Duke Nukem 3D XBLA

Originally released in 1996, first-person-shooter Duke Nukem 3D is no stranger to controversy. It's a brutal, completely daft and over-the-top fragfest and that is exactly why it has become such a cult classic.

Returning from space after a long mission, Duke ventures to his native Los Angeles to find it has become a corrupted wasteland, full of strip clubs and overrun with babe-snatching aliens. Being a bit of a ladies man, Duke saddles up, pistol in hand, ready to lay down the law once again.

To set the overall tone, the opening stage takes place in a porn theatre district. All of the shooter staples are here, pistols, shotguns, machine guns, keycards, medipacks and so on. What really sticks out, however, is the tongue in cheek humour such as opening a toilet cubicle door to find an alien squatting down, ready for your barrage of lead. It's so daft and such a parody of action movies of the time, full of stupidly hot female characters and ridiculous macho in-jokes.

Each stage is massive, full of hidden areas and secrets. To help you along your way you can equip jetpacks and scuba gear for exploring every nook and cranny, which adds real depth. Holoduke is a nice bit of kit, which is essentially a decoy which distracts enemies for a while so you can get the drop on them. Laser trip wires are a lot of fun too, especially in multiplayer mode. Watching someone run through your lasers and getting blown to a pulp is still satisfying, even 12 years since the game first came out.

Speaking of which, this updated version includes a quick, lag-free deathmatch mode, which adds a lot of longevity to the title. You can choose to battle it out one-on-one or in a free for all, across a varitety of maps. A word of caution, however, this is insanely fast, you need to be quick on the draw to win here and memorising the layout os the maps is to be advised. There is some very good competition online, which might put off newcomers a tad.

Another gripe is how easy it can be to get lost in some of the bigger stages, where you can spend minutes aimlessly wandering around for an exit.

Special mention must go to the adjustments 3D REALMS have made to this update. There are some nice blurring effects that kick in whenever Duke takes damage, making it obvious when you are under fire. There is an option to rewind to any point when you die, removing the frustration of cheap deaths from the original.

Although they are not new, the freeze gun and shrinker are still two of the most fun weapons in a first-person-shooter to date. Freezing aliens then planting a boot in their face to shatter them is a riot, as is shrinking them and stomping on them like an ant - brilliant! Needless to say, this is definitely a game for those who want a balls-out shooter with tons of humour.