiences, new weapons, or enemies, don’t bother. It’s pretty much the same game, only in ultra portable format. You walk through the levels, shoot everything that moves, find the colored keys to open the colored doors, then hit the end switch and move on to the next level. Lather, rinse, repeat. Ah…aren’t old school shooters wonderful?

Bleeding green

About the only noticeable difference is the gore factor. Blood shows up green in Doom GBA, dead bodies disappear immediately, and there’s no gibbing. As you may recall, in Doom for PC, bodies would break apart into unrecognizable piles of bloody flesh when you hit them with the rocket launcher, blew up a nearby barrel, or punched them while in Berserk mode. These kills would also be accompanied by a nice squishy sound, as opposed to the usual grunt or yell of pain. No such dismemberment occurs in Doom for GBA.