Duke Nukem 3D

Before Master Chief, the most well-known first-person shooter hero was arguably Duke Nukem, the gum-chewing, wisecracking hero who owned mid-1990s PC gaming.

Known for pushing the limits of interactivity in an action game – you could offer money to strippers, relieve yourself in toilets, demolish buildings, and oh-so-much more – Duke Nukem 3D was equal parts hilarious and brilliant. Its multiplayer mode was legendary, thanks to memorable weapons like the Shrink Ray, jetpack, Freeze Ray, pipe bombs, and laser trip mines.

So why resurrect him on Arcade 12 years later? It had a lot to do with “the cool factor” of the Xbox 360, said 3D Realms co-owner George Broussard. “It seemed like the perfect platform to update and re-release the game,” he continued.  “Leaderboards and the ability to offer true Internet play to millions of potential customers was [also] a huge draw.”

The Arcade rebirth brings a wealth of new features to the table, including eight-player online co-op and Dukematch, recordable and uploadable user gameplay clips, Vision camera support for multiplayer lobbies, and – get this – TiVo. Yes, when you die, you can rewind as far back in the level as you like, be it five seconds or five minutes. No need to save your game anymore!

As great as all this sounds, surely there had to be some other, less obvious reason for Duke’s debut on Xbox. “We saw it as an opportunity to learn the 360 on a smaller project,” he admitted. “Doing all the work for leaderboards, multiplayer, TCR compliance, etc. translates directly into Duke Nukem Forever.”

So, Xbox 360 version confirmed then? Groovy.

We've played the Arcade version, and the good news is that it holds up just fine. The controls -- the only real concern with a port like this, since of course performance isn't an issue -- are just dandy, with the gamepad steering Duke around about as well as the mouse and keyboard did. And the game itself is still fun too, its memorable level design and weapons withstanding the test of time.

We'll have the first review of Duke Nukem 3D for Xbox Live Arcade in the next issue of Official Xbox Magazine.