First-person shooters.
They happened on the Game Boy Advance.
Kind of.
If you’ve seen our review of Medal of Honor: Underground, you know it didn’t always happen
well.
Sometimes, horror happened.
Sometimes, it got weird.
But you have to think like it’s 2002.
I mean, there had never been a handheld quite as powerful as the GBA.
And it was a big deal.
To have a handheld capable of doing things like this.
I mean, it’s easy for us in 2015 to say, “Well, just because you can doesn’t mean
you should.”
But in 2002, there was a novelty to it, to seeing these kind of graphics on a handheld.
It was a big deal.
Everyone wanted to see how far the GBA could be pushed.
And no one pushes harder than the Duke.
Now, the crazy thing is…as outdated as this looks, as painful as it can be, which we’ll
get to later…this, actually, isn’t, that bad.
I mean, in 2002, it would’ve been insane, and the reviews from back then said as much.
This was crazy impressive.
But I’m talking, even now…Duke Nukem Advance is pretty cool.
You can argue whether it’s necessary, but…
I mean, is the Duke ever necessary?
The guy routinely has close encounters of the third kind, and they always end the same
way.
The only things getting probed are the aliens, heads, with shotgun shells.
So much we could learn, and the Duke’s, like…
So there are 19 different missions, and for the most part, it’s business as usual.
Key cards, shotguns, switches, hot chicks, the usual.
What’s here isn’t all that impressive.
It’s more about where it is.
To have a game like this on the Game Boy Advance, is the whole point of this game.
And to its credit, this is much better than other 3D GBA games.
I mean, that’s the first thing I noticed.
It moves smoothly, it moves fast…the game runs way better than, say, Medal of Honor:
Underground.
And again, in retrospect, you could argue no FPS belonged on the GBA.
That they may have worked, but only in a technical sense.
And that’s probably true.
I’m just not sure the Duke cares.
Speaking of those graphics, though…I mean, you can see why people were stoked.
It’s an awesome-looking GBA game.
And it’s not just that it’s in 3D.
I mean, Medal of Honor was in 3D, and it’s one of the ugliest games I’ve ever played.
It’s that the Duke does 3D really well on the GBA.
There’s so much polish, and so much detail…I mean, it’s really impressive.
Again, dated, for sure…but still impressive for what it is.
And I love that each world has a different aesthetic.
From secret military bases, to the Egyptian desert, to city streets…your environments
are always changing.
And so much detail, too.
Like, it’s one thing to have a computer.
Probably just a little grey square, right?
I mean, it’s the GBA.
Nope.
Freaking things have multiple screens and tons of buttons and lights and…it’s like,
this is a 3D GBA game that didn’t settle for being a 3D GBA game.
It wanted to be a great 3D GBA game.
Now, with all that said…it’s still a 3D GBA game.
With that comes the pratfalls of being a 3D GBA game.
Two things, mainly.
The closer you get to things, the closer you get to seeing the actual death of pixels,
it’s such a blurry mess.
And two…holy sh*t, this game makes you nauseous.
Holy sh*t, I had a headache within the first ten minutes.
And I think part of it’s that I had it blown up on the TV screen, I record GBA games with
the GameCube’s Game Boy player.
It’s not quite as head-throbbing on an actual GBA.
But holy sh*t, it’s head-throbbing on a TV.
Ugh.
It’s like watching pixels infected with a virus start to turn against themselves.
Like, when you’re close to stuff.
Otherwise, it’s a good-looking game.
This is usually where I sum up my verdict, and give a final opinion…but honestly, I’m
not even sure what it is.
Not this time.
I mean, on the one hand…yes, very impressive, and definitely the best example of 3D that
I’ve seen, on the GBA.
It sounds good, it’s actually fun…a part of me loves this game.
The other part of me had a headache, ‘cause holy sh*t, this game.
It’s like watching a blackhole of pixels.
Like, when you’re close to stuff, like walls.
Otherwise, it’s a good-looking game, and that’s the point.
Duke Nukem Advance is an awesome example of 3D on the GBA.
The question is, was the GBA the system, for 3D?
I’d ask Duke, but…
I don’t think he cares.