Product description
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Duke Nukem, the politically incorrect action hero and ultimate
alien ass kicker, defends Earth and its babes from alien invasion
in Duke Nukem 3D. This is the award winning game that helped
define the FPS genre, introducing unparalleled interactivity, and
a main character that spoke. Take the fight to the aliens across
39 levels featuring Hollywood, Los Angeles, a moon base, and
alien spacecraft. Innovative items like the Jetpack, HoloDuke,
Shrink Ray, or Pipe Bombs allow you to fight the aliens in any
style you want. Defeat the aliens, so Duke can get back to some
R&R with a stogie, a warm belly, and a bottle of Jack.
.com
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Duke Nukem has been ridding the world of alien scum for some
time now on the PC, so his move to the Nintendo 64 was highly
anticipated. The result is a nearly direct translation of the
infamous PC game to the N64. The entry is a welcome one, since
Duke injects a y a of politically incorrect humor into
the painfully serious first-person shooter market.
Gamers shoot their way through a variety of levels modeled after
real-world locales, such as movie theaters and office buildings.
The action is fast and bloody, courtesy of your arsenal of
powerful weapons. Call us crazy, but we especially liked the
grenade launcher. This weapon shoots delayed-fuse projectiles
that can bounce around corners to dislodge lurking enemies.
When you tire of the single-player levels, you can partake in a
fun deathmatch with up to three other players. Thanks to some
adept computer-controlled "Dukebots," you don't even need to
round up any friends to enjoy this portion of the game.
The game's major fault is its poor graphics. Levels and
explosions are rendered in 3-D, but everything from monsters to
weapons are depicted as flat, pixilated 2-D sprites. Duke Nukem
certainly isn't the prettiest shooter on the N64, but it is among
the funniest. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
* Deathmatch offers a fun alternative to solo play
* Realistic environments add to gameplay Cons:
* Poor graphics
* Occasional slowdown
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From the Manufacturer
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The 'King of Shooters' is bringing all of his muscle power and
attitude to the N64. Featuring 4-player split-screen action
compatible with the Nintendo Rumble Pack.
Review
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Ever since I finished Super Mario 64, I've eagerly scrutinized
the boxes of the games that come through the VideoGameSpot
offices for pictures that indicated to me that this game would
finally be the one that would once again give me the thrill of
seeing this incredibly powerful little platform perform the
graphic miracles I'd seen when that Mario 64 cartridge filled the
slot at the top of the unit. This one? No, this one? Wait...
maybe this is it - GoldenEye! In fact, that was the game I was
looking for - a thrilling graphic tour-de-force! But it's not the
game I'm reviewing. Duke Nukem 64 is today's subject. Duke, the
older, less-capable, gone-to-seed cousin of Quake's PC warrior
has been ported to the N64, bringing his characteristic
sprite-based enemies and bad attitude to the House That Mario
Built, and it is my task to tell the story of what happens now
that he's here.
It wasn't a leap in graphics technology that made Duke so popular
- the 3D engine inside it was merely a shade better than previous
games and was soon put in its place by Quake. It was the wildly
humorous and sleazy game world 3D Realms created that won over
gamers, taking them to places they'd never been before - an adult
bookstore, a space station, a strip bar - and giving them a
protagonist with an attitude they couldn't resist. Duke's pithy
Bruce Campbell-isms at appropriate moments during the game, like
his gravelly, throaty "come get some" when you have him pick up a
weapon he particularly likes at the time, were adorably macho and
drew the gamer in further.
Most of these elements have been preserved in the N64 port.
Naturally, Eurocom has removed the more salacious aspects of the
game - figuring, I suppose, that some parents might object to
their children learning about sex by giving sprite-based go-go
dancers five-dollar bills to bare their s, only one of
several moments of highly prurient pleasure that the original
game offered. But those with a eye for irony will note that all
the violence of the original game has been preserved. Duke's
armaments still do all sorts of awful things to alien bodies, and
their screams, when struck or in their death throes, remain music
to his ears (and his, to theirs).
Gameplay follows the now-predictable 3D shooter pattern - enter a
level, pick up weapons, shoot anything that moves, find objects
that let you complete the level, and move on to the next. The
weapons continue to be genre-standouts - like the pipe bomb,
which can be dropped one place and exploded when Duke is out of
range, and the grenade launcher, which shoots explosive
projectiles whose pleasant, hollow clanking as they bounce along
the ground is as often as not followed by the pulpy, squishy
sound of the rending of alien . Other items the player may
find during the game are devices to let Duke travel through water
and air, Duke-lookalike holograms that can be deployed anywhere
to fool evil minions, and vials of X that can be
swallowed to give our hero the burst of speed he needs to make it
around one last bend.
It's sad but unsurprising that the game's look pretty much
duplicates the original PC game. While texture-ped scenery
looks a little better, no doubt due to techniques like hardware
antialiasing that the graphics chips inside the N64 were made
for, all monsters, items, and basically anything changeable in
the environment are implemented as sprites - essentially, sets of
still pictures that show the same character in different
perspectives. It's not very vivid. The Sony PlayStation port has
also appeared and looks just about as good. Doesn't anyone think
that's a crime? Shouldn't games shine more brightly on the N64?
Three more controllers plugged into your Nintendo lets you and
three friends go at it on a split screen, either cooperatively or
competitively. It's fun to blow your pal away; it's too bad that
he can see you stalking him (since you're both watching the same
TV). You can play on any level of the game, and you can choose to
end each level after a set number of minutes or kills. You can
also call up one to three Duke bots, computer-controlled Nukems
that attack you with vastly more viciousness and accuracy than
any of the game's monsters. It's hard to tell them from your
human nent, since you all wear the same blue jeans, red
tank-top, boots, and flat-top haircut, but who really cares. It's
a fun shoot-'em up whomever you're shooting.
And that's Duke Nukem 64 in a nutshell. The graphics aren't up to
platform snuff, but it's a decent 3D shooter, and it's got style.
When Quake 64 ships, plenty of people will buy it for the flashy
graphics and hot reputation, but those who've already been
wallowing in Duke's testosterone-laden smirkfest (and I mean that
in the best possible way) might be having more fun. --Larry
Edelstein
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. GameSpot and the GameSpot
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