[ Retro Scan of the Week ] Duke Nukem Boy
December 6th, 2010 by Benj Edwards
“Your Game Boy is about to become a man.”
While I’ve been a fan of Duke Nukem since his initial shareware debut in 1991, I’ve never played this 2D platformer for the Game Boy Color. It arrived relatively fresh on the heels of the mega-success that was Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, along with a handful of other spin-off titles for various game consoles.
The true sequel to Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem Forever, is supposedly coming soon (after 14 years in development hell), and I look forward to playing that when it arrives.
By the way — if you like Duke Nukem, you may enjoy reading this interview of 3D Realms founder and president Scott Miller that I did last year.
Discussion Topic of the Week: Which is the better game: Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, or Quake? (Not just technologically speaking, but based on the overall experience.)
December 6th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Speaking as someone without the qualifications to judge properly, (I’m not a FPS player in general) I’d go with Duke. It’s the one that I’ve played the most, and the only one I really like. Even now I’ll fire Duke 3D up on my netbook (with the hi-res patch) and play a level or two. It’s just a very entertaining game overall, and I like that it doesn’t take itself too seriously.
December 6th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
I’d say it’s a toss-up, between Doom and Quake. Doom had massive, maze-like levels which were fun to explore as well as to kill everything that you can see, but Quake was extremely immersive, even back in its day, and it just completely sucks you in. I’ve played Duke Nukem 3D, and, it just lacked a certain something for it to be entertaining to me.
December 7th, 2010 at 6:28 am
Duke Nukem 3D was such a great game, it still wins one of my favourite all time moments in playing computer games. I remember there was an underground train and at each station there were monitors where you could see what was happening at the next station. Realising there were some baddies waiting at the next station I jumped on the train, dropped some remotely detonated explosives, jumped off the train and returned to the monitor, the train left and when I saw it arrive at the next station I detonated the explosives remotely taking out the baddies.
I love a game that allows that sort of joined up thinking.
December 7th, 2010 at 6:39 am
Wow, I had no idea this version even existed, although I’m not so much of a gameboy-er so I guess that makes sense.
As to game play, definitely Duke Nukem. Jet packs, man! And the atmosphere, and the cheekiness of the whole thing, plus coming to it from having played the 2D version gave it almost a fanservice kind of aspect. I enjoyed Quake, but I really LOVE Duke Nukem.
December 7th, 2010 at 11:44 am
This is a hard, hard question; I have such fond memories of all of them. Duke Nukem of course had a great single-player story, full of humor. Quake had, run on the right system, the best graphics and smoothest gameplay. They all have terrific multiplayer. But I think for me Doom edges out the other two, for a couple of reasons. One, it came first, and was my first exposure to (nay, coined the term) “deathmatch,” and two, it had very accessible level editing. So much fun for you and your friends to challenge each other to deathmatches on levels of your/their own design! We came up with some damn ingenious stuff… the best was a secret room, tricky to get in to, with a map layout on the floor of the whole level, with rooms that changed colors based on triggers in the real rooms so you could tell where the other players were! Sure, DN had actual monitors, but creating levels in Doom was half the fun.
December 7th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
I fell in love with Doom on the Super Nintendo. If that’s not giving it high praise, I don’t know what can. Years later, I would play through Doom 2 in one of the Opengl variants and I could never play the SNES one again. Obviously. Although I ended up playing through Doom again later too, the sequel’s BRILLIANT levels stand out so much more to me than the original.
All that said, I played through Duke again recently when it came out on XBLA. I think I played through it in 3 sittings, playing for hours at a time. The humor is horribly outdated, and arguably was even at its release. But looking past that, the level designs reach heights beyond, in my opinion, Doom 2. So, I simply have to bet on Duke. The final campaign with the Dukeburger and Theme Park levels were just too good.
Related- that GBC Duke game was pretty darn good. I’d rate it right up there alongside either of the first two Duke games. I enjoyed Manhattan Project as well. Really wish it got more time in the sun.
December 8th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
I also loved the modability of Doom, however I can say the same for Quake. Killer Quake and Painkeep mods, changing skins, custom weapons, and the Cujo bot made Quake fun. I liked Duke for the humor and I also liked having a jetpack and a shrink ray.
December 9th, 2010 at 12:44 am
Duke3D = best Single-player.
“Damn…. Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride!”
Quake = best online Deathmatch.
In fact, there is still a community of Quake DM players online ( http://quakeone.com ). That says something about how fun the old game is…. The servers don’t get a lot of action these days, but you can find a few players online at any hour of the night. Actually, I am the programmer for the Future vs Fantasy Quake mod 😉 Come play on our server if you get bored! http://fvfonline.com
December 10th, 2010 at 2:15 am
Serious Sam!!!
February 8th, 2011 at 2:26 am
Doom, for sure, because I actually finished it. Duke Nukem 3D was great though because it looked awesome (but was hard on the PC requirements in those days) and was really funny. I’ve always meant to go back and finish it, like so many other things.
Both on PC.
March 13th, 2011 at 9:50 am
Here’s a scan from PC Gamer 1997 issue showing the “upcoming” Duke Nukem 3D.
http://i.imgur.com/GGY3F.jpg