Dynamite Duke is no classic among Sega’s early Genesis games. In fact, it wasn’t a Sega game at all. Sega licensed the arcade original from Seibu Kaihatsu and developed a Genesis version, just as Sega did with Capcom’s Strider and Ghouls ’N Ghosts. Unlike those Capcom offerings, Dynamite Duke is a dreary, one-dimensional gallery shooter that couldn’t survive outside of the arcades. But Sega didn’t discriminate. No, they gave it the same treatment as all of their first-round Genesis titles, right down to the cover.
Aw, poor Dynamite Duke is a Frowny Fred. Sega clearly tried to embody the grizzled spirit of an elite military agent, but the man’s face and the surrounding shadows give him the cartoon rictus of a sad clown. Poor Dynamite Duke indeed.
Sega apparently didn’t put much stock in the original look of Dynamite Duke. In the game, he’s a buzzcut instrument of destruction, outfitted with a bionic arm, a machine gun, and a transparent torso. In theory, this see-through hero should let players observe enemies and projectiles, but it never works all that well.
The Japanese version, on the other hand, took Dynamite Duke’s look and ran straight to the world of ’80s action heroes. A hollow-chested warrior no longer, Dynamite Duke is a chiseled, manful, and vaguely homoerotic avatar of cyber-armed justice, with a physique and vacant stare worthy of Dolph Lundgren.
And so Dynamite Duke passed into the same nebulous history that envelops all low-rung stars of video games. Perhaps he’s off somewhere with Buck Bumble and the heroine of Space Bunnies Must Die. And everyone can still see right through him. In several ways.
Next: Es muy malo.
