The newest official port of Doom and Doom 2—classic ‘90s shooters from id Software—fully supports player-created mods and maps. And in less than 48 hours, you can now shoot Mario characters in Doom on your Xbox thanks to modders.
Yesterday at QuakeCon, id Software announced Doom + Doom II, a new enhanced port of the classic FPS games that include some new features and content, like a new official episode of Doom. But more interestingly, this recently released port adds full mod support to all platforms, letting anyone upload custom maps and mods to be played on Xbox and PlayStation. And uh, people are going wild with this feature, adding famous maps like nuts.wad, and a ton of IP-infringing mods that might not stick around long.
On Thursday, after work, I booted up the new Doom + Doom II port on my Xbox Series X and started checking out the mods that people had uploaded. At first, it was just a few things like Romero’s SIGIL 2 and Harmony. Cool stuff, for sure, but nothing too weird.
But by the end of the night, I found a Super Mario Bros mod, multiple uploads of Hexen, the creepy (and recently created) myhouse.wad, a few versions of nuts.wad, and even a controversial map pack created by one of the Columbine shooters. Someone has also uploaded a working version of “Imp Encounter,” aka the Doom map that infamously ends with the Doomguy having sex with an Imp enemy. So that’s now playable on Xbox, which is something I never expected.
As of Friday morning, all of these mods are still available to play on my Xbox. Just a few minutes ago, I booted up the Super Mario Bros mod, which swaps out enemies, weapons, and sound effects from Doom with stuff from the Nintendo franchise. It’s pretty well-made and has been floating around the web since the early 2000s.
Another I checked out isn’t as well made and features Simpsons characters replacing demons. I’m not sure Nintendo or Disney will be happy to see either of these mods playable on Xbox or PlayStation. I have to assume that Bethesda is going to sweep through these mods soon and start removing some of this stuff.
To be clear, I don’t want that to happen. Doom modding has a long history of taking other franchises and characters and cramming them into the classic FPS. Some of the best and most-played mods in history mix and match different IPs in silly ways. It’s a core part of Doom modding.
But, I also expect Bethesda doesn’t want to upset any other companies or risk a lawsuit, so I doubt these mods survive for long. But hey, if you are quick enough, you can download some and check them out on Xbox or PlayStation and have some fun before the lawyers ruin everything.
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