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3D Realms shipped a Duke game? Yes!
The Duke Nukem franchise has been a fan-favorite since its inception. Some diehard fans have been playing Duke from the early days of it being a 2D side-scroller! After being ported to oh so many platforms, Duke Nukem finds himself inside a Palm… well the Palm-based Zodiac, anyway.
As with most early first person shooters, Duke usually finds himself shooting at something, running to the next area and shooting something else. This is exactly the case with Duke Nukem Mobile for Zodiac (not to be confused with the same titled game released for mobile phones). An average level has you shooting the various pig-based enemies, finding some ammo and perhaps some health to keep going, shooting a larger, more powerful enemy and finding a keycard. You then use this keycard to find the exit, which conveniently leads you to the next level. One thing I did like about Duke Nukem Mobile is that the game seems to be one very large map divided into much smaller segments. For example, if a door leads you to the next level, you’ll actually be inside that building, leading to a sense of coherency in the game.
These levels are rather short though, and you’ll get through each one (in a successful run) in only a few minutes. That said, there are quite a few levels which you’ll need to retry numerous times in order to successfully get through. Most levels have you starting in a narrow hallway and moving across it until you reach a large, open area and then into another hallway. The pigs teleport to their location, so you never really know where they will pop-up. Sometimes, in a rather frustrating design move, these enemies teleport behind you.
Duke has access to many weapons including the trusty pistol, powerful shotgun, pipe bombs; the insanely-powerful RPG and rocket launcher. For the most part though, you can get through the game with the shotgun, occasionally changing to the pistol when you are in need of ammo (which doesn’t happen often, anyway). For bosses, the added power of the RPG gun is helpful.
Thankfully, the game controls very well on the Zodiac. The analog stick does a nice job at keeping up with the gameplay, and the shoulder triggers make strafing very easy. Of course, the auto-aim is quite a helpful feature, as well.
The visuals have been perfectly replicated from Duke’s early 3D days on the PC. The characters, weapons, effects and environments, while a bit pixilated do look pretty good and the pseudo-3D works well on the Zodiac. When you’re running through the levels (and don’t focus on the looking at things too closely), it looks clean and the frame-rate is fluid. Some of the enemies are quite large, though their animation could be a bit better.
While the sound effects are powerful, Duke is absent of in-game music. Because of this, it is a must to have some good MP3s to listen to in-game using the Zodiac’s custom soundtrack capabilities.
The only downside is that Duke can be completed in a few hours. Dedicated gamers can easily clear the game in an hour and even the less skilled gamers should only look for about four hours to complete. The game doesn't even support multiplayer, a feature present in the GBA version of the game.
If you can get past the length, Duke Nukem Mobile is a very solid FPS for Zodiac gamers. Even if the gameplay is simple, you’ll have a blast. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Aug 27, 2004
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