"A trip down memory lane..."

Not many know of Duke Nukem's humble roots. When Nukem made his first appearance in the shareware gaming realm, he was just a heroic figure with pink skin who watched a bit too much Oprah. And he wasn't nearly as vulgar. He's come a long way since this first game (a platform action type adventure), but for those of you curious, it makes an interesting play...

GAMEPLAY: (7/10). It's just your average platform game. You enter the level, shoot a bunch of bad guys, find the keys, and skedaddle. Not much depth to the game. The most advanced that Duke Nukem's arsenal gets is that he can have more shots on screen at the same time.

CONTROL: (8/10). Walk, jump, shoot. Didn't get much easier than that. Nukem got some extra goodies later on (a claw to help him hang on walls, among others) but it's basically the same straight through.

GRAPHICS: (6/10). The 16 color limit really pales in today's standards. Back in its day, though, Duke Nukem was groundbreaking. It was made by Apogee Software, borrowing much of the programming from their earlier Commander Keen, and was a bit unique because it featured parallax scrolling, where the background scrolls slower than the foreground. Actually, in Nukem's case, the background didn't move at all. This made for some confusing long jumps. I didn't think this feature was too great even when I first saw it. But anyway...

SOUND: (5/10). Predates Sound Blaster, so the sound is tinny chimes through the PC's built in speaker. Bleh.

OVERALL: (7/10). It's worth a look for a little trip down memory lane, but if you're gonna check out the young Nukem, you have to remember that it's one of Apogee's earliest games, so don't expect too much. I have fun playing it from time to time, but there are other more fun games out there, and to me, even in its heyday Duke Nukem was strictly average.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/11/99, Updated 12/11/99