Wolfenstein 3D can pretty much be held accountable for the popularity of the first person shooter.. sure, Doom really got it off on the right foot, but before Doom, there was Wolfenstein, and life was good.

Wolfenstein for the Jaguar is, without a doubt, the greatest version to date, easily knocking aside the pathetic censorship of the SNES edition, and outmatching the PC original in every category.

[GRAPHICS]

The second you roll your thumb over the d-pad, you will realize just how smooth this game is. The framerate is a fairly solid 30 frames per second (although it has a tendancy to drop when near walls), until you decide to kick the speed up a few thousand feet by holding the 'fast' button.. it's really quite fast, yes sir.

The game runs at a very high resolution, meaning basically that just about everything is jam packed with detail. The weapons visible from your view point look very nice indeed, as do the walls, and, well.. everything looks 'nice'. In fact, I really have no gripes about what graphics are present.

..but I do have a few issues with what graphics COULD have been. As with the original Wolfenstein, the floor and ceiling are 100% texture free, and are instead solid colours throughout the game. It takes away slightly from the realism, but it is understandable why the visuals were kept this way, and that is to maintain the impressive smoothness that prevails throughout. That being the case, the lack of floor and ceiling textures isn't that serious a problem I suppose.

Enemies.. well, I have no complaints about the enemies, actually. Perhaps they could have had a bit more animation pumped into them, but as it is, the enemies of Wolfenstein 3D are all pleasing to the eye. Plus, just as unnecessary icing, they all have sufficiently gory deaths, usually involving gouts of blood (or in Hitler's case, melting from the neck down).

[SOUND FX/MUSIC]

The second I dived into the meat and potatoes of Wolfenstein, I realized something.. this sounds nearly identical to the SNES version. The music is nearly exact to that of the Super Nintendo Wolfenstein, perhaps improved in some place, but still very similar in overall sound (which is good, because the sound of the SNES version was one of the few positive aspects).

Sounds are very effective. Since the enemies only make noise once they see you, the only thing you have to warn you that an enemy is coming close is the sound of doors opening. Many times, I've heard that familiar 'cha-chunk' come out of nowhere when I haven't opened any doors lately, and the insanity that commences while I try to find just what the hell is coming my way would rank as one of the high points of the game, for me.

Anyways, it's all very good.. music is excellent (gotta love Jazz Nazi..), and sounds are done very well. But I must say, I can't imagine some of those pansy Nazi's in this game actually sounding quite that tough if they were to blurt out 'Achtung!' in the case of a real emergency.

[GAMEPLAY]

Do you hate Nazis? I sure do, which makes Wolfenstein's main purpose (slaughtering Nazis) very appealing. Bringing down the Third Reich has never been so much fun.

..but one has to realize that the basic Wolfenstein formula remains unchanged, meaing that this is, in essence, the same game that was released on shareware all those years ago. The lack of gameplay complexity that made it a hit in the first place stands intact, so don't expect any real innovation in this version (if you're one of those forward thinkers who believe in things like 'stairs' and 'elevators', you might be better off playing Doom).

Even so, Wolfenstein is a blast, and an obscene challenge in many parts (try mission 6-7 to see what I mean), but a challenge you will want to try your hand at time and time again. Run around a Nazi complex, open doors, shoot Nazis, dogs, undead mutant soldiers with machettes and pistols built into their chests, crazed, syringe-wielding doctors, double gatling gun armed insanity merchants, and Hitler himself. You can't go wrong.

Still, it does get a bit repetitive after awhile, I must admit. Since all the maps in this game are basically one-story flat mazes, you are somewhat limited in terms of where you can go. Still, this simplicity helps to keep the game at a breakneck and hectic pace, and one can not fault the designers for this reason.

..actually, in a manner of speaking I lied about there not being any innovations in this editon of Wolfenstein. The flamethrower that was first seen in the SNES version found its way into the Jaguar cartridge as well, and it still quite literally throws flame. It launches balls of fire like bazooka shells that explode on contact. ...Other returning weapons include the trusty knife (handy as a potato peeler in a room full of watermelons... whatever the fuck that means), the old reliable pistol (can't go wrong), the machine gun (the awkward stage in a young gun's life when it's not quite a pistol, and not quite a chaingun), the chaingun (its mulching prowess is unsurpassed), and the rocket launcher (...no real mysteries with this one).

One thing I noticed, though, is that you don't walk in a straight line.. maybe it's just my copy of the game, but when you press forward on the d-pad, you move mostly straight, but veer off slightly to either the right or left. Crazy.

[OVERALL]

Well, if you couldn't already tell, I'm very pro-Wolfenstein. This is easily one of my favourite Jaguar carts yet, and in some respects superior to Doom.. but in others a few steps lower on the complexity ladder. Still, that doesn't really matter - what matters is if it's fun.. and yes, it is. It's very fun. The challenge can get a little on the irritating side at times, especially considering that some levels are quite expansive and if you end up being massacred somewhere near the end of one, it's right back to the start for you. Ah well, deal with it, that's what I say - at least you have infinite lives and the ability to boost your health past 100%.

The bottom line is that Wolfenstein 3D for the Jaguar is an excellent game, and if you were a fan of the original, this will no doubt impress you.

[GRAPHICS] - 8.1/10

[SOUND FX/MUSIC] - 8.7/10

[GAMEPLAY] - 7.9/10

[OVERALL] - 8.2/10 (not an average)