Difference between revisions of "DuckTales (video game)"

Revision as of 13:33, 13 May 2019

North American NES box.

DuckTales is a platform adventure-action game developed and published by Capcom and first released on the NES in September of 1989, then Game Boy in 1990. The game takes place in the DuckTales universe.

I remember being interested in this game because it was pretty popular in Nintendo advertising, and because I enjoyed the television show. However, nobody I knew owned the game, so I didn't play it at the time. I tried it a few times in emulators, but didn't put much effort into it until around 2010 when I played it properly and found it to be a delightful game.

Status

I do not own the game, but have beaten it on the NES on easy mode.

Review

Overall: 6/10
Best Version: NES

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

The graphics are fantastic, and accurately depict the various DuckTales characters.
A lot of effort was made to include most of the DuckTales imagery, which rarely happens in a tie-in game. The title music is a great rendering of the TV show's theme.
Hiroshige Tonomura composed a very nice soundtrack.
Despite the game showing up on lists as being one of the easiest NES games on the platform, I think the game offers a pretty good challenge to a new player even on the easiest difficulty. I also like the feature where you can adjust the difficulty, even if it merely alters the player's hit points.
Each area has a fair amount of hidden rooms and treasures which adds to the replay value.

Bad

With only 5 stages, the game is a bit on the short side. The designers elongate play time by forcing you to go through the same maps multiple times, but this is a cheap trick.
The mine cart riding portion is kind of annoying. It requires very accurate timing on a jump, and, if you succeed, Scrooge seems unperturbed at watching his Nephews fall to their death!
The difficulty settings don't increase the complexity of the game, they just cause enemies to deal more damage. This is a lazy difficulty setting.

Ugly

Nothing.

Media

Box Art

The original NES box. The same art was used in all regions just with variations of the layout. I really like this art because it shows how Scrooge is only focused on obtaining wealth, even when his own life is in danger.
This is the Game Boy box art used by all regions except Japan. Scrooge here looks almost sinister, like you're being asked to accompany him to bury a body. The art is still great though, and depicts an adventure about the begin.
The Japanese Game Boy art is my least favorite. It has Scrooge staring off into space with the various other characters standing around in unrelated poses.