Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour

Two decades may have passed since Duke Nukem 3D first brought its ass-kicking violence and unforgettable one-liners to millions of home computers, but its contribution to the gaming landscape has not been forgotten. In fact, many still consider the one-man army shooter to be a pinnacle of the industry’s history, myself included, and this is just one reason as to why people are excited about the game’s return this very month.

The main issue in recommending this game, though, stems from that fact. World Tour doesn’t offer much new, and Duke Nukem 3D is available in various different forms across all kinds of consoles, with multiple releases on PC as well. With older versions available everywhere, it can make the currently $20 price tag for this version a bit hard to swallow.

If this is your first time playing the old classic, then Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour is the perfect point of entry into the series. Likewise, if you’re a long time fan and have been out of the loop for a few years, this too is a great time to come back. But if you’ve been playing Duke over the years then the shadey decision by gearbox to pull the Megaton Edition from Steam might leave a sore feeling. The real saving grace, however, is the developer commentary and the new maps, which despite some inconsistent design bring some rather well designed levels in to the mix, and the ne...

Duke Nukem has had a somewhat turbulent past. Even in the 90s, it was a constant uphill struggle for our chauvinistic protagonist, having to compete with shooter behemoths like Quake and DOOM. In more recent times, he's attained notoriety as being overwhelmingly naff thanks to the awful experience that is Duke Nukem Forever. World Tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of Duke Nukem 3D, but does it help to shake or substantiate people's negative assumptions of this once great gaming icon?

The most glaring issue here though is the complete lack of commentary. When you tell me your game has developer commentary I expect it to have developer commentary. There are nearly a dozen levels per episode and only two or three of those levels actually have commentary and it’s usually just a small handful of snippets. There’s some genuinely interesting information like how they managed to pull off a certain effect, but a good portion of it is just uninteresting nonsense. The only episode with a steady amount of commentary is the new Alien World Order, with only one level out of its eight mi...