2. Duke Nukem Finds The Doomed Space Marine
What truly made Duke Nukem a phenomenon at the time it came out was the personality of its protagonist. No one could get enough of the macho, wisecracking mixture of Clint Eastwood, Ash Williams, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Of course, they unfortunately wouldn't see him again in a true sequel for years to come. In the third level of the original game, Duke finds a somewhat creepy chapel that's bathed in red light and full of enemies. This is pretty close to the area where the pig cops try to execute him by the electric chair. If Duke hits a switch that allows him to go behind the giant wooden cross in the center, he will find a dead marine like the one from the series Doom and will comment, "Hmm...that's one doomed space marine." Duke finding the bodies of characters from other series is somewhat of a running joke throughout all of the games. He also finds Indiana Jones, Snake Plissken, Capt. Picard, and Lara Croft. Duke Nukem Forever continued the running joke as well. This time it's a space marine from the popular series Dead Space. Duke comments when he finds the headless body, "One dead space marine."