How is it possible that the month's best Nintendo 64 game is on ... the PlayStation 5? That's right, we're taking a break from talking about PlayStation games on PS Plus to discuss Doom 64, the 1997 Nintendo 64 port of one of the most influential first-person shooters of all time. Yeah, I don't know what's happening, either. I guess we have two subscription services giving away N64 games. That's pretty cool, but the question remains: Is this game worth playing? To find the answer, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, GamePro, Next Generation and more classic magazines to see what critics said back when Doom 64 first came out. So, go and grab your BFG, because this is another monster-infested episode of the PlayStation Plus Review Crew.


I don't think it's too hyperbolic to say that when Doom hit PC in 1993, it was seen as something of a sea change. Of course, gaming consoles wouldn't feel the full impact until years later, partially due to a series of ports that either didn't control well, weren't full-screen or were censored. Thankfully, everybody had gotten their act together by the time Doom 64 came to the Nintendo 64 in 1997. With brand-new levels and updated graphics, this was the home console version of Doom that gamers had been waiting years for. Unfortunately, it would quickly be overshadowed by GoldenEye 007, but Doom 64 remains one of the best takes on the first-person shooter outside of the PC original.

When it came to the reviews, you're going to see a lot of disappointment. Part of that simply comes from the fact that this game was released four years after Doom first wowed gamers. Since then, we've seen a lot of first-person shooters, including Id's own Doom-killer, Quake. In the case of Electronic Gaming Monthly, you also saw the editors disappointed by the cuts made to the game. Crispin sums it up this way: “Sure, I was a little disappointed that Midway scrapped the four-player mode, but this is still the best version of Doom ever. If only you could jump and look around, but then it would be Quake.” Dan was a lot more down on this Doom port, but for a completely different reason: “Don't forget, I do have a personal bias against first-person shooters, so please disregard this review if you love ‘em. After you get over how pretty Doom 64 is, you may get bored with its repetitiveness.” Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Doom 64 an average score of 7.5 out of 10.

Although it is seen these days as one of the better Doom games on console, a lot of magazines gave this 64-bit game middling reviews. Nintendo Power, for example, gave the game a 3.7 out of 5. Computer & Video Games was equally unimpressed, giving it a very middle-of-the-road 3 out of 5. That's the same score we saw from Next Generation, who agreed that it's “easily the best looking Doom yet,” but complained that “in the end, Doom 64 is just Doom with better graphics. While that may be good enough for some, to us it's starting to show its age.”

That said, there were a number of magazines that sang Doom 64's praises. Die Hard Game Fan, for one, gave it an average score of 96% back in their 29th issue. 64 Extreme went as high as 93%, but then knocked 10 points off that score when they reviewed it again five issues later. For those looking for the highest score, then look no further than GamePro, who gave it a perfect 5 out of 5. Because of course they did, it's GamePro. “The classic corridor shooter gets a facelift with the best-looking and challenging version of Doom yet. Those who thought Doom was dead, think again.” Wait ... were there people who thought that Doom was dead? Man, people had no perception of time back in the 1990s. Thankfully, we do these days, and I can attest that Doom 64 is a good time.