Wolfenstein 3D (Atari Jaguar)

Wolfenstein 3D (Atari Jaguar)

Did the Jaguar manage one of the best console ports available?

When talking about first person shooters for the Jaguar, most peoples first thoughts are Alien vs Predator or Doom, and the Jaguar did have a great port of Doom, but with so many ports out there for the Playstation, 32x, 3DO, Sega Saturn and Super Nintendo, it’s certainly not the best port.

Wolfenstein 3D was already a few years old when it was released for the Jaguar and everyone was anxiously awaiting Doom, and I think that’s a real shame. Wolfenstein 3D was designed as a tech demo just to make sure the Jaguar could handle Doom, what we got was one of the best ports of Wolfenstein 3D available, a game that runs quickly at full screen and unlike a lot of other first person shooters for the Jaguar, still has all the audio and sound effects intact.

Wolfenstein 3D itself has had numerous ports, and the Jaguar version is based off the Macintosh release. This release had a combination of enemies and weapons from the PC game and its expansions. Arguably the best console port can be found on the 3DO (which itself a port of the Jaguar version). 3DO Wolfenstein has been modified to match the PC version more closely, with better sound, updated graphics and more frames of animation. But for me, the fact that Wolfenstein 3D on the Jaguar comes on a cartridge with no loading, a keypad controller that makes it easy to strafe and switch weapons and full-screen action, makes the Jaguar port my preferred as far as the Macintosh family of ports is concerned. A highly underrated game for the Jaguar and one definitely worth looking at if you’re after some more truly playable titles.

If you like the Atari Jaguar, you may want to check out reviews for games like Iron Soldier and an overview of the fighting games available on the system.