Duke Nukem (1991)

A variant of the title screen from a time when Apogee was worried about getting sued by the Captain Planet people.

Name:Duke Nukem AKA Duke Nukum
Number:229
Year:1991
Publisher:Apogee
Developer:Apogee
Genre:Side-Scrolling Shooter
Difficulty:3/5
Time:7 hours 25 minutes
Won:Yes (99W/73L)

Before I started Duke, I didn't understand or really care about his side-scrolling days. I didn't understand it compared to the other Apogee titles. Now, after having finished it, I understand it even if I do not necessarily think it's better than their later games. The events as they happened make sense. If Keen was first, then Duke is second, and while these might not necessarily be the best side-scrollers of the year, the ease of copying and the overall simple yet effective package went a long way towards eventually netting him that FPS.

Despite the seemingly disconnected nature of Duke's earlier titles, I can see the link. Duke is still the same tough as nails figure fighting against a typical menace, just played far less comically. Interactions are quite important, albeit more connected to what you can do to various powerups rather than interacting with scenery objects. It's just that it seems weird because of Duke's now forgotten backstory where he's the CIA's last resort against a robot threat, armed with a laser gun and a can-do attitude. Which is such a weird phrase, it sounds like something you would use to describe someone who isn't your typical action hero, not someone who looks like he can clench his jaw so hard his teeth shatter.

That's basically just the story of the game too. A guy named Doctor Proton had a lab accident and now has a metal plate in his head. He's going to take over the world with his army of robots, stop him. This, frankly, plays out very oddly, because it feels like the game wants to put more effort into the story, because you have fancy portraits for our hero and villain, and then in-level scenes where Proton mocks Duke for his shortcomings. Yet there just isn't much there, and the game just ends. It's strange.

A mostly full inventory, only lacking the various keys.

Gameplay then, is the clear focus. Duke has 8 points of health, plus one final hit before he dies. A firepower which indicates how many shots he can have on-screen, up to 4, not that you really need more than 3. The inventory is for keys, the computer board key, extra jump power, a robot hand/robohand which is technically a key, and a grappling hook. That last one allows Duke to climb on certain roofs, jump up to reach them, then down to get off.

Duke controls very well. Arrows move, ctrl jumps and alt shoots. Complaints are mostly minor, there is no height control in a jump, the walk sound isn't properly linked to Duke's walk cycle and Duke can't aim up or crouch. These are usually not problems, but they are nice things to have. Up really only activates things. F1 is the in-game menu, mostly for saving at between level corridors, which you return to if you die. Duke has infinite lives, so death is only a slap on the wrist. My two biggest complaints are of elevators, which are in some levels, which you can use to climb by pressing up. No down, just up, jump off for it to reset to the bottom. The other is that if Duke gets hit while using the grappling hook or in mid-air, will lose all upward momentum and drop like a stone.

Opposing him are about half typical enemies and half atypical enemies. You have your usual left/right walkers, along with ones that shoot. Not at you specifically, just randomly. Guys who walk on walls and that's it. In the more atypical department, we get guys who shoot at you while slowly gliding down. This subtle change is actually kind of tricky to avoid, usually their shots, but avoiding touching them too. Fortunately, touch in this case kills them. Then there are helicopters, they don't shoot at you, instead they hang above Duke and then move towards him, trying to ram him. This also makes them tricky to fight.

Finally, the last notable enemy was a mech. On regular terrain, these guys are simple to dodge. They shoot, jump up in a reverse U arc, then land in the direction you were in. As the game loves to have small platforms as it goes on, they can be tricky to fight. Assuming they don't get stuck against a low ceiling or in a place they can't drop down to you. The end objective is just to sort of exploit this.

Dr. Proton is the only boss fight, and he's the most disappointing guy in recent memory. (I only say recent because I can always forgot one) He has this egg-shaped floating machine, takes a shot at you, then goes down in a wide U shape, and repeats it at the other end. Very slowly. The only difference between episodes is that on later ones, he does his fight over more spikes than previous ones. It doesn't help him at all.
 

In general, enemies are not the primary threat to Duke. They cause some damage, but unless you get stuck against a horde with one or two shots, you'll probably be able to avoid most of it before finding another health item. Instead the threat once again is traps. Spikes, hidden and not, bombs hidden in shootable crates, bouncing mines and flame jets, among less obvious threats. The only two times I was worried about something was a conveyor belt which had spikes on it, and the occasion blind jump over an area I knew had spikes below.

Outside of this, levels were generally solid but unmemorable. Progress is usually swift, and exploration is usually rewarded by secrets. Often points, sometimes extra shots, usually getting four in an episode requires some secret hunting. The game was at it's worst when these two things were untrue. Usually a maze or some annoying gimmick which certainly changed things up, but not for the better. Oddly, the game was more annoying in the earlier episodes and not the later ones, as the earliest had the worst concentration of these.

Like I said, you can't just blindly shoot these things. Blue ones can sometimes contain balloons, which Duke can shoot to not get anything. Red meanwhile, has two items which increase your health, which are affected by shots. Soda cans shoot off into the sky when shot, removing the health point but giving points. (I have never gotten one, so it's a bit tricky) Chicken legs, meanwhile can be shot to turn them into a whole chicken, so it'll now give you two health points. Observation about this stuff can help on the trickier levels.

There's also a bit of environmental stuff you can mess around with. Destructible blocks fill the levels and because of how Duke aims, proper shooting of said blocks can allow access to optional areas. Occasionally, there are ACME signs, these fall after you walk under them. If you shoot them before they fall, you get points. Cameras, which Dr. Proton watches Duke through. Shoot all of them to get points.

It's these things that distinguish Duke from being a solid but otherwise unmemorable platformer. It may sound odd, but Duke and Proton don't feel like they have much character to them. Their interactions are phoned in. It lacks the charm Keen had, since it does still feel like the developers are trying to find their feet. There's no music, just PC Speaker sound effects, after having already released a game that allowed use of Adlib cards.

To the elephant in the room, the graphics. As I mentioned in the first entry, this game stole graphics from multiple other games. There's a lot of stuff that we don't know could be from other games, and some we can reasonably infer are original. Which is the problem with plagiarism, once you've started, we don't know when you've stopped, but we can usually guess that the really crappy ones are original work.
 

Even ignoring the plagiarism, everything that looks nice is usually tainted by some poor aspect. Backgrounds, the best-looking part of the game, usually has some part where it's clear that they just gave up on it at some point. Duke's animation is choppy and off-looking. Enemies are clearly designed around not having to animate them so much. There's not really a lot to the tileset. None of it is offensive, just visually uninteresting.

With that, let's get to the rating.

Weapons:
While the laser is very basic, I can't help but feel like the system of finding extra shots to have a decent firing rate to make it slightly interesting. 2/10

Enemies:
Half basic and half interesting, alas, dragged down by keeping the same variety over all three episodes and having one boss. 3/10

Non-Enemies:
None.

Levels:
Mostly fun but unmemorable. 5/10

Player Agency:
Missing a few key bits that should be there, but for the most part the game is designed so these aren't necessary. 7/10

Interactivity:
Destructible walls, but more importantly, a number of item interactions seldom seen in a platformer. 3/10

Atmosphere:
Fun enough, but feels like it doesn't have that distinct a character. 3/10

Graphics:
Even taking out the plagiarism, this has a lot of issues, but it's far from the worst game I've seen. 2/10

Story:
An afterthought, which is odd considering that they seem to want to put in effort here. 1/10

Sound/Music:
Simple PC Speaker, effective but boring. 2/10

That's 29, and checking my ratings for previous Apogee titles, that's just above what I gave Dark Ages. Key points seem to be that Dark Ages had good music, and more memorable level design even though I don't remember much of it. If anything, reading what I wrote about it makes it sound fairly typical of harder platformers of this era.

Despite liking this, and ultimately feeling it's worth a play, it is hard to come up with reasons beyond it's a solid game to play it. On the other hand, I have seen games recommended based on how easy it is to speedrun them, not any real good qualities, so Duke has that going for him. I didn't find any reviews unfortunately, owing to the game being overtaken by its more famous sequels.

Next time, we'll get back on track with some of 1992's final FPS games.