Doom is back! In mini form!  Well to be more precise, in 2D platforming form. Imagine a world in which iD software never made the leap to first person games, and Doom was instead a 2D platformer in the tradition of their platforming title Commander Keen. Well thanks to Calavera Studios you don’t have too, because it’s real. MiniDOOM is a short parody game based on the first Doom game, created as part of game programming course they ran on how to make platforming games on GameMaker Studio.

For a demonstration title, MiniDOOM is accomplished. Following the same rules as the original Doom, the player has to collect keys and get to the level alive. Most of the weapons are replicated, included the BFG, and  the levels correspond with the levels of the Knees Deep in the Dead chapter, starting in the hanger and ending in the Phobos Anomaly. Particularly impressive are the graphics, which recreate the enemies and the setting in a neat cartoony fashion but retain some of visceral gore of the original game. Even the heavy metal soundtrack and sound effects are replicated.

Released in time with this years’ Doom reboot, the title has gained some popularity, prompting Calavera to make further improvements to the game, including more weapons, more enemies, and an overhead mapping tool. The improved version – MiniDOOM 2 will be released in time for Christmas. MiniDOOM is a fantastic little platformer in the spirit of high quality indie titles such as Psych Waluigi, SteamWorld Dig and Rogue Legacy. Check it out. John Romero has. “Great job – I love it” he wrote on Twitter. What better endorsement could you want!