Duke Nukem II

aka: Duke Nukem 2: Escape from Alien Abductors!, Duke Nukum II
Moby ID: 1009
DOS Specs
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Description official descriptions

Duke Nukem II is a platform game and a sequel to Duke Nukem. While giving an interview on TV, the famous muscular hero Duke Nukem is captured by the evil Rigelatins, who intend to use his brain for conquering Earth. Duke easily escapes his prison cell.

Now he has to make his way through four episodes, each one consisting of an assortment of levels with varying graphic design. On his way, Duke has to destroy lots of obstacles and enemies - both Rigelatin forces and apparent local wildlife. Initially, Duke has just a weak laser rifle, but he can also find a flamethrower (which allows him to shoot down to launch himself in the air), a rocket launcher or a far more powerful laser cannon. These stronger weapons, however, have limited ammo.

There are also lots of items to collect: health items such as soda cans or atom power-ups, Duke Nukem merchandise which gives score, keys and access cards that let him pass through locked door or electrical barriers. Duke can also find a rapid fire power-up which lets him shoot faster, a cloaking device which allows him to go through forcefields, and a globe which will give the player a hint when brought to a special pedestal. A lot of items are hidden in boxes of various colors which have to be opened by shooting. Beware, as some boxes do not contain items, but rather a harmful bomb!

On some levels, Duke can find a small spaceship. He can enter it and fly around the level, using the ship's powerful cannon to mow down everything in his way. However, the ship won't fit everywhere, so Duke will have to get out of it eventually.

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Credits (DOS version)

14 People (12 developers, 2 thanks)

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 59% (based on 11 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 76 ratings with 9 reviews)

Duke's back - with a vengeance!

The Good
Damn, this game is just SO GOOD! The entire atmosphere of the game is so ridiculous you'll spend your time rolling on the floor... Duke's attitude adds just so much to the game you won't believe it!

This game features excellent graphics, great music and sound effects, great controls and most importantly hours of fun gameplay. If you love platform games, better get this one - it rocks!

The Bad
Que? Bad? Hell no, mate!

The Bottom Line
Another thumbs up for Apogee!

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 2000

Don't ask... Nukem!

The Good
The game explodes right into action right from the beginning, the awesome tune (titled "He's Back") starts Duke's mission of kicking asses of hundreds of enemies. The game has a very fast action-paced gameplay so you won't get bored. The levels varies from prison cells, ruined cities, aircrafts, volcanic caves to space stations. The great graphics, catchy tunes and the desire to make new hi-score keeps you going, though the game is almost 10 years old...

The Bad
The levels weren't as great as in the original Duke Nukum, but it all is forgiven by the good sides of this game.

The Bottom Line
If you have a change to test this game, try it! One of the best side-scrollers I've played. If you're already hooked, you can find the full version on most of the Duke Nukem 3D releases as bonus on the CD.

DOS · by Dae (7169) · 2003

Entertaining game, but nothing revolutionary

The Good
Duke's back in his 2D side-scrolling era, and he's packing more humor, more action and much better graphics.

The game is just like the original: a side-scrolling action game with an emphasis on blowing shit up and using weird items and stuff instead of just progressing to the right side of the screen while jumping over some mushrooms. As I mentioned, this game builds the Duke personality up and starts adding that beef-cake charisma that would become so prominent on Duke3D. The plot is typically a by-the-rules platformer, where some bad aliens kidnap our man Duke (as he is presenting his book "Why I'm so great" or something like that!) in the hopes that his dissapearance will facilitate the takeover of earth. Obviously, you break out (using a nuke hidden in your teeth!!!) and now it's time to show those aliens the pointy end of your boots.

To facilitate the task at hand you have quite an arsenal of Nuke-sanctioned weapons, most of which have some hidden feature (ie. the flame throwing-thingie allows you to jump higher), and more weird items like grappling hooks and even vehicle sequences (which are limited but still a fun diversion). The levels themselves are not the most imaginative ever, but they are complex enough to satisfy most gamers, and provide plenty of hidden challenges and goodies for those high-score maniacs that like to clear out every single level of their games.

Finally, the game has way better graphics, with much bigger sprites, cleaner animation, and much more detailed backgrounds and characters. They still have that colorful appeal so common to many Apogee games and everything does look super-cutesy, but they are a major improvement over the original. Soundwise the game also added some new tricks (Duke talks to you in the opening!!), etc.. etc.. in all, the game feels much more polished and proffesional than it's predecessor.

The Bad
It is nothing we haven't seen before, the gameplay is standard platformer action, and gets old real fast, and the Duke-lore isn't enough to lift the game to new heights like on Duke's 3rd game. I also have the feeling that while the technical improvements were many, this game could have been much more impressive and not just another cute Apogee platformer... ah what the heck.

Duke2's worst flaw is that it's nothing spectacularly innovative of entertaining, it's just an averagely entertaining game.

The Bottom Line
Duke 2 is better than 1, but I don't think anyone could care less really. Another run-of-the-mill platformer that just happens to have a little style (and I do mean "a little", unlike on Duke3D) and lots of guns and items. You won't die if you try it, but you aren't really missing anything if you pass it up.

DOS · by Zovni (10503) · 2003

[ View all 9 player reviews ]

Trivia

Development

The voice in the intro, "I'm back!", is done by Joe Siegler, 3D Realms' webmaster.

Graphics

Duke Nukem II and its predecessor obviously used graphics taken from other games, for instance from Turrican and Savage, two classic platformers. See this link for some good examples. It is unknown, but doubtful, whether or not this was done with permission of the authors of these games.

Game Titles

An official statement from Apogee regarding the many game titles of Duke Nukem:

*There is frequently a great deal of confusion over the correct spelling of one of Apogee's most prized characters, Duke Nukem. The original spelling for the name was "Duke Nukem"; however, during the code fix stage between v1.0 and v2.0 of the original game, Apogee found a character overseas named "Duke Nukem" that was thought to be copyrighted. So, for v2.0 of the original Duke game, the name was changed to "Duke Nukum." Then, during the programming of the next Duke Nukem game (Duke Nukem II), it was discovered that the character they found overseas was not copyrighted after all -- and so the original name was reinstated. "Duke Nukem" is also the spelling used in all successive games that featured the character.

The spellings "Duke Nuke 'em," "Duke Nuke'um," "Duke Nuke'm," "Duke Nuk'em" or other variations are not, and were never, correct. The correct spelling of the game is "Duke Nukem".*

Music

In addition to using graphics from Turrican and Savage, the first level's music bears a striking resemblance to Megadeth's "Angry Again".

References

In this game Duke is kidnapped by Rigelatins, a reference to Star Trek's Rigelians.

Technology

Duke Nukem II requires a VGA compliant video card in order to run, which would be capable of displaying 256 different colors at a time. Nevertheless, the game's graphics feature only 16 distinct colors - this was already possible using the older EGA standard. It's essentially still an EGA game engine, only using the VGA specific features to provide a custom color palette.

Re-releases

  • A complete version of Duke Nukem II is available on Classic Games Collection CD featured with the July 2000 issue of PC Gamer Magazine.
  • You can find the full version of Duke Nukem II on the CD of Duke Nukem 3D (as well as the first Duke Nukem game).

Information also contributed by Bhatara Dewa Indra I, Cantillon, Goteki45, Karthik KANE, Kyle Levesque, NGC 5194 and CaptainCanuck.

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Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition
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Duke Nukem 1+2
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  • MobyGames ID: 1009
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.

Linux added by Plok. iPad, iPhone added by Kabushi. Macintosh, Windows added by lights out party.

Additional contributors: MAT, Xantheous, Frenkel, CaptainCanuck, Patrick Bregger, lethal_guitar.

Game added March 8, 2000. Last modified January 31, 2024.