For today I will be only discussing Super 3D Noah's Ark. Although the other games I may discuss in the near future with other games. This also going to be my last blog entry for the year. I figured something very unexpected to end the year on. In all honestly, I actually got a lot to say about the game. Maybe a few stuff you aren't expecting at all for me to say too.
Super 3D Noah's Ark (2015)
Originally released on SNES in 1994 with an DOS port the following year. Most people likely knows the game from The Angry Video Game Nerd's Bible Games 1 episode. There's three of them, I had to specify which one. More interesting is the actual developers themselves. They were originally Color Dreams that made a lot of unlicensed NES games.
In a rather unexpected move, they changed their name to Wisdom Tree. In order to start selling Christian video games. Yes, this is real video games that had more limited places to be sold during the console run. Some of their games even got ported to Sega Genesis. Action 52 being an entirely different compilation game from the more famous NES one.
It's a little weird including Bible Adventures, they done two games based on Noah's Ark from the bible. Even stranger, Konami developed an officially licensed NES Noah's Ark game too. It's vastly different from Wisdom Tree's games. Back then, Nintendo were quite strict as well as willing to force their methods onto companies to better their own profit.
Eventually this led to a lot of lawsuits. A great YouTube channel for those stories is Gaming Historian. Believe it or not, Wisdom Tree did license the Wolfenstein 3D engine for Super 3D Noah's Ark. SNES received an heavily censored port of Wolfenstein 3D. This led to rumors that were confirmed not to be true.
We aren't pass all the weirdness yet folks. Nintendo developed an lock out chip in their SNES consoles. This move caused Wisdom Tree to do something directly against Nintendo. They were surprisingly creative about it. If you seen the cartridge itself, it's virtually an reproduced NES Game Genie device. They used this with any official SNES game cartridges on top to get around the lock out chip.
Obviously most of SNES' competition didn't do the lock out chip idea. Although Genesis ended up with the most unlicensed games of it's era. Super 3D Noah's Ark is vastly similar to Wolfenstein 3D. In most aspects, it's very similar to the original FPS game. Of course this being an Christian game there were some notable changes.
You are playing as Noah instead of B. J. Blazkowicz. Instead of fighting Nazis, you are fighting animals. They altered their kill defeat animation to them simply sleeping. All the weapons are changed but mostly plays the same. I actually realized this game had slightly more weapons. You still can check walls for secrets.
I will confirm a few other things, this is way better than the mission packs for Spear of Destiny. I am dead serious, in comparison the levels were much better designed. The bosses stands out more with Burt the Bear virtually being this game's Hitler. You also come across scrolls that has quizzes. If you answered them correctly, you'll get some health.
They replaced treasure with fruit which strangely fits the theme. The entire game is played inside the Ark itself. I knew the Ark was huge but not this big!!! The rerelease version has achievements, I felt they done a good job. The music is surprisingly decent too with some cheesy sound effects. Keep in mind, they didn't fully change the attacks of your enemies from Wolfenstein 3D.
You can still get hit from a notable distance. Even if that attack isn't that close to you. Which kinda screams being cheap. Super 3D Noah's Ark could be one of Wisdom Tree's greatest games. If you give this game an chance, it's worth checking out for a little while. It's not better than Wolfenstein 3D but more playable than Spear of Destiny at least.
This could be seen as an decent alternative for your Wolfenstein 3D fix. They didn't simply reuse Wolfenstein 3D levels but some levels in a few areas are somewhat similar. You get scored the same as Wolfenstein 3D with Noah's fully shown. You get a lot of enemies in the levels to keep you busy. Thankfully in the newer version, you get an map to help you out.
Let's be honest, it's quite easy to get lost. The controls I mostly used the classic keyboard and mouse worked perfectly. I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. This also my first time reviewing anything Christian before. Super 3D Noah's Ark is an underrated FPS classic. Even with the more obvious kid friendly artwork design, it kinda works.
I would play this over a lot of games including Saints Row reboot. I know it's difficult to believe this game exists right? To clarify, I still think Harvester the most mind blowing game I own on GOG. I will say this game works enough to keep on playing. I don't expect most to fully play through it in one go. Unlike Wolfenstein 3D, you can go straight into the next set of levels.
Like Wolfenstein 3D, the game itself broken into six sets of levels. Also like Wolfenstein 3D, each set ends with a different boss. If you couldn't tell by now, this is very loosely based on the bible story. More so than Noah's Ark in Bible Adventures. But more faithful to it than Konami's Noah's Ark game. To me, this was done in a similar rebellion move as Conker's Bad Fur Day.
For many that recall the story, Rare was known for making more kid friendly platformers back in the day. Some critics stated what originally going to be Conker's N64 game to follow suit. Which sorta came off being boring indirectly. Rare chosen to fully scratch it to make a very unexpected mature, parody N64 platformer game.
I had to talk about the single weirdest part of the story regarding Super 3D Noah's Ark
In this particular case, Wisdom Tree was angry at Nintendo for developing the lock out chip. Nintendo barely allowed any Christian video games on their systems. They went out of their way to make Super 3D Noah's Ark to get back at Nintendo. I still haven't stated the weirdest part of the story. Yes the weirdest about to go through the roof!!!
This is very mind blowing for people that never heard this following story. Very early in this game's development, it was going to be an licensed game based on ready for this? I highly doubt you ever will be. They almost made an Hellraiser game!!! Yes we are talking about the nightmare fuel horror movie franchise.
Pinhead more recently gotten into Dead by Daylight. However the deal for that fell through plus getting the Wolfenstein engine was quite expansive. They don't think they could've pulled Hellraiser off on NES either. There was a prototype before the original Doom came out. They quickly felt they couldn't compete with that, a good move.
Doom recently celebrated it's thirtieth anniversary. John Romero released Sigil 2, an sequel to Sigil. Both of them are essential spiritual episodes 5 and 6 to the original Doom game. I'm an huge Doom fan, I had to fit something Doom into this before the year ends. Also, Doom got inducted into World Video Game Hall of Fame, an huge honor a couple years ago.
They also ultimately went against doing Hellraiser since it was directly against their Christian style video game company. All of this eventually led to Super 3D Noah's Ark. Considering all of that, we still ended up with an decent Christian FPS game. Usually when similar stuff happens any game from those ends up being terrible.
It's a miracle this game doesn't suck. Super 3D Noah's Ark you do sorta feels like you're Noah exploring the Ark. The artwork while exploring works similar enough to Wolfenstein 3D, great graphics. Even with it being tune down to a degree, you don't feel like anything is missing. This game does truly deserve some respect or at least some praise.
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