''Duke Nukem II'' is a 1993

platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are charac ...

developed and published by Apogee Software. The game consists of four episodes (of eight levels each), the first available as

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

. It is the follow-up to 1991's ''

Duke Nukem ''Duke Nukem'' is a video game series named for its main character, Duke Nukem. Created by the company Apogee Software Ltd. (now 3D Realms) as a series of video games for personal computers, the series expanded to games released for various co ...

'', and followed by ''

Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms. ''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke Nuke ...

'' in 1996.

Todd Replogle Todd Jason Replogle (born 1969) is an American video game programmer best known as the co-creator of the ''Duke Nukem'' series. He wrote six 2D action games for MS-DOS released as shareware by Apogee Software between 1990 and 1993. This included ...

was the primary designer of all three games. A heavily reworked version of ''Duke Nukem II'', simply titled ''Duke Nukem'', was released for the

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

on September 10, 1999 in North America.

Gameplay

The player's goal is to proceed through the levels collecting items, destroying enemies to the level exit and at the final level, defeat the super alien boss. In one level of each episode Duke needs to destroy radar dishes to progress. Duke Nukem can pick up weapons along the way. There are four types of weapons: His regular default gun, the flamethrower (which can shoot through walls and launch him in the air), the laser (which can shoot through anything) and the rocket launcher. Duke can also get a rapid fire powerup. Health items can be collected to heal damage Duke receives or to boost score points at full health. Keycards need to be collected to access past the force fields and keys must be obtained to get past locked doors. A cloaking device makes Duke temporarily invincible and disables the super force fields. Movement through the levels mainly consists of jumping onto platforms, climbing ladders, operating elevators, using teleporters, hovering over blowing fans and climbing hand-over-hand across pipes or girders. At the end of every level (with the exception of the last level in each episode), the player can receive up to seven 100,000 point bonuses, earned by making certain achievements in the level, such as destroying all cameras.

Plot

In 1998, the evil Rigelatins plan to enslave

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

, and they kidnap

during

the Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

in city ''Neo LA'' (in GBC ''Nerola City''), to use his brain to plot the attack for their forces. Duke escapes from the cell and fights across the planet's surface and underground, where he first wants to destroy the city's energy reactor and then capture the fighter jet to return to Earth.

Development

The game uses VGA and EGA graphics and draws two backgrounds ("dual-parallax scrolling"). The game took almost two years to create.

Reception

Allgame gave ''Duke Nukem II'' 3 out of 5 stars for the original DOS version, and 4 out of 5 for the Game Boy Color version. PC Zone gave the game 4 out of 5 stars.

References

External links

Duke Nukem II website
* * {{Authority control 1993 video games Apogee games DOS games Duke Nukem Fiction set around Rigel Game Boy Color games Games commercially released with DOSBox GT Interactive games IOS games Linux games MacOS games Platform games Science fiction video games Side-scrolling platform games Single-player video games Slipgate Ironworks games Torus Games games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Bobby Prince Windows games