Duke Nukem Advance

"Wow... I can't belive I wasted $19.99 on THIS!"

Introduction - I was searching and searching EVERYWHERE for this game, when I finally found it at my local Gamecrazy store, I was overjoyed. ''Forget Prince of Persia on GBA!'' I thought, ''This will be much better!!''... boy was I wrong.

Gameplay - Lets just start out by saying that this review will contain the word ''generic'' a WHOLE lot. Because that's all this game is! It's the only thing that comes to mind while playing this game. Generic new enemys, generic bosses, generic levels (excluding one group of levels). On top of the generic-ness of it all, the game was short! Very few levels, about 20, if that. It has nothing that made the PC version the classic that is now is. But before I got any further, let me quickly clear up, THIS IS NOT THE PC GAME!! This is a new game engine and everything. No new voice clips (it seems Jon St. John (the voice of Duke Nukem) didn't want to do a GBA game, or didn't know about it), but instead, there are text windows that explain things, filled with old one-liners from old Duke Nukem games, and some new ones, all of which are un-funny. However, the difficulty was just right for me, as were the controls. Controls, like any FPS on GBA, took some getting used to, but then eventually made sense.

Story - In some year, durning Duke Nukem's life, he is, for no reason, in a Area 51-like lab. He is after aliens making an Alien Army of grey ETs (no, the game doesn't call them that). Kill them. 1 extremely minor twist, but FPSs arn't all going to follow Half-Life's example, especially a GBA FPS.

Graphics/Sound - The enemy's from the PC version all look scrunched in on the GBA screen, while the new enemys all look boring and generic, but still fit on the screen right. The sound effects, the ones taken from the PC game, all sound alright, coming out of the GBAs tiny speaker, but the voice clips are kindda fuzzy sounding, as to be expected on a GBA game. The ONLY music in the whole game is the Duke Nukem theme song, that plays at the title screen, pause screen, pretty much every time that you arn't playing the game. And they even messed THAT song up. Jeez...

Play Time/Replayability - Duke Nukem Advance is extremely short, I beat it in about... I'd say 3 hours. I had absolutely NO incentive to beat it again, not like GBA Doom, which I beat at least 7 times.

Final Recommendation - Do NOT waste your money on this game, it is bad! For $5 this game is good, but for $19.99, (I bought it used) this game is HORRIBLE! Don't give it to anyone as a gift, and don't own it. Avoid it at ALL costs, unless you collect bad games or something...
5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/31/03