Ion Fury

Development

Ion Fury uses EDuke32, a version of the Build engine updated for modern systems with extra features. The game's code is included in that source port. In May 2019, Iron Maiden announced a $2 million lawsuit against 3D Realms, claiming the game's title and branding were a near copy of their trademark. 3D Realms responded on Twitter, dismissing the suit as frivolous and saying players would find the claims over the top. The lawsuit pointed to similarities like the name "Ion Maiden," the font, the main character Shelly 'Bombshell' Harrison, a skull symbol, and the Eddie character.

However, several of those elements, including the character name and skull, had already appeared in 3D Realms' earlier game Bombshell from January 2016. 3D Realms founder Scott Miller explained that the name "Ion Maiden" came from a weapon used by the same heroine in Bombshell. On July 11, 2019, the title was changed to Ion Fury. It was also announced that Jon St. John, the voice of Duke Nukem, would voice the game's main villain.

Reception

All versions of Ion Fury received generally favorable reviews on Metacritic. IGN gave it a score of 7.5/10, calling it an authentic throwback to Duke Nukem 3D that hails to the king but cannot quite dethrone him. PCGamesN's Chris Capel described it as probably the best Build engine game ever, and challenging, funny, cleverly designed, and shockingly attractive. GameRevolution's Alex Santa Maria called it an updated take on Duke Nukem 3D that goes beyond nostalgic pandering to become one of the better first-person shooters in recent memory.

Game Informer's Javy Gwaltney said it was everything he wanted from a modernized take on arcadey shooters of the 90s, citing pitch-perfect movement, enemy variety, creative weaponry, and fantastic level design. Ion Fury won Player's Choice Indie of the Year 2019 at IndieDB, and its soundtrack won the Outstanding Achievement for old school composing techniques award at the Game Audio Awards 2020. On August 16, 2019, Discord chat logs from Voidpoint members were shared, displaying purportedly transphobic remarks.

Following requests for comment, Voidpoint and 3D Realms apologized, pledged a zero-tolerance policy on disparaging language, and pledged to remove two lines of in-game text. They also donated $10,000 of initial sales to the Trevor Project. The response yielded mixed reactions, including a considerable increase in negative reviews on Steam, many accusing the developers of censorship. On August 26, 2019, the developers reversed their stance, stating they would remove only one message containing a slur but no other content.

Polygon cited the increase in negative reviews as the basis for the reversal. Voidpoint and 3D Realms issued a joint statement that they would not remove further content from Ion Fury or any future games, stating their opposition to the censorship of creative works.

Expansion and sequel

Ion Fury: Aftershock, an expansion for the game, was first shown at Realms Deep 2020 with a planned 2021 release. It was formally revealed in 2021 and finally launched on PC on October 2, 2023. The expansion adds thirteen levels, a new weapon, new inventory items, and several fresh enemy and ammo types. Its Arrange Mode remixes the full original campaign with mirrored stages and altered enemy and item placements. A sequel, Phantom Fury, using Unreal Engine, came out on April 23, 2024.