The Quirks of German Doom 1 & 2

[GermanPeter]

 

In this series of mine, I take a look at the German ports of video games and where the differences to the originals lie. This can be censorship to blood and gore, cut features, even voice acting and other silly quirks. This episode is all about the classic Doom games (1 & 2). Considering German censors take a lot of issue with extreme violence, and extreme violence was Doom's bread and butter... you can see where this is going.

Nonetheless, those games were available over here in Germany, in one form or another, namely the Gameboy Advance titles, and even some other versions.

 

Please let me know what you think! I'd really love to hear some feedback, or if I missed anything.

 

P.S.: not sure if this goes against the rules, I didn't see anything that forbids it, and I'd really like to discuss everything from the video with you guys, so I made a standalone thread to avoid clogging up other ones.

[drygnfyre]

The ban on the secret Doom 2 maps was lifted recently, last I checked. 

[GermanPeter]

1 minute ago, drygnfyre said:

The ban on the secret Doom 2 maps was lifted recently, last I checked. 

Oh yeah, they were all lifted a couple years ago. Still, the version of Doom 2 you can play on Steam itself (without extracting the WAD to use in GZDoom or something) is the Unity port, with the censorship still in place. Kind of like it though, it connects the Bethesda games more, and I already have the original Doom 2.

[LoatharMDPhD]

// Don't Mention Ze War!...

[Individualised]

I was waiting for this one for a while! Watching this right away

[OniriA]

Argh, mein leben!

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by OniriA

[LoatharMDPhD]

// 90's German Parliament were nothing but wet blankets...

[thiccyosh]

3 minutes ago, LoatharMDPhD said:

// 90's German Parliament were nothing but wet blankets...

 

Bold of you to assume they have changed over the last 30 years :P

[LoatharMDPhD]

// They Should've changed the Health Bonus Sprites to Steins of SPATEN...

 

revision...  Health Bonus' changes to Kolsch, Steins of Spaten are Stimpacks, and medikits are Cold Meat for Breakfast...

Edited October 4, 2023 by LoatharMDPhD
no 'e' in Kolsche

[LoatharMDPhD]

25 minutes ago, thiccyosh said:

 

Bold of you to assume they have changed over the last 30 years :P

oh i never even glimpsed at the possibility.. going hardcore progressive and doing silly things like... oh i don't know, decommissioning nuclear plants and switching back to coal and gas turbines seems like a not good brain think move... Atomic Power is the only bastion of progress, yet they decided in their duly elected wisdom to... well anyway... 45-70... the only government you should trust...

[Amaruψ]

It's a tad bit silly how they simply replaced the SS units in the BFG edition with zombies, instead of... I don't know, perhaps the chaingunners...?

[GermanPeter]

22 minutes ago, Amaruψ said:

It's a tad bit silly how they simply replaced the SS units in the BFG edition with zombies, instead of... I don't know, perhaps the chaingunners...?

I thought so too, but maybe Chaingunners would have been too hard? But then they could have only put half of them in there. The Zombiemen also make the levels far too easy, even easier than they already were.
Too much effort for the same people that thought the best way of censoring the levels was to just take literally every single Pee Baby imagery out of them instead of replacing them with anything :P

Edited September 30, 2023 by GermanPeter

[Amaruψ]

3 minutes ago, GermanPeter said:

I thought so too, but maybe Chaingunners would have been too hard? But then they could have only put half of them in there. The Zombiemen also make the levels far too easy, even easier than they already were.
Too much effort for the same people that thought the best way of censoring the levels was to just take literally every single Pee Baby imagery out of them instead of replacing them with anything :P

 

BFG edition is rather disappointing in general anyhoo after all. But, I still think that chaingunners being "hard" would've been a perfect homage to Wolfenstein 3D, given how much the smurfs (yes, that's what i'm going to call them now) were a formidable opponent xD

[Individualised]

50 minutes ago, GermanPeter said:

I thought so too, but maybe Chaingunners would have been too hard? But then they could have only put half of them in there. The Zombiemen also make the levels far too easy, even easier than they already were.
Too much effort for the same people that thought the best way of censoring the levels was to just take literally every single Pee Baby imagery out of them instead of replacing them with anything :P

They could have just kept the Wolf SS and swapped out their sprites/sounds.

 

BTW, just wanted to point out a minor error in the video; it wasn't Nintendo who mandated the changes for the GBA version but Activision. Though Nintendo's marketing for the GBA definitely had a part in it.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Individualised

[GermanPeter]

9 hours ago, Individualised said:

They could have just kept the Wolf SS and swapped out their sprites/sounds. 

 

Considering they completely took out ALL the imagery without even attempting to do couple little changes to them like removing the hooked crosses, I think they either didn't care to do that there either, or thought it wouldn't be enough to appease censors. Either way would have been a lame change, to be honest. The "MEIN LEBEN!" is so iconic that replacing it with generic grunts would have been super lame.

[Amaruψ]

10 hours ago, Individualised said:

They could have just kept the Wolf SS and swapped out their sprites/sounds.

 

Putting their laziness aside, I think this would've been rather perfect to replace the Wolfenstein levels with something to pay homage to Commander Keen or any other Id game that predated Wolfenstein 3D. 

 

Creativity didn't come to them, which is a shame.

[Kinsie]

10 hours ago, Individualised said:

BTW, just wanted to point out a minor error in the video; it wasn't Nintendo who mandated the changes for the GBA version but Activision. Though Nintendo's marketing for the GBA definitely had a part in it.

There were only nine GBA games* ever released that attained an ESRB M rating. That platform's audience clearly hewed younger, or at least gave a strong impression of doing so, so Activision pushed for a lower age rating on GBA to increase sales.

 

* Wolfenstein 3D, Max Payne, Mortal Kombat Advance, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition, Dual Blades, Payback, Serious Sam Advance, Grand Theft Auto Advance

[GermanPeter]

4 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

* Wolfenstein 3D, Max Payne, Mortal Kombat Advance, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition, Dual Blades, Payback, Serious Sam Advance, Grand Theft Auto Advance

Serious Sam Advance? That's about as violent as Doom 2 on the GBA, what? What nonsensical ratings.

[Individualised]

37 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

There were only nine GBA games* ever released that attained an ESRB M rating. That platform's audience clearly hewed younger, or at least gave a strong impression of doing so, so Activision pushed for a lower age rating on GBA to increase sales.

 

* Wolfenstein 3D, Max Payne, Mortal Kombat Advance, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, Mortal Kombat Tournament Edition, Dual Blades, Payback, Serious Sam Advance, Grand Theft Auto Advance

Was that really because of GBA games being toned down or was it more of a case of the GBA just not being able to display detailed enough graphics for most games to be able to reach that rating, even if not intentionally censored?

Edited October 1, 2023 by Individualised

[GermanPeter]

9 minutes ago, Individualised said:

Was that really because of GBA games being toned down or was it more of a case of the GBA just not being able to display detailed enough graphics for most games to be able to reach that rating, even if not intentionally censored?

Honestly, I don't think there's a single enemy in the game that truly dies in a gory fashion. Even the Headless Kamikaze seem to explode into what looks like red ash more than bloody bits. With Wolfenstein 3D, I could understand why, since they even kept the Deathcam that shows you how violently the boss dies. But Serious Sam? come on. Most of the enemies are aliens!

[DoomGappy]

Thanks for pointing out GBA Doom TC, cool looking sprites. Great video, subbed. 

[Xvoom]

Cool.