"Damn it, Bobby. The Legions of Hell have come to burn our clean fuel," so begins Modder FreewayHere's King of the Hill Doom WAD description (opens in new tab)." We must rip and tear until it is done, or Arlen will bow to the will of the damned."

Few things are truly as noble and righteous as Doom WAD riffing on 90s TV. Today's ambitious total conversion, voxelized sprites, and ray-tracing overhauls owe a debt of honor to the dope hack of '04 (open in new tab) that turns every pinky into a burnie (open in new tab).

FreewayHere keeps the tradition alive with this King of the Hill Doom pack. We are big fans of the file name "Hank.wad". The Hill family's absurd and often heartwarming ordeal fits surprisingly well with the horror and ultra-violence of Doom (open in new tab).

The star of the show is the FreewayHere sprites, especially Hank himself. The Doom Guy Hank multiplayer sprites and the Zombie Man replacer are good, but the HUD health indicator Hank's head got me. He looks as bloody and determined as Doom Guy. He also replaces numerous sprites, replacing barrels, health pickups, and hazard suits with propane cylinders, Alamo beer, and Dale's extermination suit, respectively.

FreewayHere's replacing the shotgun with a kind of riding lawnmower shotgun combo borrowed from WAD, Dea's Lawn (open in new tab)d, and the BFG 9000 is now a human portable gas-powered grill.WAD also includes the Hill residence itself, custom WIP version of the King of the Hill map is included, but it's still early days for the custom episode "That Imp Ain't Right." The show's main theme and a midi version of Ricky Nelson's Travelin' Man (opens in a new tab) do bang, however.

"Is the new level nearing completion?" No way. Am I a good level designer? Nope. But I can play as the literal propane gas legend, Hank Rutherford Hill. That's good enough for me, and I'd be remiss not to mention the addition to E1M1, Smoking "Sammy" Salmon (opens in new tab), the singing Manitoba fish.

I look forward to more of Arlen's goodness being added to Hank.wad in the future. For now, if you want to try out the current status of the mod, you can check it out on MODDB (opens in new tab). Before you do, be sure to get the open source GZDoom (opens in new tab).