Lost Classics: Duke Nukem 3D (PC, Playstation 1, Xbox Live Arcade)

These days, the Duke Nukem franchise has regulated to a running gag, especially with Duke Nukem Forever being delayed so much that it has been all but confirmed as canceled. However, it wasn’t already like this for the series. In fact, when it was released in the mid-90s, it stood alongside games like Doom and Rise of the Triad as one of the early great first person shooters and to this day it’s still well-loved by fans. Also like those early FPS titles, Duke has managed to earn its fair share of controversy with it’s sex and violence. Starring as the titular character, your job is to thwart an alien invasion. You’ll shoot up dozens of mutants across a variety of environments. While the game’s premise is nothing new, the game’s sense of humor sets it apart from the pack. The game parodies many pop culture icons, and the cover itself was inspired by the film Army of Darkness. You’ll also encounter women in various states of undress, which caused the game to earn a considerable amount of controversy.

The game’s graphics were built using the Build engine (no pun intended) and in 2003, the source code was made freely available, and like other legacy FPS games, fans created source ports to other systems that didn’t originally support the game. There has been a resurgence of popularity in the franchise as of late, and the game was recently released on Xbox Live Arcade. It’s also available at Gog.com among other places. Fps fans who haven’t done so already should play this game to get a taste of the FPS genre’s good old days, and to pass the time until Duke Nukem Forever is released. I know I’m being optimistic, but hey, there is always hope.