Not even game cancellation can get the Duke down, as we've learned that his 2002 sidescroller may be on its way to the Xbox Live Arcade.

This news comes courtesy of the Linkedin profile of Rebecca Heineman, one of the founding members of Interplay back in 1983 and programmer of such classics as The Bards Tale III. Rebecca currently resides as Lead Software Development Engineer at Microsoft.

In her LinkedIn profile, as well as a cached versionof a forum post, she suggests that she's been working on bringing Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Quick history lesson - Manhatten Project was a 3D side scrolling Duke Nukem adventure developed by 3D Realms and the now defunct Sunstorm Interactive back in 2002, and was well received by critics. It was used to keep Duke Nukem in the limelight after Duke Nukem Forever's release date continued to slip.

Looking back it would have fit perfectly in the age of digital downloads, so it's no surprise that Duke is making a return trip to the Xbox Live Arcade. Just watching this video will show you how surprisingly similar Shadow Complex is to Manhattan Project's mechanics and level design.

The game hasn't ages all that well graphically though, especially compared to Shadow Complex, so if truly is in the works I would hope they find a way to cram in some of those Duke Nukem Forever models and textures into this game.

There is no official word on this game at this time, but what we've found seems to confirm it. Are you ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum?