Gaming Oddities: Super 3D Noah's Ark

You might have heard of Wisdom Tree, a Christian gaming company that has had a history of making Christian-themed remakes of various other games, including some they made when they were known as Color Dream. Wolfenstein 3D, one of the earliest shooters, got this treatment, resulting in the release of Super 3D Noah's Ark, an unlikely combination of a first-person shooter set on Noah's Ark.

What the Game Is 

The first thing I should point out is the shape of the cartridge. Most Super NES cartridges are gray rectangles that, when sat upright, have the cover on the front near the top, the title on top and a slot to insert into the console on the bottom, but the cartridge for this game is different. It's an oddly shaped black cartridge that, most notably, has a slot on the top that fits into a standard Super NES cartridge. The reason for this is because the Super NES does not allow unauthorized games to be played on it, and it's necessary to hook up an official cartridge to bypass this restriction. Wisdom Tree did not run into this problem with its previous unlicensed games on the NES, but Nintendo cracking down forced them to think outside the box.

On the subject of the game being an unlicensed game that's a total conversion of Wolfenstein 3D, there's a rumor that id gave Wisdom Tree the Wolfenstein 3D engine as a protest against Nintendo. Supposedly, id was unhappy with the censorship in the Super NES version of Wolfenstein- there's no blood, the dogs are replaced by giant rats, and all references to Hitler or Nazi imagery are removed. While id's motive for such a move seems plausible, there's no truth to the rumor; id licensed the Wolfenstein 3D engine to Wisdom Tree for a fee, meaning that giving out the engine was a business transaction rather than a chance for payback.

What's Changed and What Hasn't

Since Super 3D Noah's Ark is a total conversion of Wolfenstein 3D, some aspects of the original game have changed and others haven't.

Due to the game being kid-friendly and set in ancient times, Noah doesn't use guns. Instead, he can feed the animals by hand, which is equivalent to the knife, or use three different kinds of slingshots, which are equivalent to the pistol, machine gun and minigun. Unlike Wolfenstein 3D, there are also two other weapons, a slingshot that fires fruit in three-shot bursts and a slingshot that fires powerful watermelons. One slightly disappointing aspect of Wolfenstein 3D was that the guns only varied in fire rate, unlike other first-person shooters, which had guns that played unique roles and had their own separate ammo supplies. As such, this is a step in the right direction.

The enemies now consist of various kinds of "clean beasts," all but one of which try to spit at you. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult to tell when they are spitting, unlike in Wolfenstein 3D, in which you could see enemies raise their guns before firing. Those familiar with the Bible are likely aware that there are far too many of the "clean beasts" than should be on the Ark, not to mention that the same few types keep appearing again and again. Furthermore, the Ark is far too large to be a replica of the actual Ark.

The bosses consist of "unclean beasts"- a camel, a giraffe, a monkey, a kangaroo, an elephant and a bear. While the original Wolfenstein 3D's bosses weren't all that different from each other, you could at least tell that the second boss, which threw syringes, was different from the dual minigun-wielding first boss.

You may be surprised to hear that not only does Super 3D Noah's Ark have an entirely different tileset(portraits of Hitler are replaced by pictures of Noah), but the levels are also different, so I give Wisdom Tree credit for originality. Sadly, many of the levels are rather uninspired in terms of design, mainly featuring twisting passages. Like in Wolfenstein 3d, the "3D" is a bit of a misnomer, as there is no real vertical dimension to the levels; you can't jump, climb up stairs, ride elevators, fall or do other such movements. As a result, the levels have far less variety than the truly 3D Doom, not to mention other games.

Being a Bible game, Super 3D Noah's Ark has Bible quizzes scattered throughout the arc. If you pick one up, you will be given one of 99 questions, in either multiple choice or true/false format, about subjects relating to Noah's life and the flood. Answering correctly will give you a large amount of your health back(or feed, if you have full health), while answering incorrectly will give you some health as a consolation prize. This mechanic is a holdover from other Wisdom Tree titles, but while it provides a religious edutainment aspect to the gameplay, it feels rather extraneous.

Conclusion

As a game, Super 3D Noah's Ark doesn't offer much, since it's mostly a reskin of Wolfenstein that, despite offering new maps, doesn't demonstrate much creativity. Nevertheless, it's probably Wisdom Tree's most ambitious and well-known Bible game, as well as one of the few being sold digitally nowadays. If you're interested in a quirky but lackluster Bible game, feel free to check it out; otherwise, play Wolfenstein 3D instead.