The image of a roided-out action hero getting oral sex from two women stands in stark contrast to most things in games today. Neither do you see your typical FPS hero rip the head off of a fallen enemy and proceed to take a dump in its bloody stump. But uber-violence and raunch are exactly what you expect with the Duke Nukem series. Though this phenomenon seems like an aberration in the realm of gaming, movies have actually been doing this for years.
Exploitation films saw their heyday in the seventies and held the same values as Duke Nukem. Violence, gore, sex, and race-centric themes were emphasized in the films’ advertising and were dialed up to ridiculous levels in the movies themselves. No singular movie ever became a large success since their budgets were so low, but exploitation theaters were fairly abundant and became a budding scene. There is even still an appetite for this type of film, as seen by the Grindhouse films and the recently released Machete. The main appeal of these movies is the bits that would be offensive in more serious films, as the utterly ridiculous way they are handled make them very hard to take seriously, which quickly becomes a cocktail of adrenaline and dark comedy.
Games don’t really have a formal exploitation genre, but mainstream games are already halfway there, as violence is a main theme in top selling games. Gears of War sees you chainsawing enemies in two fairly often. Bulletstorm awards points for creative kills with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek. Heck, God of War constantly sees Kratos tearing enemies to pieces in every way imaginable. And though it manages to sneak in a threesome minigame, most games can’t get away with any over-the-top sex components without controversy. The industry is under the outrage microscope and sex offends the puritanical tendencies of U.S. audiences. It is in this way that Duke Nukem stands alone, as it can get away with exaggerated smut since it entrenched itself into the exploitation mindset well before video game violence caught on with audiences.
True exploitation games may not be possible in the current climate. Games need to gain greater mainstream acceptance before we see that. But the Duke Nukem games shows us what such a genre would look like, with Duke Nukem Forever providing the least limited, most over-the-top Duke game to date.
