‘Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour’ Hits PS4, Xbox One, And PC On October 11

Gearbox Software has announced a new Duke Nukem 3D at the PAX 2016 in Seattle. Titled as Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour, it is mostly a remastered version of the original and will also pack new levels. The game is set to release on October 11 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam) platforms for $19.99.

About 20 years ago, 3D Realms developed and released the first Duke Nukem 3D game in 1996. The game’s protagonist American macho Duke’s sole mission is to protect Earth by blasting all the hordes of horrifying aliens.

Earlier this week, when the official Twitter account of the Duke Nukem game shared an update hinting yet another Duke Nukem game, people couldn’t contain their excitement. Then followed, more cheeky one-liners tagged with Duke’s action figure. Gadgets 360 collated the rumors about Gearbox handling the game development with the Nerve Software and more details.

Looks like I’m not the only one around here with balls of steel. https://t.co/WwCzyMn61m pic.twitter.com/qoK7jGzMbb— Duke Nukem (@dukenukemgame) September 2, 2016

Gearbox has worked with Nerve Software to develop the remastered versions the four classic episodes and created a new Episode 5. For this, Gearbox brought together the original creative team who worked on the first-ever game of the series. The game designers, Richard “Levelord” Gray and Allen Blum III, have created all new eight-levels for the new fifth episode. New bonus content will include new areas and weapons such as the Incinerator to kill the new breed of “Firefly” aliens. It appears that the new 20th Anniversary World Tour will be an ode to the original Duke Nukem 3D title and fans.

For the Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour, Gearbox roped in Jon St. John, who voice-acted the Duke character, to deliver a fresh batch of cheesy one-liners and rerecorded the original ones in high-fidelity quality. Lee Jackson, the original game’s composer and Duke’s theme song writer, created a new music score for Episode 5. On top of that, the developers provided in-game commentary.

“Making it possible for Allen, Richard, Lee, and Jon to all come back together 20 years later to bring a whole new episode to the classic game is just one of those rare and incredible things that I hope will bring joy and happiness to hardcore video game fans new and old.”

Fans of the Duke can enjoy annihilating aliens in the original 1996 era graphics or can switch to the new “True3D Rendering” graphics mode anytime, according to Kotaku.

The Duke Nukem 3D‘s first-person shooter gameplay resembled the horror-centric first-person shooter game – Doom (1993). Post its release, the game soon became popular among the folks who love first-person shooters. However, it also attracted a lot of criticism for influencing the younger kids with excessive violence, nudity, and propagating pornography. Referring to women as “Babes” and cocky one-liners like “No one steals our chicks and lives!” got condemned.

Duke Nukem 3D had a lot of references to titular action heroes of the 80s and 90s movies. For an instance, Duke looks like someone inspired from a mix of three 80s blockbuster action flicks – Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985), Sylvester Stallone in the Rambo series (1982-2008), and Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV (1985). The game also shared similarities with the gore and horror-induced games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D by John Carmack and John Romero, as pointed out by Pop Matters.

After the success of Duke Nukem 3D, the direct sequel titled Duke Nukem Forever was announced by 3D Realms, along with Gearbox Software and Piranha Studios in 1997. However, the sequel went through a development hell of financial losses, conflicts, lawsuits, and got delayed a number of times. Finally, the Duke Nukem Forever was released in 2011 for PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour is scheduled to land for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via Steam) on October 11. Apparently, Steam has already listed the game as pre-purchase and shared the PC requirements as well. That means you can purchase and own the game now, but it will only show up for download next month.

[Image via Gearbox Software]