Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project

aka: DNMP, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project - Total Mutant Mayhem, Duke Nukem: Projeto Manhattan - A Ameaça Mutante
Moby ID: 6505
Windows Specs
Note: We may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made via eBay or Amazon links (prices updated 3/25 4:41 PM )

Description official descriptions

Duke Nukem returns in a new adventure in a third-person platform game which hearkens back to the days of the original Duke Nukem platformers, but this time with a 3D game engine. The story takes place in New York City, where Duke battles his way across towering skyscraper rooftops and through gritty subway stations on the hunt for power-hungry villain, Mech Morphix. Mutants of every kind are thrown at Duke as he chases down Morphix through eight large stages and avoids the green slime called GLOPP that is causing all the chaos.

There are over 25 different enemies Duke has to face such as Uzi-sporting alligators, ten-foot tall roach beasts, Fem-mechs (Female mutant robots with deadly whips) and the classic Pig Cop - all while spouting off his sarcastic one-liners and saving babes. There are nine weapons to choose from, such as the Golden Desert Eagle Pistol, pipe bombs, a machine gun, a rocket launcher, a pulse cannon, and others.

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Videos

See any errors or missing info for this game?

You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.

Credits (Windows version)

49 People (42 developers, 7 thanks) · View all

Thanks to
  • The 3D Realms Staff
  • The Remedy Crew for additional playtesting
Special Thanks to
Design Consultants
Producer
Lead Programmer
Behavioral Programming
Programming
Prism3D Programming Support
Lead Artist
Artist
Art Support
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 72% (based on 54 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 75 ratings with 5 reviews)

Endearing and truly fun!

The Good
Duke is cool, what else can I say? His hilarious sense of humor and running dialog of detrimental quips to his enemies are worth the price of the game itself!

The Bad
Nada.

The Bottom Line
Fun and funny. Mutants don't stand a chance against our hero. He IS the ultimate alien, and now mutant, ass kicker. The graphics are a stupendous cross between realism and comic art. Great sound effects are loud and realistic. Is Duke a human or a super hero? Play the game and find out for yourself!

Windows · by kevin whatever (2) · 2004

A reminder of the first two Duke Nukem games

The Good
It will be a long wait until we get our hands on 3D Realms’ latest Duke Nukem game, Duke Nukem Forever, but in order to keep us entertained, 3D Realms, in conjunction with Sunstorm Interactive and Arush Entertainment, bring you Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. And if you played the first three Duke games (Duke Nukem, Duke Nukem 2, and Duke Nukem 3D), you’ll know who the hero is by now. Only this time, Duke takes a trip to New York where it seems that an evil ruler known as Mech Morphix is producing Glopp, radioactive slime capable of turning innocent citizens into monstrous beasts. And as part of his plan, Morphix has taken a few babes and strap them to bombs that will explode at any minute.

There are eight areas to explore: Rooftop Rebellion, Chinatown Chiller, Metro Madness, Unholy Underworld, Fearsome Factory, Tanker Trouble, Deviant Drilling, and Orbital Oblivion; and there are three parts in each area. When you load up Manhattan Project, you can also load up one of your saved games and pick which area and part you want to play or replay. Only those parts can only be played if you at least complete that part. In each, the object is simple: find the bomb strapped to a babe, defuse it, get a keycard that will open up the exit, and get the hell out of there. When Duke defuses the bomb, the babes will then thank you and position with her arms up in the air, suggesting that either she is holding up an invisible object, or begging Duke to hold her tight.

Stopping you from defusing the bombs and obtaining keycards are a bunch of enemies such as Fem-Mechs, Ratoids, and Gator-Oids. There are also your favorite Pig-Cops from Duke Nukem 3D. To kill these bastards, you have up to seven weapons at your disposal. These include the Golden Eagle, shotgun, pipebomb, assault rifle, missile launcher, and Glopp Ray. You also have your mighty boot kick that really packs a punch. Out of all these enemies, the Fem-Mechs are worse, as they somersault all over the place to avoid being shot at, and use kinky devices like whips and electrical rods. However, two shots from the mighty rocket launcher will wipe out these bitches. Some weapons have their advantages and disadvantages. The Glopp Ray, for instance, may be used to shrink enemies to the size of a rat to make them less threatening, but the process of shrinking takes time and it’s more likely that they will kill you before they have a chance to shrink.

You also can get items called Nukes, which helps you build up your weaponry if you manage to get all ten of them in each areas. Some may be out in the open, or hidden behind walls, which might be blown open by a pipebomb. Secret areas may also contain a few power-ups like more health, Double Damage and Force Field. Double Damage makes your weapons do twice the damage, while Force Fields turn you invincible for a short period of time.

Gameplay is similar to Duke1&2. Yes, you do have infinite lives, but there are some major differences. Unlike in these games, Duke can double jump to help him get to hard to reach areas, and if he is about to miss, he can hang on to the ledge and pull himself up. One thing I like about the game is when Duke moves, the camera angles moves as well, allowing you to either view the action close-up or far away (you can make the camera stay still by turning automatic zoom off in the Options menu). There is also no score indicator. You can even save in the middle of your game, so when you die, you’ll restart at the last save point.

Duke can interact with the environment. In most areas, for example, you can look at a monitor and spy on something. In the Chinatown Chiller and Metro Madness areas, you can use the phone to receive a funny response. And you can use soda machines to receive more health. But more often than not, you’ll have to push a switch in order to open a door, raise heavy items like crates, or make platforms appear. And finally, your favorite "Duke-Talk" from Duke Nukem 3D is back, with Duke this time saying one-liners like "You're more beautiful when you're dead!", "Say hello to my little friend", and "I hate pigs!"



The Bad
While playing the game, I found several bugs, even when I patched the game to Version 1.0.1. When I fired several weapons at some enemies, particularly the rocket launcher, the bullets and rockets go straight past the enemies, missing its target. In Part 2 of Orbital Oblivion, the part where you have to open the lab doors and de-mutate a couple of fiends, I was able to go beyond the start point, causing Duke to be sucked into space and float around (see Screenshot #28) Finally, the frame rate was a bit choppy when I got through this area.

The Bottom Line
Great game. If you’ve played all Duke Nukem games straight away, and can’t wait until Duke Nukem Forever is released, then Manhattan Project will get you playing for hours. ***

Windows · by Katakis | カタキス (43092) · 2003

Welcome back, Duke!

The Good
Duke Nukem returns home to the side scroller platform genre in which he was born in a beautiful action game with glorious graphics and intense action. He may be back in his old genre, but he's bringing with him the attitude from Duke 3D, complete with hilarious one-liners, many of which are original this time*. Duke even pokes fun at himself. "Someone's going to pay for making me find these friggin' keycards!"

It would appear that a big bad villain Morphix is terrorizing New York, so they call upon Duke to save the world, and to save the babes. Duke, equipped with his golden eagle begins his adventure jumping from New York skyscraper rooftop to rooftop killing pig cops and quickly descends into the sewers and subways, deeper and deeper until finally he reaches Morphix's layer.

Any fan of platform games will feel right at home in Manhattan Project. While the game runs in a strictly side-scroller manner, often times the camera will pan around and rotate to reveal to you that you're not just running around in a bland 2D sides-scroller world, but a real 3D environment. But sudden camera twists will never confuse you, because your movement is strictly side-scroller, with the only exception being that sometimes there are alternate and optional routes you can take.

You have eight or nine weapons to your desposal, as well as the infamous "Duke kick" which deals almost as much damage as a shotgun. Throughout every level there are hidden secret locations and "nukes", which if you can gather all ten in the level, you'll receive a permanent bonus to your health and ammo capacity.

Every area consists of three levels (eight areas total - 24 levels), and at the end of every area you'll fight a boss. These bosses, while perhaps a bit easy, are a blast to fight. In one level you'll be hanging off the ladder of a flaming helicopter heaving pipe bombs at it, and the next you'll be riding a subway while a twenty foot-tall cockroach chases you.

The enemies you'll fight are typical, and reminiscent of earlier Dukes. You'll fight pig cops, armed with shotguns, mutant gaters with uzis, as well as some newcomers to the Dukes, like women in leather with whips and goo-spitting cockroaches.

The battles are fought in traditional side-scroller action. Duck, fire, jump and kick, bam! bam! jump back, hang from the pipe, bam! bam! collect dropped ammo and move on. Blood and guts will splatter onto the ground and walls in these battles, and if you're not careful you might find some of that is your own.

The camera movement is excellent. I loved the way you never seemed to be running in a straight line, like most side-scrollers. Often, you would turn the corner, or the camera would shift to an overhead view so you can make it across a difficult path a la Frogger all seamlessly as you marched on. If you can't see what you're doing, you're able to manually pan the camera as well.

Some of the battles can get quite intense, but if you're good (or as good as whomever stars in the demo that begins when you start the game) you can get through it with ease. I wish I could do it that good.

Most of the one-liners from Duke Nukem 3D were swiped from Army of Darkness and other movies.

The Bad*
While the fighting was fun, it did get really repetitive. Maybe if there had been more death animations or more blood or something it would have been better, but it gets a little old when you kill a pig cop, watch him fall, walk a few steps, kill another, watch him fall the same way, and do it over and over again. The death animations aren't particularly interesting, either. They just fall dead. Never a dramatic sort of "knock-back" to illustrate the power of your shotgun or anything.

Your automatic rifle, pistol and shotgun all use the same ammo. Perhaps the rifle and the pistol I can understand, but the shotgun?

The 2nd through the 4th or 5th areas all look identical. It's all sewer and rails, and it gets a little repetitive after a while, especially after the dramatic change from the rooftop-jumping from the first area to the sewer in the second.

This is perhaps just an issue with my video card, but some areas of the game ran awful! There was nothing more in these particular areas than any other, but the game would go from perfect frame rate to .2 FPS for a little while.

Surely there are more "bad" things about this game since it was made to be a platformer and nothing more, and it certainly accomplishes that.

The Bottom Line
For twenty bucks, you bet this is a great game! Fans of Duke or side-scrollers in general, or those wanting to get a bit of nostalgia from them good ol' days will feel right at home in Manhattan Project. It's a great game all around and will provide hours of entertainment.

Wahoo!

Windows · by kbmb (415) · 2002

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Very underrated. DNMP (178) Dec 13, 2011

Trivia

Development

Developer Arush originally planned to do a remake of the original Duke Nukem platform game. In the game's folders there still is a soundfile called "proton", where Duke talks about the enemy he fights against. Proton was his enemy in the original Duke Nukem game from 1991. However, Arush then made up their own story with Morphix being the enemy.

Editor

Following the tradition started in Duke Nukem 3D, the game includes a complete level editor hidden in the CD's folders.

Extras

The initial release included a limited edition collectors keychain. The silver colored metallic keychain is circular in design. One side says "Duke Nukem Manhattan Project" and shows the Statue of Liberty with Duke Nukem's signature radioactive (Nuke) symbol behind it. The other side has "NYC" in big letters and says "Good for one fare - Transit authority".

References

  • In the first stage, there's an outdoor to the "Rats" play, a reference to Broadway's Cats.
  • In the second stage, if you pick up a public phone you'll hear a woman's voice saying something like "I know you're searching something Duke, and I know how you feel. Follow the White Rabbit", a reference to The Matrix movie.
  • Latter in the second stage, Duke must avoid some cars crossing a street. As he does it a couple of times, he says "what am I, a frog?", a reference to Frogger, the game.

Release

According to some reports, some retailers were initially not intending to stock this game claiming that it would not sell very well due to it being a budget release.

Information also contributed by chirinea, Daniel Saner and Zovni

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

Duke Nukem Mobile: Bikini Project
Released 2005 on J2ME
Duke Nukem: Time to Kill
Released 1998 on PlayStation
Duke Nukem Arena
Released 2007 on BREW
Duke Nukem Mobile
Released 2004 on Zodiac, J2ME, BREW
Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition
Released 2013 on Windows, Macintosh, Linux...
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition
Released 1996 on DOS, 2001 on Windows, 2014 on Linux...
Duke Nukem Forever Collection
Released 2012 on Windows, Macintosh
Duke Nukem 1+2
Released 2012 on Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 6505
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Xantheous.

Macintosh, Xbox 360 added by Sciere. iPhone, iPad added by Kabushi.

Additional contributors: Roger Wilco, Apogee IV, tbuteler, formercontrib, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third.

Game added June 2, 2002. Last modified March 16, 2024.