Can’t wait until June to get your Duke Nukem jollies?

Well the good news is that ‘The King’ (even though he’s ‘The Duke’) will be making his first videogame appearance in a number of years on the Nintendo DS tomorrow across Europe and the UK.

The bad news? There is no bad news – by the looks of this trailer for Duke Nukem: Critical Mass, you’ll be able to bathe in all of the Duke jollies this game provides, while still having some left over for a shower:

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After the highly publicised closure of 3D Realms two weeks ago, and the subsequent news that Take-Two, the publishing rights holder for the perpetually in development Duke Nukem Forever, had filed a lawsuit against 3D Realms for not producing a game after the publisher’s $12 million investment, 3D Realms’ CEO, big man George Broussard, has finally released a public statement to quell the tide of angry, disappointed and indifferent fans:

“Despite rumors and statements to the contrary, 3D Realms (3DR) has not closed and is not closing. 3DR retains ownership of the Duke Nukem franchise.

“Due to lack of funding, however, we are saddened to confirm that we let the Duke Nukem Forever (DNF) development team go on May 6, while we regroup as a company.

“While 3DR is a much smaller studio now, we will continue to operate as a company and continue to license and co-create games based upon the Duke Nukem franchise.”

Broussard then goes on to provide his side of the Take-Two $12 million story, revealing that, not only has 3D Realms never directly received any money from Take-Two for the development of Duke Nukem Forever, but the $12 million in question was paid to the now defunct GT Interactive, 3D Realms’ publishing partner at the time.

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Those of you hoping for a resolution to the Duke Nukem Forever ‘situation’ may want to lower your expectations for the game to be released any time soon, if ever.

Take-Two, owner of the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, has only gone and sued Apogee Software Ltd. (3D Realms’ legal name) over their failure to produce the game that has been in development for twelve years, having seen continually promised release dates come and go without a result.

From the complaint filed by Take-Two in a state court in Manhattan recently: “Apogee continually delayed the completion date for the Duke Nukem Forever. Apogee repeatedly assured Take-Two and the video-gaming community that it was diligently working toward comp[l]eting development of the PC Version of the Duke Nukem Forever.”

It has also been revealed that in 2000, Take-Two paid $12 million for the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever, despite a statement to the contrary released shortly after the news that 3D Realms would be shut down, and their employees laid off.

Take-Two is apparently now trying to reclaim the $12 million that they had provided to 3D Realms, after the developer’s failure to fulfil its obligations to produce Duke Nukem Forever.