MACHETE - DEAN OF DOOM - S3E17

Welcome to Dean of Doom, the show where we give grades to classic and contemporary Doom wads. Why? Because ranking things is fun. Today’s episode will be dedicated to Machete, a Boom-compatible megawad released in 2023 by A2Rob. If you're familiar with NaNoWriMo - short for National Novel Writing Month - there's a Doom equivalent called NaNoWadMo: an annual October event intended to catalyze creation of wads, specifically megawads. Machete was born during NaNoWadMo 2022, filled out and polished by year's end, and shipped in January, making its gestation period significantly shorter than Rob’s other solo projects despite containing more levels. Prior to this release, A2Rob was best known for his Running Late series, whose second entry nabbed him a Cacoward in 2020. A loyal disciple of Erik Alm and Vanguard-era skillsaw, A2Rob bases his ricocheting combat and economical layouts on the works of his great mentors, but he's patented slick urban/industrial aesthetic all his own, peddles puns with the best of them, and occasionally infuses his maps with dry visual humor. Running Late 2 is more ornate, but Machete's loose, improvisational gameplay and rapid fire delivery attract me more, and seeing as it's Scythe’s 20th anniversary, the time seems right to Dean of Doom it.

Link to the megawad:
https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/lev...

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