"...something about bubblegum"

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Before I get going here, I want to ask a simple question: What happened to friendly, jammin’ aliens like Toejam and Earl? It seems no matter where you look, the gaming industry is cramming ‘shoot aliens’ down our throat.

Mass Effect, Gears of War, Halo, Half-Life… all of these franchises highly successful, and all of them based on the same simple formula; Go in. Shoot some aliens. Save the day.

But before anyone confronted Saren, closed an emergence hole, pistol whipped a grunt or decided a crow bar works better as a club, Duke Nukem was the prime offender.

Duke Nukem 64 was the first Duke title released on a console (although it was developed as Duke Nukem 3D for DOS and Mac-OS). The concept behind the game is simple. Evil aliens have come to earth, enslaved and kidnapped countless babes, and it’s up to Duke to stop them.

As you begin the game, you find yourself on a rooftop armed with just your pistol and a can-do attitude. Unfortunately, I can’t recite the plot any clearer than I’ve done already. It simply doesn’t exist within the confines of the cartridge. I’m sure the booklet that originally came with it would cover the story more fully, but I don’t have that, limiting me to what little information I’ve found scattered throughout the levels.

Quite typical of older games, this one is split up into very clear cut levels. You start each level with whatever you carried over from the last one. You end the level once you’ve found the giant bio-hazard button and, presumably, nuked whatever critters you missed along the way.

As I haven’t quite finished the game fully, I can’t tell you the total number of levels, but I can say there are at least 15 or so. Certain levels become so difficult, I found myself questioning whether it would actually be possible to complete this game on the single player mode. Things like the giant machine gun wielding monster at around level 8 really made me start to wonder. I’ve been playing Co-op, which allows you to continue respawning as long as there is one player still alive (Halo style).

The weapon selection is a bit fairer than I originally suspected. Throughout the course of Duke Nukem 64, I’ve found a shotgun, sub-machine guns, a grenade launcher, and pipe bombs, as well as a few more complicated and unique weapons such as the shrink ray and plasma cannon.

Different kinds of ammunition also make an appearance, such as the “dum-dum” rounds for your pistol. These act like normal bullets, but are incredibly powerful. Along with weapons, items play a key role in the functionality of this game. Jetpacks, scuba gear, portable medkits, night vision goggles, and body armor, keep you searching each dark corner in case of hidden goodies.

Which brings me to this games very best feature:

Secrets are EVERYWHERE. I haven’t found every secret place on even one of the levels I’ve played, and I only know that because the level completion screen informs you how many found vs. how many total. I’ve searched for hours trying to clear a level, felt confident, and been crushed to find I missed not just one, but 3 or more. While others may find this frustrating, I thoroughly enjoyed it due to my unyielding love of ‘secret spots’.

Why did I pick this game?

Before this, I’d never tried my hand at a Duke Nukem game. Honestly, I avoided the series like some kind of disease. Why? Because I’d heard so many bad things about it. I even found myself making fun of Duke Nukem without trying it. This goes against my personal code, so I needed to give it a shot before I talked anymore trash.

How does it hold up with time?

Better than you’d imagine. Somehow playing this game makes me feel like a kid again. It has a very Doom-like trait to it that I love. Additionally, the controls, once you’ve grown used to them, are much easier to manage than other failed schemes like Goldeneye.

There is a tiny bit of auto-aim, not enough to play the game for you, but just enough to make that missed shot a ‘good enough’ shot. As I mentioned before, I love secrets, and the idea of finding something someone else couldn’t and being rewarded for it really gets my juices flowing. The time I’ve spent searching for secrets so far is enough to make me skip to Duke Nukem‘s tune. While its not perfect, this game has changed my view on the franchise quite drastically. Duke Nukem is no longer a “never-was”, and now qualifies as a “has-been”.

Tags: duke nukem, duke nukem 64, FPS, Friday Old Games, N64

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.