Duke and I go way back. Some of my earliest gaming memories are going to Funcoland with my dad and buying the original PlayStation entries - yes, those iffy Tomb Raider rip-offs. In high school, I wiled away hours in Duke Nukem 3D and its countless mods, fan-made remakes, and other pieces of ephemera related to the game. That's not to mention all the anticipation leading up to Duke Nukem Forever, and sifting through the subsequent 🧜fallout that game brought.
To date, I've played every single Duke Nukem game out there💫. It♒'s a bit of an embarrassing fandom to have, but hey, we all have problematic faves.
Gussying Up A Classic
For most, though, 3D was the franchise's peak. It's the game that most people think of when they think of Duke, and for good reason. Everything that title brought to the table b🧜ecame synonymous with the iconic character - inventive weapons, cheesy one-liners, casual misogyny - and set the tone for where the rest of the franchise would follow. But beyond that, 3D Realms' classic was just a damn good shooter, with some of the most satisfying gunplay of its era and brilliant level design that still holds up today. Plus, that soundtrack is still a banger.
Up until this year, the PC was my ideal way to revisit 3D - partially because it was built for the platform, partially because the eDuke32 is an amazing Source port worth experiencing. But just yesterday, Gearbox dropped a port of Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour - a game long hated in the fanbase for Gearbo𓆏x's handling of the IP following their acquisition of the rights.
But despite my own apprehensi🅺ons about supporting Gearbox, I have to hand it to the team at Sonka:♌ this is my new favorite way to play one of my favorite shooters.
Duke To Go
A large part of this isn't really a feature of the port itself, but rather its platform. Having Duke Nukem 3D on a portable device is somewhat of a marvel, and it's admittedly a whole lot better than the version Devolver put out on the Vita way back when. It comes with all the bells and whistles present in the previous releases of 20th Anniversary World Tour, too, meaning that you♏'re gettin﷽g a pretty comprehensive version of the original - plus a whole new campaign.
While the lack of the original expansion packs does still sting, the ability to have DN3D on the go like this is a huge boon. Chipping away at a level in a waiting room, cozying up in bed to frag some pig cops... it's the kind of experience I never dreamed of being able to have as a kid. This level of accessibility and p🍸ortability applied to a shooter of this caliber is definitely worth the sticker price alone.
Take Aim
What really elevates this port, though, are the added (and optional) motion controls. The game encourages players to play with the Joy-Cons undocked from the grip - recalling the control schemes of the best Wii shooters. You can also use the gyroscope controls in handheld mode - recalling the terse, precise shooting of Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
The motion controls are great for aiming at specific points on the screen, or fine-aiming to line up the perfect headshots. These controls work in tandem with traditional analog stick aiming in a way that allows the precise shooting of something like Splatoon 2.
As somebody who's played this game dozens upon dozens of times, I found myself having to relearn how to engage with the game on a mechanical level. But once it started clicking, and once I started organically aiming with a flick of my wrist, I knew this was m꧃ore than a quick and dirty port. Tꦐhe added gyroscope controls not only add in a vital accessibility function, but give veteran players a new way to experience this thing.
Making The Switch
As somebody who revisits Duke Nukem 3D on a semi-frequent basis, this Switch port will likely become my new favorite way to do that. The ease of access thaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚt comes with having something on the Switch was already enough to sway me, but the visual ღpolish and mechanical finetuning to the experience really knock it out of the park. If you're a lifelong fan or somebody who wants to check out an old classic for the first time, this is probably the best way to do that in 2020.