Duke Nukem

The Good
Back in the early Nineties, a man named Todd Replogle programmed Monuments of Mars, a CGA game where your mission is to rescue stranded astronauts on the red planet while uncovering the mystery behind the monuments. His next major project was Duke Nukem, a platformer designed to compete with other platform games released for the Nintendo and Sega consoles at the time.

A well-respected scientist who calls himself Dr. Proton suffered a terrible radiation accident that altered his brain. In 1997, he defected to the underground to build an army of Techbots, advanced robots programmed to guard his secret hideout from intruders. After attempts to stop him ended in failure, the CIA sends their best man, Duke Nukem, to put an end to Proton’s plans to unleash the Techbots onto the world.

Each game begins with an exchange between Duke and Dr. Proton. (I imagine Jon St. John still reading Duke’s dialogue.) After this, you are dropped somewhere in the level and have to make your way to the exit while dealing with Techbots, Snake Techbots, Mechbots, choppers, and Rabbitoids, to name just a few. You start with eight health bars, and one is lost if Duke comes into contact with an enemy. He earns an extra bar if he collects soda cans or turkey legs. Most of the levels require you to unlock passages with certain keys and get items such as circuit boards, grappling hooks, robotic hand, and jump shoes.

These items are displayed in the status bar on the right, below the score and health bars. If Duke manages to reach the exit, he is transported to a small hallway where the game tells you what bonuses are earned. A note can be read telling you what lies ahead in the next level. The hallways are your only opportunity to save your game, and up to nine games can be stored.

I like the level of exploration this game has to offer. In fact, exploring each level thoroughly is encouraged, given that you can earn bonus points for doing so. They are achieved by killing all the enemies in a level; destroying all the security cameras; collecting the letters DUKE (in that order); grabbing merchandise such as joysticks, footballs, and disks; and shooting all bricks with the word ACME on them.

Spectacular backdrops are seen throughout the game, and these include the decaying ruins of Los Angeles, the moon, an underground subway, shuttle bay, lunar cities, and several others. Most of them are unique to each episode, and more than one backdrop can be seen in a certain level. I like how you can see your own reflection in the water, and how Duke explodes in confetti when he loses all eight health bars before being taken back to the last hallway he left.

What's unique about Duke Nukem is that you can do stuff that other platform games won't let you do. For example, shoot a turkey leg and an extra one will suddenly appear alongside it, giving you two health units instead of one. If you feel that you have enough health by the time you see a soda can before you, shoot the can and then collect it as it makes its way up the screen for a nice amount of points. The variety of moves that Duke can perform is quite impressive. Not only can he somersault, he can also grab onto platforms using his grappling hook and hoist himself up onto the other side. I have never seen a platform game before this one that allows you to do this.

The game starts off easy, but gets difficult later. I found that if you just keep running left or right without thinking twice, you will probably regret it. Some platforms are wide apart, and the only way you can make it to the other is to time your jump probably. Also, in much later levels, about ten Techbots masquerading as one can be on the same platform. I even remember twenty Rabbitoids being dropped down onto a platform, but bumping into them is fun – they do a little dance before going up in smoke.

Duke Nukem was available in EGA only. There is no background music during the game, and sound effects are only through the PC Speaker. Although people think this is crap today, they must remember that VGA cards or Sound Blasters were not commonplace at the time the game was released. As a reviewer, I don't even care what the game looks and sounds like. When it comes to retro, it is the gameplay that matters. I understand that small companies had trouble obtaining new hardware and software as it is made available, and Apogee was one of them.

The Bad
Can’t think of anything.

The Bottom Line
I consider Duke Nukem to be one of the best games Apogee has done, but it is nothing compared to its sequel, which features better graphics and sound, as well as more elements added to the gameplay. What I like about this game is the way you can manipulate what you see on screen and use a variety of gizmos to get through the level. Die-hard platform fans should definitely play this game. Two thumbs up, way up!