Duck Hunt
Duck Hunt is a light-gun game by Nintendo originally released on the NES in 1984 and then ported to the PlayChoice-10 and the Vs. System. Strangely, in 2004, a company ported it to the long since obsolete MSX. The dog and duck later showed up in Super Smash Bros. 4
I first played this game when my brother and I bought the NES Action Set around 1988 which came with a Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt multicart and a Zapper. One day, just to see how far I could get with cheating, I played the game with the gun directly in front of the TV and played long enough that the game stopped becoming more difficult. When I learned that there was no end to it, I became bored with the game and stopped playing it.
One interesting thing I found while playing with a debugger is the programmers actually trapped the max level to give a game over if you reach level 100 rather than having infinite play or a bugged kill screen.
Contents
Status
I own the game in the Super Mario Bros. / Duck Hunt multi-cart. I can play indefinitely by getting extremely close to the television, but I'm not going to sit around until I reach level 100.
Review
- Overall: 2/10
- Best Version: Vs. System
Good
- For the first few minutes you play the game, you'll probably enjoy yourself.
- The cartoon graphics are kind of nice, and there is a noticeable difference in tone between the silly duck shooting and the more serious clay pigeons.
- The game has some nice memorable jingles.
- The Vs. System adds an additional type of game play and allows you to shoot the stupid giggling dog!
Bad
- Although the game ends at round 100, the difficultly stops increasing after only a handful of rounds and then caps out and repeats itself where it becomes dull.
Ugly
- All of the game is dully similar. Although there are three total modes, you're essentially doing the exact same thing in each. There just isn't much content.
Media
Box Art
Documentation
- Duck Hunt - NES - Manual.pdf
Game manual.
Screenshots
- Duck Hunt - NES - Title.png
Title screen.
- Duck Hunt - NES - Ducks.png
Shooting ducks.
- Duck Hunt - NES - Clay.png
Clay pigeons.
Gallery
CGA mockup.
Videos
- youtube.com/watch?v=jBDNsaWiT8Q - Longplay.
Credits
Duck Hunt was released without credits, but dedicated fans have determined the majority of the staff.
Name | Roles |
---|---|
Hiroshi Yamauchi | Executive Producer |
Gunpei Yokoi | Producer |
Satoru Okada | Director |
Hiroji Kiyotake | Designer |
Yasunari Soejima | Programmer |
Kenji Nakajima | Programmer |
Hirokazu Tanaka | Music, Sound Effects, Audio Programmer |
Titles
Language | Native | Transliteration | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
English | Duck Hunt | ||
Japanese | ダックハント | Dakku Hanto | Duck Hunt |
Links
- mobygames.com/game/duck-hunt - MobyGames.
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_Hunt - Wikipedia.
- gamefaqs.com/nes/587252-duck-hunt - GameFAQs.
- thealmightyguru.com/Games/Hacking/Wiki/index.php/Duck_Hunt - NES Hacker Database.
- youtube.com/watch?v=dp_i3OElURE - Played on an actual NES.
- youtube.com/watch?v=Qtf1FUp-0jo - Shooting the dog in the VS System.
- youtube.com/watch?v=khtTZ87amwc - Boundary Break.