What if Doom, but also Mario??? - Let's Play Doom: The Golden Souls 2

[DoubleNegative]

Doom: The Golden Souls 2 is a level pack made by a modder named Batandy. It asks the question "what if Doomguy lived in a world like Mario inhabits? And what if the Cyberdemon was his Bowser?" There are 7 main worlds, each containing between 6 and 8 levels including a ghost house and a fortress, complete with a boss. It's all the super fast paced shooting action of Doom 2, but it also has Mario-style platforming. Yes. First person platforming. And Doomguy, if you don't remember, retains a lot of momentum.

It's gonna be done with voiced post commentary, and I'm gonna be doing some pretty tight editing. If When I die, I'll be cutting out everything until we get back to the point where it originally happened. This game is brutally difficult and pulls no punches. So as the LP wears on, expect a lot of editing. Also because there are so many levels, I would not be against inviting in viewers to make bad jokes comment over some of the stages!

If, for some reason, you want to play along, you can pick the game up for the low, low price of $0 provided you own a copy of Doom 2. It's 2020, so you very likely have a copy of Doom 2 on Steam. Or GOG. Get the mod here!

The Videos

Grasslands

1-1 - Green Plains
1-2 - Water Cave
1-3 - Groovy Grotto
1-4 - Oriental Garden
1-B - Calescent Castle
Boss #1 Uncut Footage

Desert

2-1 - The Land With No Name
2-2 - Arid Abode
2-3 - Silhouette Sunset
2-4 - Lilac Landscape
2-5 - Relic Ruins

[Blastinus]

Gotta admit, this is a lot slicker than I'd expect a Doom and Mario crossover to look. That hunting shotgun animation is really fun to watch.

I noticed that killing monsters and collecting coins gives you points. Is there any purpose to that, or is it just for fun?

[Kibayasu]

Well I can only imagine how mean some of these jumps are going to get. Tight platforms don't mix well with projectile dodging either!

[DoubleNegative]

When you beat the final boss, after the credits roll the game shows you how many points you earned. So they're just there for bragging rights!

[discountcleric]

I can't tell if this game is gorgeous or hideous.

[theenglishman]

I noticed there was some weird pitch warping on the coins' sound effects when you picked up several in a row. Is that a limitation with Doom's sound engine or is it something to do with the mod itself?

[DoubleNegative]

You know, I'm not really sure. I don't think it's an engine limitation, because it's not really even using Doom's soundfont. It might just be some variations on the collecting noise.

[DoubleNegative]

1-2 - Water Cave

HD is still processing if you watch this as soon as I post the video!

[Scaramouche]

That's just delightful. Every time I think I'm mostly used to it the Mario font will come up for something. It's too bad the soundtrack was probably copyright burdened as killing demons to the twee soundtrack of the original Mario would probably be a pretty funny incongruity.

[Gloomy Rube]

Yay it's getting posted here too, I don't wanna miss this!

[Artix]

Well I don't know what I expected from the description of "Doom, but Mario" but this wasn't it. It's pretty cool though! Also shy guys that shoot bullets are snifits.

[Gloomy Rube]

Is there any way to increase the volume of the music here or is there copyright issues? The rest of the sound balance is fine, but I have to turn it up really high to hear the music

[TuxedoTed]

This is a blast to watch! What a weird and wonderful concept.

[DoubleNegative]

Is there any way to increase the volume of the music here or is there copyright issues? The rest of the sound balance is fine, but I have to turn it up really high to hear the music

I'm deliberately turning the game audio down instead of auto-ducking. I'm normalizing my commentary to -3db while the game audio is being normalized to -15. I can boost it for future videos if you like, or even auto-duck if you don't mind the background getting louder and quieter instead of staying an even volume throughout.

[Gloomy Rube]

I would prefer a louder music at least, yeah. It adds a lot to atmosphere in doom maps, at least for me. Either solution is fine by me, since I'm used to both methods of balancing the audio so whatever seems better to you, thanks!

[DoubleNegative]

1-3 - Groovy Grotto

I'm fairly down on this level, but it's also probably one of the weakest in the hack. There's a lot of really interesting and fun levels yet to come, so at least the future is bright!

[Carpator Diei]

Wow, even just watching those jumps was almost painful. How did anyone think that was a good idea, even in a mod like this?

By the way, if anyone's interested in the first Golden Souls, this here is a pretty decent playthrough without commentary. You owe it to yourselves to at least watch the intro.

[Gloomy Rube]

The audio seems much better, thanks a lot for fiddling with it.

[discountcleric]

oh my god that platforming. a pox on whoever first thought of precision jumping = acceptable difficulty

[Kibayasu]

Yep, those are some mean jumps. Though honestly I think the crushers would have given me more trouble if I was playing. You can quick save around jumps.

oh my god that platforming. a pox on whoever first thought of precision jumping = acceptable difficulty

I think it was some Nintendo game. About some guy named Luigi I think??

[DoubleNegative]

1-4 - Oriental Garden

This level has a lot of really fun platforming. It's also got a maze. So in conclusion, Oriental Garden is a level of contrasts.

[Carpator Diei]

Well, at least now that the game has covered the worst part about platforming games (tight precision jumps over instant-death pits) as well as the worst part about FPS games (overly long mazes where everything looks the same), it can probably only get better ^^

[Gloomy Rube]

The theme from the level is this one from the SNES goemon game

I don't think it was very popular in the US so it's not surprising you hadn't heard it before.

[DoubleNegative]

1-B - Calescent Castle
Boss #1 Uncut Footage

The second link is 10 straight minutes of failing at a boss fight. Hope you like watching me get two shot by something from full health!

[JamieTheD]

Well, well, well... Didn't expect to see a Golem from Heretic, or whatever the hell the ghostly guy was! I was, however, amused to note that the Koopa Knights are basically the christmas reskins of the Hell Knights. And yes, mazes are hell, as anyone who's played, say, Realms of the Haunting can say.

But yeah, pretty interesting so far!

[Carpator Diei]

The mentioned WolfenDoom game is probably Blade of Agony; it's a spiritual successor to the original WolfenDoom mods, but I don't think those have a noticeable amount of platforming. In any case, Blade of Agony is quite an impressive mod; apparently the third and final episode is approaching completion and will come with a full overhaul of the first two episodes.

[Kibayasu]

Having to (almost) 360 no scope the boos in the ghost house is pretty adorable.

[DoubleNegative]

2-1 - The Land With No Name

A very good level and a fun introduction to the Desert!

[Carpator Diei]

That is certainly an uncommon setting both for Doom and for Mario, but it fits both rather well. It's nice that the mod doesn't limit itself to the aesthetic basics of its source material.

Fun fact about the spike-ball-throwing enemies: Their sprites are based on those of the Roach which is itself based on the Shadow, a rather frequently-used custom monsters and one of the few whose sprites were completely made from scratch instead of using some other monster as a base. The Doom community has an incredible amount of custom assets floating around, and some mappers make liberal use of them.

[Mopey Dick]

Speaking of custom enemies, I hate the guts of whoever decided to port the spider sprite from Blood to Doom. They even show up in this cutesy wad.
(Admittedly, it might be a different spider. I tend to not study those too closely.

[Kibayasu]

I'm not going to sit here and say that the game that puts Doomguy into Mario Land started as an incredibly consistent setting but it still seems kind of weird that we start with basic FPS weapons and then straight into a trumpet gun as our rocket launcher equivalent.

[TuxedoTed]

Wow, this second world is great so far. I never really thought about it much, but it really is nice to see a desert stage that isn't based on Saharan dunes.

[Commander Keene]

Wow, this second world is great so far. I never really thought about it much, but it really is nice to see a desert stage that isn't based on Saharan dunes.

But mistakenly has cacti anyways.

[DoubleNegative]

2-2 - Arid Abode

Ghost levels being token hunts is a nice way to break up the monotony of otherwise regular levels!

[Carpator Diei]

Ghost levels being token hunts is a nice way to break up the monotony of otherwise regular levels!

Interestingly enough, the first Golden Souls has token-hunt as a regular gameplay mechanic, with some of the levels having the player search for 8 red coins to get the level-ending thing to spawn. It makes some of the levels quite nonlinear.

[Tylana]

Just a quick post to say thank you for this LP! The game looks quirky but fun. I don't have a lot to say episode by episode, but wanted to show appreciation once at least.

[DoubleNegative]

2-3 - Silhouette Sunset

I really do not like this level, but to avoid 20 minutes of complaining, I try to offer constructive criticisms and even try to find some good in the level!

[Wordybird]

That bit with the pokeys near the end of the video gave me some real Pyro airblasting vibes, which is always a lovely thing to be reminded of. Off the ledge with you, pesky Heavy!

[TuxedoTed]

That sure was a visually striking level. I'm glad I got to watch it rather than play it myself.

The breakable blocks being introduced in a two tone section was pretty unfair, though.

[DoubleNegative]

2-4 - Lilac Landscape

Another fairly decent desert level!