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Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown, known simply as Duke Nukem in PAL regions, is the name given to the 1997 PlayStation port of Duke Nukem 3D. The port features new music, new enemies, and an exclusive fourth episode: Plug 'N' Pray.

A fan-made total conversion of Duke Nukem 3D titled Total Meltdown TC was released in 2018 and supports simulated gameplay on the PC.

In January 2020, a leaked prototype was shared online.

Story[]

The story is the same as the original game with the exception of the port's exclusive episode: Plug 'N' Pray. During this episode, Duke is out to battle the aliens again, this time aiming to destroy a very powerful robot they've built to kill him.

Gameplay[]

The port features all three episodes of the original game, plus one additional episode: Plug 'N' Pray, which includes six extra levels and a secret level. The secret level was also included in the PC version. It features a complete re-rendering of all the weapons and enemies, and a combination of bespoke and rearranged music, some rearranged from the PC version, and some original, in XA streaming audio made by Mark 'madfiddler' Knight, Gamesounds.co.uk.

The new episode includes six new enemies: a blue-colored Assault Trooper variant, Ghost Enforcer, Pig-in-a-Dress, a zombie-like Pig Cop, Magnum P.I.G., and the underwater shark-like Sentry Drone. It also includes a new final boss, the CyberKeef.

The game is compatible with analog controllers. The game features a deathmatch mode for multiplayer, but only between separate consoles (i.e. one player per PlayStation).

Leaked Prototype[]

In January 2020, the anonym user nukemania from the duke4.net forums managed to obtain and dump a preview prototype from Duke Nukem Total Meltdown. Even a superficial analysis of the prototype shows multiple development details about the port:

  • Originally the port had the Damn I'm Good difficulty and the enemies respawned as usual, but it got removed on the retail version.
  • The port had a Quick Save function, much like the in the original Duke Nukem 3D. It's up to debate if this Quick Save option was only used for testing and never was intented for the retail version.
  • The iconic title image of Duke Nukem shooting Pig Cops instead of an Enforcer originally was uncompressed and had a much higher size as an original artwork.
  • The final level Ministry of Fear had human beings as NPCs rather than some unhostile aliens. This would have been one of the very few times Duke Nukem meets human NPCs.
  • Three famous community-made user maps were ported to Total Meltdown during development and used to gameplay tests: Mancar2, newfort and Rampage.
  • While the new enemies were not added, their original game's counterparts were used on the new levels to simulate the intented difficulty of Plug 'n' Pray.
  • While the CyberKeef was not added, a Battlelord was used as the placeholder final boss.

Reception[]

Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown received generally negative reviews from various gaming sites and magazines, mostly due to the frame rate issues encountered during the game, grainy graphics, and limited control customization options. Also, unless every player has their own PlayStation console together with a copy of the game, playing multiplayer against other people is greatly limited because of the lack of split screen support like in the Nintendo 64 version. Due to these factors, some fans consider the PlayStation port to be the worst of all the ports together. However, the remixed soundtrack in Total Meltdown has got a positive response from fans. The game runs slightly better under emulators, and this port has been somewhat re-evaluated thanks to the exclusive episode which has been positively received by the community.

Music[]

Quotes[]

  • Fire in the hole, asshole!
  • God damn aliens.
  • Heh, Heh... Makin' bacon.
  • Never met an alien i couldn't kill.
  • Nobody wears flares... and lives!
  • So many assholes, so few bullets.
  • Squeal piggy, squeal!
  • Suck on this!
  • They don't make em' better than me.
  • This pisses me off!
  • You outta here.

Gallery[]

Trailers[]

Total_Meltdown_-_Japanese_Trailer

Total Meltdown - Japanese Trailer

External Links[]

Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Enemies Common enemies: Assault Captain | Assault Commander | Enforcer
Assault Trooper | Battlelord Sentry | Octabrain | Pig Cop
Protozoid Slimer | Recon Patrol Vehicle | Sentry Drone | Shark | Turret
New: Assault General | Ghost Enforcer | Magnum P.I.G. | Pig-in-a-Dress
Underwater Drone | Zombie Pig Cop
Bosses: Battlelord | Overlord | Cycloid Emperor
New: CyberKeef
Weapons Mighty Foot | Pistol | Shotgun | Chaingun Cannon | RPG | Pipe Bomb
Shrinker | Devastator | Laser Tripbomb | Freezethrower
Items Health: Small Medkit | Large Medkit | Atomic Health | Armor
Access Card | Holoduke | Jetpack | Night Vision Goggles | Portable Medkit
Protective Boots | Scuba Gear | Steroids
Episodes L.A. Meltdown | Lunar Apocalypse | Shrapnel City
New: Plug 'N' Pray
Related games Duke Nukem 3D | Duke Nukem 64 | Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Duke Nukem 3D (Sega Saturn) | Duke Nukem 3D (XBLA)
Other Multiplayer | Hazards | Difficulty | Cheat codes | Quotes | Music
Game bugs | Build engine | Creators | Duke Nukem (character)
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