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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Music
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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)

A competent follow-up to a classic 2D Platformer

The Good
If you owned a computer in the early nineties, the Duke Nukem series was THE platform series to play. The first one was a very good game, and quite popular, with colorful, detailed graphics, and well designed levels. This sequel improves on every aspect of the original game. For one thing, the 256 color VGA graphics are a great improvement over the original's EGA graphics, as is the Sound Blaster sound effects and music. The animation is good, and it runs well on a 386. There are many detailed enemies, a great improvement over the original's few robots. In general, the levels are well designed, though some of the levels can be frustrating to get through, but it's mostly a joy to play. You start out with the assault rifle with unlimited ammo, but you can obtain a powerful laser or rocket launcher. There are many levels in the games four episodes, my favorite one is when you are on the outside of the space station with the sky whizzing by, and have to avoid the rocket engine blasts, very cool.

The Bad
The levels get repetitive after a while, and some are easy, while others are very difficult, they should have balanced the levels out more. The boss creatures are un-inspiring, being basically the same alien creature in different steel vehicles..ho-hum.

The Bottom Line
A very good platform game that requires some patience, but is worth it. If you are a fan of the first game, or just a platform game fan, you should get this.

DOS · by Ryu (50) · 2002

Duke blows up some more stuff

The Good
It's a great platform side-scroller. Duke's attitude and ambiance add a lot to the basic formula. Weapons are well balanced and interesting, and the game keeps you entertained from the start of Episode 1 to the end of Episode 4.

The Bad
The difficulty of levels is very uneven. Some are insanely hard while others are easily beaten in ten minutes. Side scroller formula can get repetitive for some.

The Bottom Line
A great side-scroller with the Duke's humor. If you like Duke Nukem, you'll like this game.

DOS · by Shadowcaster (252) · 2001

He's back to kick some more ass!

The Good
The original Duke Nukem was released by Apogee back in 1991. It mimicked platform games for other consoles such as the Sega Genesis at the time, with its spectacular landscapes, sound, and gameplay that was quite rarely seen on any system. Everything about it was so good that it deserved a sequel, which the company delivered two years later. After defeating Dr. Proton (about three times) and his army of TechBots, Duke wasn't given much of a break. Embarrassing for him, he was abducted during a TV interview by aliens that wants to use his mighty brains to wipe out Earth.

There are four episodes in the game with eight levels each, with the final one having you to deal with a boss that takes a bit of pounding to destroy. Each episode contains amazing backdrops, some of them are animated. Of these, my favorite one has got to be where the levels where there is an earthquake and you can see red storm clouds moving across the screen. In between levels, the "Get Ready" screen where you see a red bar getting longer and longer is excellent, too.

Duke Nukem II features the same elements that made the first game great. He can somersault in the air, grab onto ledges and skimmy across, teleport himself to another place, and grab his own merchandise. Almost each level of the game features laser barriers and other obstacles that will require certain items needed to get by them. In addition to this, there are restart points, hint globes, and space vehicles. The space vehicles can be used to progress through the level faster and kill enemies quicker, and you can mount or dismount it at any time. I really didn't need to use hint globes since I spent enough time in the level exploring and working out things.

Each level usually takes a bit more than ten minutes to complete, because of the amount of laser barriers and locked gates you have to deal with. The great thing is unlike the original game, you can pass through restart points so that when you run out of health, you don't have to go back to the beginning of the level, taking up more of your time than you need.

Duke has the ability to grab a variety of weapons along the way, and these weapons very much help him defeat the baddies quickly. One weapon worth mentioning is the flamethrower. Not only does it have some extreme firepower, which can kill everything in a chain reaction, but it also has the ability to be used as a jetpack. I remember somewhere in the last episode, I grown tired of getting up to three platforms above me, so I used the jetpack to get to the platform I wanted. But then, one of the turrets blew me down to where I was and I couldn't get back up as I exhausted its fuel supply.

There is actually rock music during the game, and some of this music is excellent. I enjoyed listening to the music while you are defeating the boss; it really fits the occasion. There are digitalized sound effects which make playing the game more realistic. When I first played this game, my system crashed half-way through the level, and I thought it had something to do with the sound effects.

The highlight of this game is the superb introduction to the game. The introduction, ten minutes long, gives you an insight of what happens to Duke. The picture of Neo Los Angeles, is the best artwork I seen in the game so far. The skyscrapers and the gradient colors really make the artwork stand out. Besides Alien Carnage, there are no introductions like this one in any of Apogee's games. Cut-scenes can also be seen after you defeat each boss.

The Bad
I had so much fun with the game, that I couldn't find any flaws with it.

The Bottom Line
Duke Nukem II is so much better than the original game. It uses the same gameplay, but now you have these new features that really blow it away. I would really like to see this game remade in the near future, with updated graphics and sound, and even better, the introduction and cut-scenes in which Duke is actually voiced by Jon St. John, not some Schwarzenegger impersonator.

DOS · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2011

[ 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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  • 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. Windows, Macintosh 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.