"A good 1st-generation FPS for the GBA"

I enjoy the ''first person shooter'' style of game. In the past I have enjoyed playing Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, PO'ed, Duke Nukem, Terok, and many other FPS games.

I bought my GBA back in May, so for the last six months I've been itching to get a good first person shooter for my GBA.

A few days ago I found a local store with copies of both Telegames' BACKTRACK and Id's DOOM for Gameboy Advance, so I rented both to compare them. I found that I actually liked BACKTRACK quite a bit. I would compare it very in graphics and gameplay to the classic (and first) FPS ''Wolfenstein 3D''. I'd rate BACKTRACK a strong 7 out of 10.

The movement of the walls and the enemy characters reminds me very strongly of Wolfenstein 3D. The frame rate is decent and fluid. The characters are rather bizarre looking - but they work. The wall 'tiles' are just varied enough to give you a good sense of visiting more than a few rooms. BACKTRACK is not DOOM or QUAKE, but it is plenty playable.

The sound effects are decent - but are not outstanding. There is some digitized speech and the background music does a good job of setting the mood.

The controls are very similar to Wolf 3D. You use the shoulder buttons to dodge left and right for strafing, D-Pad for turning and movement, button A for shooting / action, button B for changing weapons, and START and SELECT for map view, loading or saving your game, turning music on or off, etc.

One nice feature is that there is a 'brightness' adjustment control in the options menu. As many folks complain, the Gameboy Advance has a dark screen that can require a lot of light to see. This brightness control does make a significant difference in viewability: when brightness is cranked up to the maximum level the BACKTRACK screen is easier to see when you're sitting in a dim room, but when you're playing in a brightly lit room, dropping the level increases the visibility of the finer graphic details.

I have also tried out DOOM for GBA; it is an excellent port of DOOM and I would rate it a 9 out of 10.

After comparing the two carts I bought BACKTRACK.

Huh? Why you ask? Because I have played through DOOM several times on a variety of systems, and just could not see paying $40 to play through the same mazes and puzzles all over again. If I had not played DOOM before - or if the programmers had bothered to include some *NEW* mazes instead of retreading all the old mazes - I would have bought DOOM instead.

If you like Wolfenstein 3D, you'll like BACKTRACK.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/01, Updated 11/06/01