These days, the original Doom and Doom 2: Hell on Earth are again on sale in the Nintendo eShop. And I’m here to implore each and everyone of you: Buy these games. They’re exceptional.
Doom is widely considered the first First-Person-Shooter ever and it already perfected the formula. When playing, you’ll quickly realize Doom has not one gameplay element too much, nor is one lacking. From todays perspective, it’s surprisingly barebone, but then again, has exactly every gameplay mechanic required for a shooter and hundreds of hours of fun – and in these console versions the content to back it up, thanks to the integration of an ever growing library of free campaigns.
Here’s what’s not in this game: No jumping, no covering, no aiming up and down, no aiming with sights, no reloading, no alternative firing modes. No quests, no experience points, no skills, no unlocks, no loot. No story, no dialog, no npcs, no different endings.
Instead, what Doom offers is a tight gameplay loop that is in the best sense of the word hypnotically minimalistic. It’s just you, a couple of guns and lots and lots of demons locked in with you. You run through maze-like corridors, you aim, you shoot, they fall.
What I like most about this game is perhaps the capsuled structure. Each level feels like a small dungeon and takes from a couple of minutes to half an hour. You’ll always begin with careful first steps into the level. You’ll explore, open doors, collect keycards and you’ll slowly begin to understand the layout of this maze. And then, at the point of maximum understanding, when every corridor is explored and every secret unveiled, the level ends and the dramaturgy and the suspense of exploring a dungeon immediately starts anew. This makes it an evergreen, wether you plan to play an entire evening or have just a couple of minutes to waste and therefore, fits the strengths of the Switch perfectly.
Also, because it’s so barebone and minimalistic, it’s the perfect game to come back to. I promise, whether you come back to Doom after eight hours or eight weeks, you’ll find no problem to get right back into the action.
Doom is 30 years old, but it still amazing. So if you’re sick of overblown modern games that stack feature onto feature to compansate for lackluster game design, absolutely give this a try. It’s perfect. And after that, play Doom 2, because it’s just more Doom, but with a double-barrel shotgun.
Edit: Also, you can’t underestimate the apocalyptic soundtrack. The most famous song is probably [At Doom’s Gate ](https://youtu.be/KRrOBA4KyEY), but my personal favorite is [Sign of Evil](https://youtu.be/rLvSD5HuIcE)
by Vinterblot
32 Comments
Doom 64 needs to be on that list too
Canonical Doom 3 and every bit as wonderful as 1/2
Also I argue the tweaked enemy balance is the superior setup
I purchased them last year when they were on sale, hadn’t played since I was a kid. I forgot how difficult it was to find all the secrets. But still lots of fun to play!
What do you mean by not aiming up and down? Does that mean you just have to aim left and right? If so, do you think it would be better for people who get motion sick from FPSs?
The DOS version is still superior, and it’s free. No reason to buy these.
>Doom is widely considered the first First-Person-Shooter ever
Well that’s just not true 😄
Regardless, this post is spot on. These games are great. They’re classics for a reason. And the Switch is a wonderful way to experience them.
Not seeing them on sale, which region?
I remember in 1995 making my own levels of my work office, applying a few graphic modifiers with some of guys in ties, and one of the monsters being Barney and playing four player multiplayer DOS version over lunch. Great game.
Frankly, this just makes me want to play Quake with it’s **NIN** sountrack.
Bethesda censored both of these games from the original releases.
Sorry I can’t click links am at work atm, is this including the Doom collection? Which also has Doom 2016?
You also need to look at other computer games from 1993 to understand that Doom was revolutionary. It worked on DOS systems had to work on 640KB of main memory restriction, which was eaten up a fair bit by the OS already.
I remember getting the shareware version initially, which contained the first nine stages of so.
Quality post. You write well friend. Makes me wanna play again (which I’ll admit I’ve never beat any Doom game save for 2016).
I don’t see them on sale
You’re a sucker if you pay for this 30 year old game thats literally playable in any browser for free
I think I picked this up for 99 cents on a previous sale. It’s so good and they kept adding updates post-release. I never played this back in the day (my first time was on the switch) and I loved every minute.
About a year ago I played through the switch versions of Doom, Doom II, and Doom 64 with a little bit of gyro aim to help me fine tune my shots, and it absolutely rules. Big recommendation from me for these, as well as the Quake remaster and Dusk.
I played through the whole Doom franchise for the first time a few years ago on the Switch. I then proceeded to play Doom 2 on my PC through hundreds of mods. It’s a great time!
Played every single Doom on the Switch, loved them. Even though the first two were a bit of a headache for me, as I constantly got lost towards the ending. 😀
These really are great on the switch
Picked up physical copy of this, ‘doom the classics collection’ and I’m so glad I did
You really got me hyped, but 28€ on sale? Are they insane?
The games come free with Doom Eternal. In Doomguy’s man cave on his spaceship there is a PC that will play Doom 1 and 2.
Doom, Doom 2, and Doom 64 are all exceptional games. I don’t even hate Final Doom. I fully agree, even full price they’re not expensive, so definitely get them if they’re on sale.
The horizontal aiming and look sensitivity can be a bit tricky at first, but you get used to it.
You’ll always begin with careful first steps into the level.
Oh, you’ve obviously never played DOOM.
I see what you did there Mr. Romero, nice try.
Do you think we will see Wolfenstein 3D on switch?
Isnt wolfenstein the first fps?
“Doom is widely considered the first First-Person-Shooter ever and it already perfected the formula”
Definitely fucking not
Also all around terrible post guy. How you not even going to mention what the sale price is?
Dont forget doom64
My favourite feature us you can put the cheats on. I live in God mod with all the guns and blast my way through each level amd each episode.
Tangent: the Masters of Doom audiobook is a very fun listen. It’s narrated by Wil Wheaton!
I pretty much bought every doom game as they were released at full price so yeah I own every doom game just only beaten Eternal omg I remember waiting so long to buy and play it finally. Edit I don’t own Doom 2016 but eternal kinda makes that game slow. I did however enjoy Doom 16 story quite a bit. Back in 2018 I did buy doom 2016 along with a switch.
Yes I did buy quake when it was shadow dropped!