Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour

Genre: First-Person Shooter

Players: 1-8 Co-Op / Competitive (Local Wireless / Online)

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Review:

Duke Nukem is something of a joke these days after the countless years the game Duke Nukem Forever was delayed, only to release in a pretty sorry state. However, there was a time when Duke was arguably the king of the genre, and one of the games that helped to form what the genre would become when it was still in its infancy. Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996 when the genre was still catching up to the double-barreled shotgun blasts that were Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, and with it, Duke brought a new level of verticality to the gameplay, a new level of interactivity with the environment, as well as a huge amount personality.

20 years later, in 2016, the original game was re-released to multiple platforms with all of the original content intact, most of the expansion content (minus the expansions from Kill-A-Ton Collection and Megaton Edition versions of the game released over the years), a completely new fifth episode designed by the original game’s creators, developer commentary, a nifty rewind feature, optional re-recorded dialogue, and an optional graphical makeover that, while not even close to bringing the game up to modern standards, does at least improve textures, resolution, framerates, and overall makes the game look a great deal better. It is this version of the game that has been released to the Switch in 2020 with added gyroscopic motion controls and HD rumble.

So there are two ways you can look at this game’s presentation. On the one hand, this is a big improvement over the original game – the improved textures, resolution, and framerates alone make this game so much better to play. Having said that, there’s no amount of sugar that can coat the fact that this game is extremely archaic to look at. Definitely more graphically advanced than the original Doom, but not by much. Characters are still rendered as sprites in a 3D environment, which can make things look very strange if you pay too much attention when circling around objects or when watching an enemy who is much higher or lower than you. Make no mistake – this game is absolutely a product of its time, and that will become immediately apparent from the moment you start playing it.

That “product of its time” thing also applies to the game’s themes. Duke himself is a character that is clearly a parody of the testosterone-fueled 80s-90s action film archetypes (even spouting off macho catchphrases from countless films), but the amount of violence and misogyny on display here is something that gamers may still find shocking today, even as pixelated and quaint as it is. Not many games feature a strip club in their first few levels, fewer still let you approach the strippers with cash to have them flash you, and even fewer still let you turn around and blast away those strippers into giblets with a shotgun after you’ve had your fun. Even Grand Theft Auto tends to keep its blatant sexuality and its over-the-top violence separate.

However, while there are definitely elements of this game that may not have aged gracefully, the gameplay is surprisingly still a blast. Oh,don’t get me wrong, the gameplay definitely reflects a very old-school sensibility that lacks a lot of the features we’ve made norms over the years. However, the fast-paced action is still plenty of fun, the level design is still memorable, and the amount of fun secrets hidden in seemingly every nook and cranny still make the world a delight to explore. Plus, a feature that allows you to rewind the gameplay to any point before you died really helps to cut down on the frustration caused by the game’s frequent ambushes – now you can simply pick the last moment you felt things were going well and try something different.

The Nintendo Switch version of the game does feature local wireless and online multiplayer play for up to eight players, and I had mixed feelings about this. To be sure, I’m glad the online competitive play is there, but I felt like it was too hectic to be enjoyable, and while the connection was mostly pretty good, there were a few moments where it definitely seemed like one of the other players was doing the ol’ latency teleport. I dunno, maybe it’s just not my speed, I suppose. On the bright side, the game supports online co-op for up to eight players, which is pretty fantastic, although I’m disappointed at the lack of local split-screen here.

However, the Switch’s unique features are a welcome addition here – both the gyroscopic motion control and the HD rumble definitely add to the experience, and if it wasn’t for the lack of some content from earlier versions, as well as the lack of split-screen (we had that all the way back on the N64 version!), this could have been the definitive version of the game thanks to those additions. Instead, it’s merely a very good port.

And hey, that’s not too shabby – while Duke Nukem 3D is clearly a relic of its time, it’s a relic that’s still a ton of fun to play today, and the added features in the 20th Anniversary World Tour edition do a great job of both preserving what was great in the original while smoothing over some of its rough edges. Fans of the First-Person Shooter genre looking to revisit a classic will find this to be a superb addition to their Nintendo Switch library.

tl;dr – Duke Nukem 3D is a classic First-Person Shooter that helped to define the genre over 20 years ago, and the Switch version includes a lot of extra bells and whistles over the original, with a lot of polish to help modernize the game somewhat. Granted, it’s still a relic of its time – even the improved presentation is archaic, the gameplay is extremely old-school, and the violent misogyny present here is shocking by today’s standards. But as long as you can be understanding about these anachronisms, you’ll find the gameplay here is still plenty of fun, even today.

Grade: B

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