Duke Nukem I Review

Duke Nukem Platform-PC Year-1991 Developer-Apogee Genre-Action-Platform Perhaps no other character in video game history has inspired as much controversy, criticism, fanboysim and mockery as the one and only Duke Nukem. His games are brash, rude and violent, but his roots were more humble than recent outings. Lets go back to 1991, and take a look at the beginnings of the most macho man in video gaming. GAMEPLAY Taking place in the far distant future of 1997, Dr. Proton and his army of Tech bots have taken control of Earth's largest city, which naturally by 1997 will be Toronto. Pulling a Dr. Wily, Dr. Proton a once respected genius and scientist decided he wanted to rule the world. Not being able to find a Pinky (of Pinky and the Brain fame), he made a robot army to help him out. Apparently he also spilled some hot sauce on his brain so he went crazy and fled underground to plot things. So, the CIA hires Duke to pour some milk on Dr. Protons brain to relieve the burning sensa… OK I may of taken some liberties with the story. The characters are quite amusing and interesting, especially when you run into killer energizer bunnies. Having less than 10 different enemies within a game isn't exactly new to a duke nukem game and it apparently started in the first game, but what you have there is interesting enough to not be a problem. There's only one boss battle per episode, and its the same character each time, Dr. Proton, which seems a bit lame, and is. I'd of preferred more boss battles, or something a bit more epic at least like in the commander keen series, but you wouldn't be able to call those traditional bosses anyway. Episode 1 itself is great, the levels are well designed, fun, and interesting to look at. Then it sort of goes downhill in the very beginning of episode 2. Scott Miller did the level design for the first episode, and it would seem he actually knew what he was doing compared to the others who did episodes 2 and 3. The backgrounds are static, and can look very nice with the foreground, but some times the background is just...black. And funny enough, these tend to always be the worst levels in the game. It's almost like these levels were complete filler, and they didn't even bother putting in a background. There's really only 3 controls you have to worry about in the game, jump, shoot, and move. It works well, and I never had any control issues. You can also change the buttons for your liking, and use a control pad. The HUD seems overly big, but its very clear and saves you time from looking into a menu or otherwise. You can upgrade your gun, to shoot more bullets at the same time, and obtain power ups to get into new sections of a level, and these are shown on your HUD as you acquire them. Its a fun addition to the game play, but as it is level based, you don't get a huge metroid like world to explore and discover new areas with new items. GRAPHICS Duke Nukem is a fairly colourful game, almost too colourful for a bad ass such as duke, but its not like duke nukem was ever a serious enough game to be frowned upon for colourful graphics. The pink shirt is a bit strange though, but I guess duke is just secure with his manhood to wear a pink shirt, and watch Oprah. The game is overall fairly simple in its design, animation and flow, but it works well and doesn't really hinder the game. Sometimes its odd having Duke float a bit while he jumps, but we can just say he’s an amazing jumper. Enemies and boxes sometimes rain down on your head, which can be pretty freaky and very annoying if you're trying to survive, as these can be unavoidable while trying to progress. It can be quite hilarious, however, when these things happen, as there are a number of sections where a ridiculous amount of enemies just fall on you. Either I start laughing hysterically, or let out a slew of curses, it all depends on how much health I have. A criticism Duke Nukem gets a lot is that a lot of sprites and textures have been copied from games like Turrican and Megaman on the PC. While it does indeed look bad, I'm sure I could find the same crate in about twenty other games as well. Game designers copy off of each other all the time, its not exactly new I would say. SOUND Apogee themselves have said this game is in a Sega Genesis style. Well I guess this could be true, but it still very much feels like an early 90's PC game, which is a good thing. If I wanted it to feel like a genesis game, I would play genesis games. An early 90's PC game has a very huge flaw however, the PC speaker. This is the point where the rose tinted glasses come off and drags everything down with it to make a great game into a decent game. I absolutely hate the PC speaker. It does have its nostalgic value, but it quickly wears off when you hear one annoying god awful sound after another. Not only that, only one sound can be emitted from it at a time, but I guess that could be a good thing as multiple horrific ear bleeding sounds cant come through at the same time. OK, maybe I'm being a little too harsh on it, but lets just say I turned it off. CONCLUSION Duke Nukems first foray into the gaming world isn’t his best, but it also is not his worst. It was a decent beginning for our beloved hero to launch him into stardom. Well OK, Duke Nukem 3D launched him into stardom, but that’s for later. Be sure to check the game out for shits and giggles, but don’t expect a masterpiece. Remember, this is only my opinion, check the game out for yourself and judge!