Sometimes going back to your roots is the best way to renew a franchise, and 3D Realms did just that with our quote-stealing (
reference the Evil Dead
movies) hero,
Duke Nukem. So what do you get when you strip away the first-person shooter gameplay that most of us have come to love? You come away with a stellar side-scrolling adventure, maybe second to none.
Possibly the coolest attribute of Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is that although the game is primarily a side-scroller, the level design still takes advantage of the computer industry's 3D technology. So what you get in the final product are cameras that can pivot around corners, and foreground elements that can hide secret items and other goodies.
The basic premise of Manhattan Project is to work your way through the 8 huge missions and on to the bosses at the end of each. To add some spice to the game, secrets have also been added, so you have to keep a sharp eye out for such things as cracked walls and hidden jumping platforms. Although it's not necessary to obtain them all, collecting these secrets will boost Duke's ego meter (the game's 'health' meter) a little at a time.
Duke Nukem: MP has also got some very basic controls, adding to the fun of the game. Jumping and shooting are the main methods of annihilation, and switching to the right type of weapon for each enemy helps too. Many weapons lurk in the depths of the city, including the GLOPP ray, which transforms mutants back to their original (and non-threatening) state.
