Playing Community Project WADs that don't follow strict rulebooks or stylesheets is kinda like buying a bag of Revels; the fun comes from sticking your hand in, feeling the shape of the chocolate, and popping it into your mouth for a taste. Sometimes you get something really sweet and delicious! Sometimes you get coffee... Sometimes you fuck up your teeth on a Malteser you weren't ready for!! Sometimes you surreptitiously pop a suspected peanut into your mouth, only to find out it's toffee - you thought you didn't like the toffees, but this one was pretty good? Huh?! These mapping grab-bags are a good way to surprise yourself and try things you weren't expecting, even if some chocolates/maps feel like defective products that fell off the production line somewhere along the way.
Don't worry - the analogy is over now. This is a decent mapset! My biggest wad-wide complaint about it is that it's just... a bunch of Doom maps. The title screen would have you believe Doomguy and Cyberdemon were gonna be heading to Hakone and Fuji and Tokyo and all sorts of iconic Japanese locales, but only a handful of maps even acknowledge the country's existence. Fair enough, I guess - American wadders aren't expected to put cheeseburgers and war crimes in their slaughter maps - but c'moooon! Don't you wanna hear an Imp say "yoyoiiii~" or slash a pinkie with a katana? The "omg japan so wacky lol" magic that we all eyeroll-but-secretly-love is present in just a handful of these maps (mostly Nanka Kurashiki's work) and I wish it had been sprinkled more liberally on the maps that are, for all intents and purposes, just re-laid Plutonia pieces.
Before I sign off here, MAP11 probably needs to be singled out for special praise. If you don't want to play all 32 maps in this pack but are curious about what it can achieve, just open-palm slam 'NEXTMAP MAP11' into your console and get straight to the good stuff. A great example of a map that conforms to almost zero of the "Doom rules" but somehow manages to build an incredibly fun, funny and memorable experience. I love when people get artsy with this game.
Don't worry - the analogy is over now. This is a decent mapset! My biggest wad-wide complaint about it is that it's just... a bunch of Doom maps. The title screen would have you believe Doomguy and Cyberdemon were gonna be heading to Hakone and Fuji and Tokyo and all sorts of iconic Japanese locales, but only a handful of maps even acknowledge the country's existence. Fair enough, I guess - American wadders aren't expected to put cheeseburgers and war crimes in their slaughter maps - but c'moooon! Don't you wanna hear an Imp say "yoyoiiii~" or slash a pinkie with a katana? The "omg japan so wacky lol" magic that we all eyeroll-but-secretly-love is present in just a handful of these maps (mostly Nanka Kurashiki's work) and I wish it had been sprinkled more liberally on the maps that are, for all intents and purposes, just re-laid Plutonia pieces.
Before I sign off here, MAP11 probably needs to be singled out for special praise. If you don't want to play all 32 maps in this pack but are curious about what it can achieve, just open-palm slam 'NEXTMAP MAP11' into your console and get straight to the good stuff. A great example of a map that conforms to almost zero of the "Doom rules" but somehow manages to build an incredibly fun, funny and memorable experience. I love when people get artsy with this game.