Duke Nukem, Part 6: Duke Raider

After a bit of a break, I’m back (hasta la vista, baby) to talk about the next part of the Duke Nukem series: the Tomb Raider clones. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, and today I’ll be talking about three Duke Nukem games: Time to Kill, Zero Hour, and Land of the Babes. I just wanted to note that my format is going through a bit of a change; in fact this week I was writing some other posts in advance and I’ve gotten used to that new format, so there’ll be a bit of change in style when it comes to the writing. Other than that, we’re ready to rumble!

From the creators of... uh.
Image Credit: Amazon

To recap the last few posts in a single sentence, Duke Nukem 3D was released in its full form on May 5, 1996, it was very successful, and from here it received various ports and expansion packs from different companies. Flash forward to 1997 and it had only been a few months since Core Design (remember Fighting Force?) hit Tomb Raider had been released on Sony’s PlayStation console. Despite being a newer company with only two credits behind their name (one of which had a very bad reputation), American developer n-Space was asked by GT Interactive, publisher of Duke Nukem 3D’s ports on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, if they were interested in developing an all-new Duke Nukem title. n-Space accepted the offer and began development, under the working title of “NewDuke”, as can be found in the game’s files. The game was also jokingly referred to as “Duke Raider” by the developers, because of its similarities with Core Design’s original Tomb Raider game. At least a year after development started, NewDuke was released on the PlayStation under the title Duke Nukem: Time to Kill on September 30, 1998. It generally received quite positive reviews, and was the first of two n-Space games released that year (the other being a Rugrats game, based on the cartoon of the same name).

I forgot to mention that there are a lot of Easter Eggs.
Image Credit: GBHBL

Time to Kill changed the formula of Duke from a first-person shooter (which in itself was changed from a side-scrolling platformer/shooter) to a third-person shooter, inspired by the third-person gameplay of Tomb Raider. The game takes place over 28 levels in three different settings: then-present day LA, common in the Duke Nukem series; the Old West; Medieval Europe; and Ancient Rome. The graphics, which have the classic jagged-edge look of many PlayStation games of the time, are rendered in full 3D, unlike (ironically) Duke Nukem 3D, which had 2.5D graphics to simulate a 3D effect. Like Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown (as a reminder: Duke3D’s port to Sony’s PlayStation), the game is lite on story but does have the occasional FMV along the way to give it some semblance of a plot. One certain improvement of Total Meltdown is the appearance of a two-player split-screen multiplayer mode, which allows two players to Duke it out it on one single screen. Time to Kill eventually received a sequel, but first, another similar game was released on the Nintendo 64.

Kicking ass and chewing FMV.
Image Credit: LHG / YouTube

On August 31, 1999, another third-person shooter, like Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, was released. Called Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, the game was developed by UK developer Eurocom (remember Cruis’n World?) on a modified version of the also Eurocom-developed Duke Nukem 64’s engine (i.e. a modified version of Ken Silverman’s Build Engine). The game follows a similar plot to Time to Kill, with Duke travelling through time to stop the aliens, although its more mature this time around with settings being then-present day New York, post-apocalyptic New York, the Old West, and the Victorian Era, where Jack the Ripper has just murdered Mary Jane Kelly. Cutscenes are now in-game, and multiplayer was expanded to feature up to four-player split-screen (albeit in first-person this time). Thanks to the N64’s Expansion Pak, graphics were much better than Time to Kill’s, and can be further improved thanks to this High Resolution Texture Pack for the game made by NUKEMDAVE. The amount of levels was also increased to over 30. To conclude this Duke Raider series, one more game was released the following year.

I'll always love this cover art.
Image Credit: PalitomanBass / SoundCloud

After two games earlier that year, specifically Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas (a sequel to the game adapting the Die Hard trilogy of films) and Danger Girl (a game adapting the comic of the same name), n-Space’s third game of 2000 was released. This game, titled Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, acted as a direct sequel to Time to Kill and ran on that game’s engine, or at least a modified version, with similar third-person shooting gameplay (although with less emphasis on the “Duke Raider” side of things). Interestingly, the game was originally called "Duke Nukem: Planet of the Babes", but was renamed to avoid conflict with the upcoming 2001 Planet of the Apes film. Rather than focusing on time travelling through multiple periods like Time to Kill and Zero Hour, Land of the Babes instead places Duke years into the future where the world has been taken over. All men were killed, and all women became slaves. The player, as Duke, must save the women and, as the only male, repopulate the planet alongside all the women that were saved. Phew. Graphically, the game is about on par with Time to Kill, and is also lite on story. It has two-player split-screen multiplayer, like Time to Kill, but only two players, and not four (which Zero Hour had). Unlike Time to Kill, Land of the Babes received negative reviews, because it’s bad (at least in my and many others’ opinions).

I can't think of a caption.
Image Credit: RiotPixels

And that ends the saga of Duke Raider. I’m sorry if this post wasn’t as good as usual, I kind of rushed it (whoops) because I was focused on the next series of blog posts after Duke Nukem and forgot that I was going to write about this trilogy of games in this post. Also, I’ve just got through a Hellraiser film marathon, so I guess that’s a good enough excuse as to why I’m not at my normal blogging standard. Let’s hope I can fix that next time. Next time, I’ll be talking about something that at least has some interesting story behind it (unlike this, where I couldn’t find much info about development): Duke Nukem’s handheld games. Well, that’s a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

**EDIT 19/06/2022: Forgot to talk about Planet of the Babes**

Initial Ramblings - Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable: A PSP Must Play

Ugly graphics, unstable frame rate, quantity over quality and inconsistent gameplay. These are all characteristics of a bad game. Welcome back to THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM, and today, I'm going to be changing things up a bit. Yes, I know, it's been MONTHS since I last posted, and, yes, I do ALWAYS tend to post an "I'm back" blog whenever I'm, well, back, BUT THIS TIME, I may have found a working routine for my blogging scheme. So, let's jump right into it.

Video gaming is a massive part of our modern culture. You may be obsessed with Call of Duty, adore Pokémon, or just love driving around some famous area in Forza. No matter, most people have played, made or enjoyed games for a very long time, and that isn't going to stop any time soon. You've constantly got new console generations being rolled out one after the other, each with their own exclusives and cross platform games. That's enough of that, though. Handheld gaming has been around for a long time, too, mainly being a Nintendo thing, but eventually expanding into the microtransaction-filled world of mobile gaming. Nintendo had their GameBoys, DS's, Switches, etc., Nokia had the disaster child N-Gage, and Sony had the PlayStation Vita. I mean, there was also the PlayStation Pocket, but whatever. However, my personal favourite of the Sony handhelds is the PlayStation Portable, better known as the PSP, which is home to tons of my favourite games, one of which I shall be talking to you about now.

Yep, that's the one.
Image Credit: Evan-Amos, Wikimedia Commons.

If you're a Japanese gamer from the PlayStation 1 era and you are constantly looking out for bargains, you've probably heard about the Simple Series. For those of you that haven't, the Simple Series was a, well, simple series. Designed solely to be a quantity over quality experience, the Simple Series would provide gamers with a new and simple game every 4 months or so, gradually increasing the price in Yen for each Series. The PlayStation 1 had the Simple 1500 Series (costing 1500 Yen), the PS2 had the Simple 2000 Series (costing 2000 Yen), etc. etc. Originally these games would be, I know, simple, usually a remake of something classic, like a sport or popular card game. Sometimes you would get lucky and find an all-new original title, which is where Monster Attack comes in.

You read that right, this is the 93rd game in the series.
Image Credit: D3 Publisher, Amazon

Monster Attack was game #31 out of #107 (do you see what I mean about quantity over quality?) in the Simple 2000 Series, and offered a strange experience, something in the vein of a B-Movie. You are part of the Earth Defense Force, a group defending the Earth from all sorts of threats, including aliens who ironically look identical to Earth's insects and other little creatures. I won't talk much about Monster Attack, as it's a subject that I may cover in another blog post. Monster Attack did eventually receive a slightly altered version in Europe, and was later remade as Earth Defense Force 2017 (EDF3 in Japan), being the first game in the series to be released outside of Japan or Europe. EDF2017 was later rereleased on the PlayStation Vita, and more recently on the Nintendo Switch, albeit exclusively in Japan. A sequel to Monster Attack was eventually released two years later as Simple 2000 Series Vol. 81, known in Europe as Global Defense Force.

Look no further than the box art to see how strange this game is.
Image Credit: Agetec, Retroplace

Global Defense Force (or "The Chikyū Bōeigun 2" for the extremists) didn't change that much of the basic gameplay from Monster Attack. What it did add was a second playable character, larger maps and more variety in terms of weapons and aliens. Being part of the Simple 2000 Series, GDF was a PlayStation 2 exclusive, later receiving a PAL port for the same console. Unlike Monster Attack, in 2011, GDF received a PSP port titled "Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable", extremely late into the PSP's life span (in fact, it would only be 8 months until the Vita was released in Japan), although it was exclusive to Japan, despite the original PS2 version being available in Europe as well. I recently got my hands on Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable (quite a mouthful, but expected for Japanese games), and that's where today's history lesson ends.

Attack of the Killer... Ants?!
Image Credit: GameSpot

As I said in the beginning of this post, EDF2 should be a bad game. It has the characteristics of one, and I was expecting nothing at all. Well, I was kind of excited, knowing that D3Publisher also published Demolition Girl and Dead Head Fred (the latter of which is an excellent game in my opinion, while the former is, well, strange, and something that I'll hopefully discuss sometime soon). I was pleasantly surprised. I don't own a physical PSP, but rather use the PPSSPP emulator. In fact, I don't own any consoles, I'm really a Windows guy. First off, I'll talk about the story. There is none. Well at least to me, because I don't speak Japanese, and the PS2's English translation was not used for the PSP version. That's where the next interesting thing comes in: What lies inside the game's files?

There will always be a spot in my heart for Demolition Girl.
Image Credit: GameFabrique (please don't use their site, they give you malware)

Here is where I'll recommend you take a read of Zenade's post on EDF2 Portable (just click on the text). Zenade has a HUGE write-up of cheat codes for the game, and managed to find files for the English translation. He even gave a tutorial on how to use it! Sadly, he has only written up on how to use this translation on an actual PSP, but I have reached out to him to see if he knows how to use the translation on the emulator. Please, give Zenade's article a good read, and now, back to the game.

According to Zenade, you can do this.
Image Credit: Zenade

EDF2P (no, not that F2P) is a simple game, so even if you are clueless about Japanese text, you should be able to figure out how to play. The game has something like 80 single player missions, which can be played by two different characters, a male and a female. Both can be used for different strategies, and both can use different weapons. Also available for gaming pleasure is a multiplayer mode, which is incredibly fun and really enhances the gameplay. In terms of enemies, from what I've played so far, I've fought giant ants, giant spiders, giant FLYING ants, UFOs, Quadpods, laser dish thingies and Godzilla. I'm not kidding. The maps are quite large, and vehicles are often present, which are quite fun to use in grassy areas. So far, I have found tanks, a jet ski sort of thing (it looks like it's straight out of Jet Moto, a PS1 favourite of mine) and a helicopter, which I used to mow down flying saucers. This game truly is awesome. So, is this game good?

This game is lovely.
Image Credit: Spike, CDRomance

Now, I'm not one to usually use ratings out of 5 or 10. I prefer to just say whether something's amazing, great, good, bad, awful or horrendous. EDF2P is not the best game, far from it in fact. What it is though is a truly fun game that never fails in making me have fun. I would say that this is a PSP gem, and is definitely something that you should take a look at if you are interested in shooters, PSP or just games in general. I quite enjoyed rambling about EDF, so hopefully I'll be able to do the same in the future, be it Coded Arms (my favourite PSP game), more EDF or something else. Well, that's a wrap on THE SITH ARCHIVES OF DARTH FANDOM!

**EDIT (06/02/2022)** It turns out that Monster Attack was remade (source), and the post has been edited to reflect this. **/EDIT**