Duke Nukem: Critical Mass

Duke Nukem: Critical Mass is a shooter game developed by Frontline Studios, and co-published by Deep Silver and Apogee Software, LCC for the mh:awesomegames:Nintendo DS. The mh:awesomegames:PlayStation Portable version began development, however it was never released, but a prototype build of it exists.

It was the first entry of a planned trilogy, which had Duke travelling through time. It is no surprise that the two sequels were cancelled as a result of this game's abysmal reception.

Why It's Ugly

 * 1) Duke's one liners are lousy, and the writing is uninteresting.
 * 2) That picture quote is fitting for how this game looks. Awful graphics with blocky models, awful textures, and pixelated backgrounds. In fact, the graphics can be compared to the PlayStation Duke Nukem games, Duke Nukem: Time To Kill and Duke Nukem: Land Of The Babes. And the N64 game Duke Nukem: Zero Hour.
 * 3) The game has many different gameplay styles, and none of them actually work well.
 * 4) Limited enemy variation.
 * 5) The side scrolling run and gun gameplay is extremely bare bones, since you can only shoot in a straight line. The camera is also close to the action, causing you to get killed by enemies you can't even see.
 * 6) Forgettable rock music (except the theme song).
 * 7) It tries way too hard to be Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, but it fails horribly.
 * 8) The game, just like Duke Forever, was in development hell for a while. The game was supposed to be part of a trilogy and not only for DS, but also PSP, but the PSP version got cancelled, and the trilogy never came, and you can see why by just looking at the final result.
 * 9) Horrible controls. For example, you must use the stylus to aim.
 * 10) The enemy death animations drag out for too long.
 * 11) The cover system adds nothing to the game.
 * 12) Lacks the charm and personality of the older titles.

Reception
Duke Nukem: Critical Mass received mostly negative reviews. On Metacritic, it received a 29/100 rating from critics, GamesTM gave it 4/10, NGamer and ONM both gave it 29%, while Metro gave it 2/10.

Videos
rLiEozJ0vcY DNN6Tb4oI04 kHLTJG5iByQ