What's better: Doom's shotgun or Doom 2's super shotgun?

Last time, you decided that ricochet attacks are better than blue shadows on dodges and dashes. I expected this outcome but am still glad to see a good quarter of you favoured cool essence over cool effort. We continue. This week, in honour of Doom's 30th birthday (we've already written about John Romero's memories, motion sickness, and inviting monsters to a birthday party, with more to come), I ask perhaps an impossible question. How could anyone ask you to pick between two iconic tools of ultraviolence. What kind of monster would. Yet we must. What's better: Doom's shotgun or Doom 2's super shotgun?

Doom's shotgun

Boom chak-chik. Boom chak-chik. Boom chak-chik. Boom chak-chik. A repetition so potent, so vital that you'd replace your heart beat with it, if only you could. It's only your second gun and such a vast upgrade, yet remains viable and versatile throughout the game. It cuts through swarms. It can dump ammo into big faces. It can even pick at a distance. And it makes that noise. It's monstrous yet almost feels elegant. A pump-action scalpel.

Doom 2's super shotgun

"That thing you adore? We've made a bigger, fancier, more murderous version." Rapturous applause. The audience rise from their seats in a standing ovation then fall to their knees, weeping. They did it. They really did it.

It's astonishing, of course. Alongside your regular shotgun, you now have the option for triple the damage at twice the ammo cost in a little longer. And as a bonus, you get that double-barreled reload animation. You might won't use it always. You can't, not with the pace it eats ammo, but maybe you'd want to.

Maybe. Doesn't it feel overkill, maybe? Inelegant, maybe? Crass, even? But who would entertain these questions when knee-deep in the dead? A fool. A fool desperately hoping to find angles on an impossible question.

But which is better?

I thought I would find this difficult, I thought I would find it impossible, but I asked myself the question directly and I knew instantly: Doom's shotgun. It's perfect, it's just perfect. But what do you think, reader dear?

Pick your winner, vote in the poll below, and make your case in the comments to convince others. We'll reconvene next week to see which thing stands triumphant—and continue the great contest.