Highlights
- Duke Nukem 3D is a quintessential first-person shooter with attitude, pop culture references, fantastic music, memorable levels, and nasty enemies.
- Duke Nukem 64 Mod brings the console-exclusive content of Duke Nukem 64 to modern software, offering new one-liners, additional weapons, and a fresh experience.
- Duke Nukem: Alien Armageddon is a massive mod with original content, partner system, remixed add-ons, powerful enemies, and a challenging and memorable experience.
Duke Nukem, being a video game icon, has a wealth of excellent games as part of his series (alongside a few not-so-pleasant titles) that helped propel his name into stardom. Duke Nukem 3D was his magnum opus, and is a quintessential title to play for anyone who loves first-person shooters. It offers all the attitude, pop culture references, fantastic music, memorable levels, and nasty enemies an FPS fan could want in a game.
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The modding scene for the game is quite expansive, too, and fans have created numerous maps, mods, and the like ever since the original game’s release in 1996. So many fantastic mods exist for the iconic title, and these are but a selection of the best and most beloved ones readily available to download.
6 Duke Nukem 64 Mod
This mod delivers the console-exclusive content of Duke Nukem 64 to modern software
Censorship and lack of music aside, Duke Nukem 64 was a stellar console port. Not only did it shake things up with some tweaks to certain levels to give them a new look and feel, but it also contained new one-liners, additional weapons with alternate ammo, and more.
The Duke Nukem 64 Mod delivers the full experience for anyone who missed out and perhaps doesn’t want to wrestle with the mangled mess that is the Nintendo 64 controller. The experience certainly feels fresh when revisiting many of the levels that received even just a handful of edits. Plus, splattering Pig Cops with a SPAS-12 with explosive rounds, or popping out homing missiles at Octabrains, with all the benefits of running things on modern hardware, is a joy to behold.
- Created by Fox, Hendricks266 and Nukey.
- Available from ModDB.
5 Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown TC
Powered by eDuke32, the mod offers the console-exclusive content of the PlayStation port
With the fan-made eDuke32 source port, players who skipped out on playing the PlayStationportDuke Nukem: Total Meltdown can try it out for themselves in this total conversion. The enemy sprites look slightly different, some new sound effects are used, Duke has a selection of new quips, and it’s home to an exclusive chapter: ‘Plug ‘N’ Pray.’ The levels are a mixed bag, though there’s joy to be had with playing the missions that parody Wipeout and Resident Evil, not to mention a battle in a disco.
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The highlight of the mod is easily the soundtrack by Mark ‘TDK’ Knight, which is made up of a selection of original tracks and upbeat, goa-inspired remixes of tunes from the base game. Being able to play the game with such a fantastic OST full of catchy hooks and head-nodding beats makes the mod twice as enjoyable.
- Created by Daedolon, Fox, Hendricks266, Nukey, oasiz and TerminX.
- Available from ModDB.
4 Duke Nukem 3D - Legacy Edition
Gameplay is remixed to be much more challenging and filled with content from the beta versions
Casual players need not apply for Duke Nukem 3D - Legacy Edition. What this mod does is remix the entire game, shuffling in content from the beta versions of the game and concepts in development (unused enemies, weapons like the scrapped Incinerator and a laser chainsaw, etc.), while making significant changes to the overall balance. Can’t forget about the extra gore, too!
Anyway, not only do those alien maggots deliver a much more serious pounding (that goes double for the bosses and their designed attack patterns and battles), but Duke has a limited number of lives to play with. If things get too heated, there’s always Nuke Mode, which gives anyone full customization on various aspects of the mod, both big and small, in order to cater the mod to the player’s tastes.
- Created by marcolino123.
- Available from ModDB.
3 Duke Nukem: Alien Armageddon
Many hours of original content are packed in this massive, shuffled-up mod
Duke Nukem: Alien Armageddon is a juggernaut in size, scope, and quality. First off, there’s a partner system where one can play as Duke, the slinky femme fatale Bombshell (originally seen in one of the Duke Nukem Forever trailers and eventually becoming an original character with an original IP of her own), or the Wesley Snipes look-a-like Wes Wolf. Since each hero has their own loadouts and abilities, players can switch between either of them on the fly, or let the AI take the helm.
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Beyond that are remixed versions of the official add-ons by Sunstorm Interactive, along with a trio of new episodes. One of them shuffles over 200 of the best community-made maps to fight through, too. The oodles of powerful enemies with brand-new designs are there to ramp up the challenge and deliver a much more memorable experience in the grand scheme of things. In short, the whole thing is like Duke on steroids - well, more than he’s used to - and it kicks serious hide.
- Created by DukeBoss.
- Available from ModDB.
2 Duke Nukem Forever 2013
Aspects of the many trailers of Duke Nukem Forever and its previous builds are recreated for a much more entertaining experience
Yes, everyone knows that Duke Nukem Forever was a flop and disappointed many people. So, fans decided to work on a mod that recreated scenes from the many different versions of the game showcased in its many teaser trailers, bridged together with ideas of their own to make the experience flow perfectly.
It may be over a decade old, but this is a really great mod that has a lot of passion put into it. Not only are the level designs surprisingly faithful, but the gunfights and action do not stray too far away from Duke Nukem 3D’s own most of the time (barring a sluggish, on-rails fight atop a slow-moving donkey). Whether liberating Hoover Dam or bolting down New Vegas’ highways on a machine gun-toting motorbike, Duke Nukem Forever 2013 delivers a much more gratifying campaign experience on the whole.
- Created by Gambini and Mikko Sandt
- Available from ModDB.
1 The AMC Squad
A standalone mod of huge proportions, impressive setpieces and playable protagonists galore are but a few of its highlights
Powered by eDuke32, The AMC Squad is a stand-alone total conversion mod that may look like something completely different from Duke Nukem 3D, yet there’s still part of that title lingering here. Otherwise, practically everything is original in this one.
A trio of chapters, a huge collection of playable protagonists, in-game shops, FMV cutscenes to help tie a loose plot together - so many things are on offer here. It all boils down to contract work in various locations, be it raiding enemy-infested jungles or slinking around in spaceships. While the quality of these maps is a tad inconsistent, the scope of the project is very impressive, and even if only half of the planned chapters are readily available, there's tons of boomer shooter-esque content to delve into and enjoy.
- Created by AMC Squad Developers.
- Available from ModDB.
Duke Nukem 3D
