While the game received a Teen rating, the gore level seemed fairly light, especially compared to the original PC game or more modern FPS games like Soldier of Fortune. The game does glorify violence as a universal solution. Every time I splattered alien goo all over the room I got a fuzzy warm feeling in my heart. Parental discretion is advised for younger gamer boys and girls.

Duke gets to use most of his original arsenal. He's got the Desert Eagle pistol; the SPAS combat shotgun, the MP5 submachine gun, and the 4-barreled mini-gun lead cannon. He's got pipe bombs and combat boots. He's got wacky alien tech like the Freeze Gun and the Shrink Ray gun. And lets not forget the ever-loving weapon of mass destruction, the Rocket-Propelled Grenade launcher.

The controls are configurable but the default setting seemed to work the best. D-pad for movement, B to fire, A to jump. L and R for strafing. Mastering the use of L and/or R and the movement keys to "circle strafe" is important for getting past the boss fights. A bit more difficult is the change weapon function, which involves holding the Select button and then pressing L or R to rotate through the weapons with a little pop-down window showing them.

During the heat of combat this can be too slow, so if you find the weapon you have in hand isn't right for the critter you need to waste, step back a bit and take some cover before you try swapping to the right weapon. You can press the Start button to pause the game and also access a menu which has a map function in it to help find your way around a level, as well as be able to change the game options.

DNA also features a "mouse look" type control. This lets you look up and down or side to side. Unfortunately, it's fairly awkward to do -- you have to keep holding both the L and the R buttons at the same time and use the D-pad to look around. This can be very useful for shooting alien scum from a height advantage or just to look around for hidden areas.

Speaking of hidden areas, each level has one or more of them. You just have to explore the levels to find them. At the end of a level, it will tell you how many you found out of how many exist so you know if you found them all or not. Hidden areas can net you some better gear or goodies, so its worth the time to hunt for them. On the summary screen it will also tell you your hit percentage, how many aliens you put down, and how long it took you to do it.

Even though the game doesn't have as much interactivity as the original PC game, be sure to try and move up against objects. You can activate security cameras and switches for doors or find hidden elevators and such this way. There are also several places where you'll need to put your best jumping skills to good use. Overall the level design was pretty creative.

The game does not have a mid-level save, but it does feature a battery backup that lets you save your progress after each stage. Missions can be pretty long, though, and there are boss fights at the ends of stages that are difficult. Dying can mean replaying an entire level, possibly multiple times if you're as good as this reviewer. This could cause a lot of frustration for you if your gaming time doesn't come in big chunks.

A save-anytime feature would have been wonderful, but realistically it's probably beyond the capabilities of the platform for this type of game. It would have been possible to implement more save-points and at least one before each major boss fight.

The game features a gama setting control which lets you set the brightness level of the textures to your own preference. As you inevitably do collateral damage, the textures of destroyed items are changed to indicate the damage. Animations and explosions looked pretty good for the most part.

The game also lets you chose from several different "crosshairs" for aiming or none at all. The graphic-novel style hand-drawn cutscenes at the opening scene and between major level transitions are also very nicely done.

The game also supports the use of Link-Cables and allows 2 to 4 players to fight it out in a multiplayer deathmatch mode. The biggest problem with the multiplayer is finding enough people who have GBA's and the Duke Nukem Advance cartridge, because every player has to have their own copy.

The game is not without its flaws, such as the lack of save points before difficult boss encounters and somewhat awkward controls. However, if you like FPS games, and especially if you're a fan of the Duke, you should seriously consider purchasing this title. The Duke is cocked, locked, and ready to rock. What are you waiting for? Come get some!