Duke Nukem 3D Turns 27; 5 Mods That Kick Ass In Style feature

Duke Nukem 3D, one of Duke's most famous and iconic outings, has now turned 27. As 2022 yielded gold aplenty for Duke Nukem fans in the form of many once-lost builds of remakes, spinoffs, and sequels, 2023 is looking like a great year for fans to make Duke their own - so here's five examples where they already have!

Duke Nukem 3D - Legacy Edition

By marcolino123

Duke Nukem is no stranger to cut content, and for the most part, that's true of every game - but where you might be expecting us to talk about DNF here (the new or the old), today, we're digging into Duke Nukem 3D: Legacy Edition, which remixes alpha and beta content back into the game. It's tougher, it's newer, it's rebalanced - and it kicks ass.

KickAss Duke

By RichardStorm

KickAss Duke is a general enhancement mod featuring 30+ new weapons and items, a new gore system (which fans of the many Brutal DOOM-adjacent submods out there will be right at home with), as well as more particles and effects for a visual spectacle in every gunfight. Designed to be as modular as possible and for maximum compatibility with the original maps and custom maps, it's a great addition to many of the custom level packs available for DN3D.

WG MEGA PACK

By WilliamGee

If you're a long-time Duke Nukem fan or someone who recently played DN3D, and just wanted more Duke, then the WG Mega Pack has you covered in spades - thirty seven new levels across four episodes, including a deathmatch map for the competitively inclined, play within the vanilla DN3D sandbox and find creative ways to teach an old Duke new tricks.

Hollywood Holocaust Rethinked

By Team Misfit

Laughing into the face of indifference, Team Misfit, forged in adversity, embarked on a vision of what Hollywood Holocaust could have looked like if computers had more RAM and per-pixel lighting back in the mid 90's...A bold revision of what could have been. This is the result. Remastered with next-generation assets, new areas and featuring a cast of millions of polygons, HHR will thrill you, chill you and possibly even fulfil you. It’s Hollywood Holocaust, but not as we know it.

Submachine

By Ledsbourne

Duke is visiting a brand new Earth Defence Forces facility that is still partly under construction. The main focus of this massive structure is harvesting, processing and research of green crystals used in shrinker (which are called Terratin crystals) and their unique capabilities. Being the world's most reknowned expert on shrinker usage, Duke is to inspect the laboratories and mines... However, as he is about to descent, a strange explosion happens - indicating that he will have some more serious job to do here!

Betting On Duke

Duke Nukem 3D first hit the world stage on January 29th 1996, and took on an unenviable task - trying to be a notable, stand-out FPS in the era of DOOM, Blood, other 2.5D shooters and, later that same year, Quake. All these years later, it remains one of Duke's best outings and whilst new games since have not had the same impact, we've gotten a better glimpse in that time at what Duke Nukem is, what it could be, and particularly last year, what it could have been.

Forever Chewing Bubbles

Fans have already been doing remarkable work with the released build of Duke Nukem Forever dating back to 2001, and other Duke Nukem titles like Endangered Species or DN3D: Reloaded have also been in the minds of modders and may yield similarly impressive restoration efforts as time goes on. One thing remains certain - even after all these years, we can still bet on Duke.