The Game Boy Advance port of id Software‘s classic first-person shooter sequel, Doom II, was developed by Torus Games and first published by Activision in 2002. Unlike the first Doom on the GBA this port doesn’t use the original Doom engine, but instead uses the Southpaw Engine, that was designed for native use on the GBA and has been used in a number of other games. Torus Games had to therefore recreate all the levels from scratch for this port, and I have to say that they did a great job.

Doom II on the Game Boy Advance features all 34 levels from the original PC version, but – like GBA Doom [one] – the blood has been made green and the gore has been removed (and corpses disappear after a few seconds).

In terms of options: there are a number of preset control configs to choose between; there’s a sensitivity option to tweak turning speed; a gamma setting to change the brightness (useful since the GBA is not backlit), and ‘Always Run’ is on by default (which is also useful because running is often required to jump gaps in some levels).

Again: changing weapons is a bit clumsy, which can be a problem if you need to do it quickly, and it’s also possible to change accidentally, which can be frustrating.

Doom II‘s multiplayer is more or less the same as in GBA Doom [one], with deathmatch games for up to four players and cooperative games for just two.

Overall, though, Doom II is an excellent conversion to Nintendo‘s handheld. It’s arguably better than the first Doom and is a must-have game on the GBA.

More: Doom II on Wikipedia
Steam: Doom II on Steam
GOG: Doom II on GOG.com