Think Russell Crowe had it tough in Gladiator? At least he didn't have to be chased around by giant dragons, spiders, and faces-on-legs while a dozen armed soldiers fired at him through the walls. Those are some of the foes the player of Room of Doom faces as they guide a lone armed warrior around an enclosed arena. Soldiers line up outside the arena and fire at the player through openings in the walls, and a creature of some sort is unleashed within the arena as well. Shooting any of the guards takes them out of action for the remainder of the round, and getting rid of all of them advances the player to the next level. The creatures, on the other hand, keep on coming -- even if one is blasted to bits, a new one takes its place in the arena, and it's best to shoot them from a distance too, as even their thrashing death throes are lethal.
Easy to learn and insanely addictive, Room of Doom compensates for its visual shortcomings with fast-paced gameplay and a real hand-eye coordination workout as shots literally come at the player from every direction. Room of Doom is actually about as close as the Atari VCS got to Robotron's brand of maniacal multi-directional madness.