This isn't going to be easy, but I'll try to make it through this review of Duke Nukem 3D for the XBox 360 without referring to that other currently pending Duke Nukem game. It's so tempting to make jokes about it, but I'm strong. I can resist. Anyway.. first released in 1996, Duke Nukem 3D is a 3D action game that has you blasting your way through hordes of gruesome aliens in an attempt to save the world. I think. To be honest, there's not much story here to speak of. What you do get is level upon level of gory and gratuitous shoot-em-up action, accompanied by Duke's loudmouthed and humorous take on events. The whole game's pretty tongue-in-cheek, which was partly what made it so popular when it was first released.

That's not to say Duke Nukem 3D's only appeal is its humour. It's actually a pretty solid game in its own right. The levels are extremely well designed, and challenging with it. Most of them take place on Earth in real world style locations such as a Chinese restaurant, a burger bar, a strip club, and more. Which was, at the time, fairly innovative since a lot of games at the time seemed to take place in science fiction or fantasy based settings. Even Doom 2's levels which supposedly took place on Earth, didn't really look like any real world setting. So Duke Nukem 3D's levels were a breath of fresh air. And they're still as much fun to blast your way through these days as they were back then.

Equally entertaining is the game's selection of weaponry. Aside from the now standard pistol, shotgun and rocket launcher, you also get to annihilate your foes with a shrink ray, an ice gun and laser tripwires. And believe me, you'll need to make good use of all those instruments of destruction. While the game's not as manic as the likes of Serious Sam, a title which takes great pleasure in hurling wave after wave of enemies at you, things can still get pretty hectic. You'll find yourself being assailed by mutant pig cops, flying octopus creatures and other monstrosities as you progress through the game. They aren't the brightest enemies ever, but they do all explode with a rather satisfying splat.

Should you happen to fall to your foes, then all is not lost. Whereas the original Duke Nukem 3D forced you to restart the level, the 360 version of the game lets you rewind your progress and continue from where you left off, complete with any weapons you may have picked up along the way. Which does feel a bit like cheating, but you don't have to use the feature if you don't want to. And it means everyone has a chance at completing the game - which itself is no mean feat considering it has a grand total of thirty nine levels. Or you could enlist the help of a friend and have them play alongside you in the game's online co-op mode. There's also a deathmatch mode, which itself is almost worth the price of admission. Why? Because all the levels feature plenty of hidey-holes and shortcuts for you to make use of. There's no sniper-rifle in the game, so camping is not an option, but there's plenty of opportunity to surprise your opponent by dropping out of an air duct behind them, and shooting them in the back.

  Duke Nukem 3D is a hell of a lot of fun to play. Admittedly the graphics are somewhat dated, although there is an option to smooth the rough edges out a little. But even so, Duke Nukem 3D is a hugely addictive and enjoyable game that will have you grinning like an an idiot as you play. In fact, costing only 800 Microsoft Points, it represents more bang for your buck than many current retail games. It's not the best possible conversion of the game I'll admit, because there is one significant feature missing - there's no split screen co-op or deathmatch mode. Granted, there wasn't one in the original game, but it would have been great to be able to have two or more people playing on the same console.  Even so Duke Nukem 3D is still pretty damn good even without that feature. And if the team responsible for bringing the game to Live had kept tweaking and tweaking, we might never have got the game. In fact, we might have had to wait Forever. Oh, damn.