Even in this day and age, players are wont to go back to the classics, often to modify them. With games like Doom still getting the mod treatment, a long tradition that's existed in PC gaming for decades, the community is still willing to go back across the ages and keep the spirit of some retro titles alive. Duke Nukem 3D is another one that is beloved by many more than a quarter of a century later, with one fan modding the game to give it a look reminiscent of "ol' Blighty."
In a recent video uploaded to YouTube, Dan Douglas has shown the current work that's been put into "Duke Smoochem 3D," a mod that takes the classic Duke Nukem game and turns it into a shooter with a heavy leaning towards all things British. While the main purpose of the video is to show off the track by D. Lee Jackson, who composed one of the songs for the 1996 FPS, it also demonstrates some footage from the add-on, which encapsulates a lot of the aesthetic and cultural landscape that many readers from the UK will no doubt recognize. The mod itself is being created in the original Build engine that was used to make the main game.
Among other things, there are guns fired in a Sainsbury's supermarket, the shooting up of a Yazoo milkshake truck, which then engulfs controversial politician Nigel Forage in the runny substance, the sight of a Gregg's bakery on the high street, and much more. There's even a sequence that takes place inside the Great British Bake-Off tent, which is a show that became popular even outside of Britain. In general, "Duke Smoochem 3D" attempts to embrace what it means to be from Britain, and although it does so while maintaining the action of the game, much of the theme has an air of amusing satire about it.
At the moment, there doesn't seem to be any release date for the mod, but it looks as though Douglas has been working on it for a few months now. Duke Nukem 3D is one of the best FPS games of the 1990s. Although it was a good action game all round, its mockery of hypermasculinity that was rampant in cinema at the time was what made it stand out somewhat.
The same cannot be said for the 2011 follow-up. With the long-awaited Duke Nukem Forever pretty much killing the franchise, much of the gaming community may not even be interested in seeing a new one emerge. However, were it to be given a full remake, that might spark some new interest in Duke's antics.
Duke Nukem 3D was released in 1996 for PC, with numerous ports being launched over the years.