| Duke Nukem Advance | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Torus Games |
| Publisher(s) | Take-Two Interactive |
| Series | Duke Nukem |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy AdvanceEvercade/VS |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player,Multiplayer |
Duke Nukem Advance is a video game in theDuke Nukem series, released for theGame Boy Advance. Although it is afirst-person shooter and many of the graphics and sounds have been ported fromDuke Nukem 3D, the game has an original storyline and levels, and can thus be considered to be aspin-off of3D.
Four difficulty levels can be selected at the beginning of the game. Multiplayer games are possible, with up to four players requiring a copy. An option tosave one's progress appears at the completion of each level, with five save game slots to choose from.
Duke Nukem, working for general Graves, is asked to investigateArea 51, after reports indicate the hostileinfiltration of analien species. After getting rid of much of the alien threat there, Duke learns about how the aliens require "environmental regulators" to exist, and follows them to theTemple of Amun in Egypt.
While in Egypt, Duke Nukem discovers a vast collection ofalien hybrid creatures instasis, apparently an army meant to take over the world. A nearby power source detected by general Graves seems to supply their environmental regulators, so Duke is sent to shut it down. Subsequently, he learns that activating an override pump will drain the hibernation tanks, killing the entire alien hybrid army.
Nukem also manages to destroy the controller alien overseeing the stasis area, but it turns out that the alien activated aself-destruct sequence just before his death. Duke manages to narrowly escape the collapsing temple, using one of the alientransporters to get away.
Having re-establishing contact with the general, Duke Nukem discovers he has materialized inSydney, Australia. Graves tells him to find one of the agency's undercover agents, who has sent out a distress call from a nearbynightclub.
After rescuing the agent, Duke locates adoomsday weapon being created by the aliens. The controller alien in Egypt had mentioned it to be able to wipe out Earth'satmosphere, so Nukem is quickly sent to destroy the device. Once successful, he transports on board the orbiting alien spaceship.
Once Duke establishes his signal with general Graves, he learns that he musthack into the spaceship's system to find a weakness. After transmitting all the data from the ship he can find, Graves tells him they have detected four human females on board which Duke must once again rescue. He finds the first one and teleports her back to Earth, and after analysis, the general learns that she is in fact acloned version of their undercover agent, Jenny. Duke deducts that the aliens are using the clones to help propagate their species.
By the time Duke has rescued Jenny's clones one by one, his general friend informs him that he can destroy the ship by shutting down its engine'scoolant system. He does just that, then teleports "Jenny 5" back to Earth. The general's teleportation system is unable to beam out Duke Nukem too, however, requiring him to wade through more alien assailants in order to escape.
Duke is able to successfully escape the ship before it explodes, returning safely back to Earth. However, he declines to be debriefed by Graves, using adouble entendre of the word "debrief" to claim that he already did so by having sex with Jenny 5.
Since theGame Boy Advance has a limited number of controls, the game offers four different control setups. These set the buttons for shooting, jumping, strafing, weapon selection and looking up and down. When pausing the game, the player can also view the level's map. The player can pan around the map, as well as zoom in or out. Some of the level's secrets can also be discovered simply by looking at the map.
Duke Nukem Advance was originally planned to be released in the fall of 2001 alongsideBack Track andDoom as one of the first first-person shooters for the Game Boy Advance, but as that timeframe approached, the developers decided to delayDuke Nukem Advance by a year to avoidcrunch and have more time to polish it and add missing features that were too important to leave out while attempting to rush the game to market.[2]
More than 20 years later,Advance was released for theEvercade/VS platform viaemulation as one of three games inDuke Nukem Collection 2, which was released on November 28, 2023.[3]
| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 81/100[4] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| AllGame |    [5] |
| Eurogamer | 8/10[6] |
| Game Informer | 8.5/10[7] |
| GamesMaster | 85%[8] |
| GameSpot | 7.5/10[9] |
| GameSpy | [10] |
| GameZone | 9.1/10[11] |
| IGN | 9/10[2] |
| Nintendo Power | 3.9/5[12] |
| X-Play | [13] |
Duke Nukem Advance received "generally favourable" reviews, according toreview aggregatorMetacritic.[4] Craig Harris ofIGN called it "without a doubt the most fun first-person shooter on the GBA to date."[2] Frank Provo ofGameSpot said: "On the basis of technical merit,Duke Nukem Advance is nowhere near as pretty or diverse asthe original 1996 PC game, but it's easily the best FPS to hit the GBA sinceDoom."[9] Martin Taylor ofEurogamer said: "It breaks no new ground in gaming conventions, and it won't keep you playing for months, but it looks good and it plays well, which is more than can be said for some of its competition."[6]
Duke Nukem Advance was a runner-up forGameSpot's annual "Best Sound on Game Boy Advance" award, which went toAggressive Inline.[14]
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