Disney's DuckTales (1989)

Preliminary: Right off the bat lovvvvving all the music, tho the Look is a bit meh. I keep jumping the gun to the SNES era :-p but I think that's valid since PC Engine and Genesis are already out. Ok I'm a bit confused by the controls lol glad I got the Pogo stick down and killed some enemies but can I not smack em? Let me read up the manual. Great mid-jump movement but I do wish the jumping from one vine to the other in the Amazon was smoother and that I had a way to fight back properly

Argh, not infinitely respawning enemiesssss hate that feature in games. But nice I finished the Amazon without resorting to savestate abuse or gettingt oo frustrated. I'm definitely getting more into it as I fly through the game, already on the Mines (doing the levels in order they are listed).

Day 2

Some great music in the Moon level once you're in the spaceship or whatever it is. And neat idea of the mechanical duck enemies heh. I am really enjoying it, it's a quality platformer, the bosses feel a bit underwhelming and repetitive but I like that you can either seek a lot of money (for the best ending) or do what I did and just get as much money as you can while taking the most direct path to the boss for each level. If I enjoyed the gameplay a bit more I maybe would've gone for the best ending. But really my only complaints about the gameplay is the enemy re-spawning feature so many platformers of this era had, and some of the collision masks aren't great, oh and getting off ropes/vines/etc is very, indeed, Mega Man-y and I prefer when you can actually leap off ladders/ropes/etc not just sorta fall.

What terrible level design (tho I'm sure it was intentional, it's just badly implemented due to the way the enemies respawn, and not my style of challenge) to have these narrow passes with these Mecha-Ducks. At a point I stopped being patient and just took the damage, cuz depending on where exactly I was when I finally waited for them to come out and allowed me to jump on them, I may or may not have then spawned another one right to the passage again.

I think, for me, this game would be amazing if you could just always use the cane as a short-reach weapon a la so many platformers of its time. My favorite parts were when I had opportunities to smack objects at enemies, there should've been more of that :-p

The final boss def felt underwhelming, I didn't even have to savestate or die once. But I was doing it on easy mode after all.

Look: 8/10 Cute and good for its time. Nice seeing the Ducktales characters in NES form

Sound: 8/10 Great music for an NES game

Play: 7.5/10 Love me some platformers, tho the Megaman games have not been a favorite so far and tho the pogo jumping/attacking was a cute idea, I do wish you also had the ability to smack enemies with your cane or the level designs were better suited for pogo'ing everywhere and smacking many many objects at enemies without them simply respawning when you move forward.

Feel: 7.5/10 If I were more of a Ducktales guy, this would have a stronger feel I'm sure. Or if I had access to this game as a kid. But alas with neither of those, this is just a solid, fun, franchise-based (which I always like) NES platformer.

Attachment: 7.5/10 Again, if you could smack with your cane this would be higher. But if I am to return to platformers from this era, there are already so many that come to mind, so I'm not sure when I'd return to this. Plus, the idea of collecting different amounts of money for different endings is a neat idea and opens up different ways of playing the game etc etc, but without a better Play, I don't see myself exploring that.

Overall: 7.7/10

Completion: Main Story

Playtime: 1h 30m

Platform:

NES version. (Although I also played the Gameboy version earlier)

Graphics:

Solid graphics that have aged pretty well, still looks good today. The disney characters are recognizable, and the colors are well chosen generally.

Gameplay:

It's a Capcom platformer on the NES. If you are a fan of the genre that should already tell you much. The controls are tight, but it has the same problem most Capcom platformers have: All enemies always respawn as soon as they are off screen. Similar to Mega Man you get to choose which level you play next, which I always liked about this game. Contrary to Mega Man these levels are largely non-linear, there is quite a deal of exploration involved in this. And the pogo effect of Scrooge's cane is extremely fun.

Difficulty:

Difficulty here seems a bit lower than on most Capcom games of that era I played, but it's still challeging. There are some of Capcoms infamous appearing blocks but it's not as punishing as in Mega Man.

It's a classic so everyone interested in games of that era should play it of course. It's a great game, not too long, so if you have an afternoon to spare this is the right game.

Well, I can't believe I finally beat Duck Tales! Woo-hoo! And now I can't stop singing the tune. This is definitely one of the best platformers I've played on the Game Boy so far. Not too easy, not too difficult, some fun, varied enemies, and cleverly designed nonlinear levels. You play as Scrooge, who takes out enemies and opens treasure chests by using his cane as a pogo stick. On the gameboy, this technique requires you to hold down A and B simultaneously, which takes some getting used to, but turns out to be awesome fun once mastered. Soon, I found myself jumping almost nonstop. The game rewards this with hidden treasures that pop up out of nowhere if you jump in certain places, which makes for a motivating element of surprise. You also meet other characters, such as Louie, Dewey and Huey, on the way, which adds a nice bit of flair to your solo adventure.

The only thing I didn't like was the minecart you automatically hop onto in certain sections. The damn thing was so difficult to get out of I eventually refused to ride it anywhere, climbing out half a second after getting in. I died quite a few times from various other, amusing causes, too, especially since I played on the highest difficulty level (which really just means your health depletes more quickly). Thankfully, though, the game allows you to play the stages in any order you choose, so I was able to practise each one on its own and eventually string them all together. Proudest moment: I got the final boss(es) on the first try.

History:
Never actually got around to playing this one. Never actually got around to playing the remake I got for free on PSN either...

Expectations:
I've heard nothing but praise for this title, and after playing Chip 'n' Dale I'm expecting great things.

Day 1:

Damn you giant green-cheese-guarding space rat!

I feel like this is one of those games that I'm not "allowed" to dislike. Maybe I overhyped it in my head before I started playing, but my time with Duck Tales wasn't as enjoyable as I was hoping. In fact, I'd say it was downright frustrating.

It was just that Duck Tales wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be, but I didn't think it was even as good as Capcom's other Disney game that I had played earlier on this list. I never thought it was a bad game, though. I've played bad games, and this was not a bad game.

Anyway, my time with the game basically boiled down to the following scenario. Clear Moon, go to Amazon. Then, either walk off ledges or game over at boss. If I could make it to Transylvania with more than 0 lives left I was looking good. The hit detection in this game tends to be really wonky, and activating Scrooge's pogo-cane can be temperamental. The combination of these two quirks tended to lead to some very frustrating deaths.

I had actually thought about quitting a few times during the, I want to say two hours, I spent with Duck Tales. As the game became more and more practiced and methodical, though, I found myself just trying over and over again, and at some point I just got it.

Once I was finally about to smoothly clear the first three stages, the rest of the game was actually incredibly easy. I was even able to one shot both the Himalayas and the underground stage.

Side note, the boss fights in this game all reeked of Mega Man. I really kinda love how Capcom had a very distinct during this time.

After beating the fifth stage...

Yep, saw that coming, becuse Capcom.

Yay!

Now, before we wrap things up, I decided to have a bit of post-game fun last night and fire up the PS3.

I just wanted to see how the remaster compared to the old. I was actually kind of surprised to find it a completely different game altogether! Aside from the obvious visual and audio upgrades (Hearing the original voice cast in action had my nostalgia for 90's cartoons in hyperdrive!) the actual demands of the game had changed drastically. The control and hit detection issues I had with the original were all but eliminated, a new tutorial level was added, and the ability to rush through stages was made impossible.

In this remake of the original, every level was drawn out by making you find and collect treasures hidden throughout the stage. I didn't necessarily mind, but at 11:45pm I wasn't too inclined to give it too much time either!

I can't say it's better than the original because I'd be comparing two radically different games if I did, but I will say I absolutely love the style!

Liked:
When the game played well it played quite well. While bosses suffered from odd hit detection they were generally pretty fun and rewarding to fight. Visually the game was done very well, and the music was fantastic. Level design was also "pretty good", allowing you to either take your time and collect all the things, or platform your way to a speedy victory.

Disliked:
Again, those weird control and detection issues! As a result, a sense of achievement from anything felt stripped away since clearing difficult section almost felt more attributed to luck than skill. Death's nearly always felt cheap, and the game as a whole could get very frustrating.

Play it Again?
Maybe. Again, it's not a bad game, the quirks in it just made it fell like it didn't live up to its potential. It is a fun speed run though.

Personal Score: