Go Go Retro!

By: Starlea7 (Jenn McSweeney)

May, 2011

What is so special about the month of May? Did you say Mother's Day? How about one of the mothers of all first person shooters released this month back on May 5, 1992?! If you said Wolfenstein 3D give yourself a 1up! Although Wolfenstein 3D is technically not the very first shooter game, its revolutionary game play and graphics have been the blueprint of most of all future FPS games. This game made its world debut as a popular PC game, and then was marketed for home consoles in 1995.

The most important contribution this FPS gave to the gaming world was an introduction the FPS genre. This FPS brings the player into the world of the Nazi regime at Castle Wolfenstein where you become Allied Spy Prisoner William “B.J.”Blazkowicz. Blazkowicz attempts to make an escape using only a knife and a Walther P38 taken from fighting a cell guard. As B.J.’s story unfolds, he finds that the Nazis are creating an army of undead mutants to head up a chemical warfare strategy. Each episode contains missions as it levels, and B.J has to fight his way through SS guards, the head guard, a scientist, and Adolf Hitler himself. Although B.J. can sneak up on lesser opponents, he cannot do so to the episode's end boss. The end boss must be defeated before another episode can begin. As long as B.J. keeps his health and ammo up, the player can strategically defeat each episode and reach the opportunity to reach the bonus level by way of a secret elevator. 

With the historical, (but fictional storyline), this game is not without controversy. The original versions levels featured designs taken from the Nazis' swastika symbol. This led NES console versions to be heavily edited removing swastika and Nazi references and renaming Adolf as” Staatmeister”. Blood was also replaced with sweat to reduce the violent appearance.
With platforms such as IPAD, IPHONE, XBOX Live Arcade, Wolfenstein 3D can give us gamers a chance to play a historical game that has laid down the foundation standard for such FPS games as DOOM, and Wolfenstein sequels.

XBOX360 cheat:
To have an easy kill for those particle cannon toting Heavy Nazis, use Mire power. By using your Mire power the Nazis will have red targets on their shoulders. Try to destroy both so that a new target will pop up from the back. Easy shooting!