When Duke Nukem Wore a Purple Vest

With the cancellation of the long-awaited Duke Nukem Forever this year, it seems like Duke's popularity might never again be what it once was. Back in the '90s, when Duke Nukem 3D came out, Duke was a symbol of gaming everywhere; he was the Master Chief of his era, a Gordon Freeman with attitude and personality. Even today, Duke Nukem 3D still stands as one of the most entertaining first person shooters ever made.

Duke 3D will always be remembered fondly. It's prequels, on the other hand, are forgotten far too often. Contrary to what many believe, Duke Nukem didn't start out as a 3D action character. In fact, he began his life in a lesser-known sidescrolling platform game all the way back in 1991.

The original Duke Nukem was a ridiculously entertaining sidescroller that paved the way for Duke's future. In the game, you control the title character, who still had the blond flattop but at this time was wearing a purple vest instead of a red tank top and had yet to don the trademark sunglasses. As Duke, you maneuver around mazes, shooting out endless armies of varied robot assassins with Duke's experimental "nuclear pistol" (though it looks a bit more like a shotgun on the title screen) and collecting weird power ups and items such as turkeys and soda cans to increase your score. At the climax of each chapter, Duke faces off against the diabolical Dr. Proton, a cyborg trying to take over the world.

Okay, so maybe it's a little goofy but that's part of the charm of all the Duke games. Sure, maybe it doesn't have the same dark sense of humor as Duke 3D and maybe Duke's personality was still trying to find itself; "I'll kick your butt and still have time to watch Oprah," isn't quite as catchy as the various ass-kicking, bubble-gum-chewing movie quotes and one liners of Duke 3D. However, the game does have a nice style to it, with a good atmosphere and enemy designs. Besides that, though, the one thing that makes the game a classic is the same thing that made Duke 3D a classic-it's just a hell of a lot of fun.

From collecting points, to shooting hordes of robotic enemies, Duke Nukem is one of the most fun platform games of the early 90's. It didn't really do too much that was new but it took the established formulas and game mechanics of the time and used them to their full potential.

Too often in today's gaming world, everything is focused on graphics, on innovation or on crafting ultra-realistic scenarios while forgetting the "fun" factor that drew everyone into being a gamer in the first place. Sure, the original Duke Nukem might have been relatively simple but unlike whatever graphic-intensive wartime game, set in Iraq may be "in" at the moment, Duke Nukem has a timeless appeal because it sets out to do what games are meant to do, which is give the player a fun time. Once you overlook the outdated graphics and simple gameplay, it's hard to not be sucked into the sense of fun that Duke Nukem is known for.

So go ahead and give the old shareware file a download. Then, to quote Duke himself - "Let's rock."