WooHoo!
In 1987, Disney animation would release the cartoon Ducktales. An animation show that was known as one of Disney's best and right before Disney was about to enter their "Disney Renaissance". The show involves Uncle Scrooge and his three grandnephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie along with a wide cast of outlandish and fun characters as they go seeking out treasures all while stopping evil. The show would end in November of 1990. Around this time was when I was born, so it's easy to say I just missed out on the original Ducktales run. It was something I just missed the boat on. If there's one retro thing I love that's also video games, cartoon shows like this would be it. Maybe one day I'll do a spin off blog to talk about these things but right now the focus is still video games... Speaking of...
In 1989, Capcom would release Ducktales on the NES, based on the cartoon series. Capcom was hitting strides after the success of MegaMan 2 that many gamers did and still to this day enjoy. Another fantastic game for the Nintendo Entertainment System, but I digress. Most times when we get a movie or show tie-in, it's met with mixed results. However I'm happy to say Ducktales is one that really stands out for how good it is.
The game has you playing as Scrooge McDuck who is trying to become the world's richest duck and attempts this by going across the globe and even beyond to collect valuable treasure. All while battling villains and other bad guys from the cartoon show.
The game is a 2D platformer much like Capcom's last hit with Megaman 2. However Scrooge uses his trusty cane rather than a blaster. Scrooge can use his cane much like a pogo stick to hop and stomp on enemies. He can also use his cane to grab objects that could be use for puzzle solving and he can use it as a golf club to launch objects at enemies who are otherwise too high up for Scrooge to attack. The game feels and runs great and has very solid gameplay and controls.
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| Scrooge Using his cane to get past rough spots and open chests |
What makes Ducktales stand out from most platformers around this time I think is how progression is done in the game. It's more than just a get to the end, defete a boss, and move on to the next level. Ducktales is a little different. Since Scrooge wants to be the richest duck and he's going to need a lot of valuable treasures to do so. The game has more focus on exploration and finding these treasures that increases your money. Look at it as a score per say but this one matters way more as again, it's more of the focus of the game. There is more focus on game completion rather than just clearing a level and moving on.
Level progression is also much different and more interactive here. Instead of doing levels in order, you can pick what levels to pick and start with first, much like Megaman 2. You have five locations to choose from. The African mines, The Amazon, The Himalayas, Transylvania, and The Moon. All with their own puzzles and bosses to deal with, all while trying to find all the treasures each location has.
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| Scrooge is so rich he can just go to the moon whenever |
If there's one legacy some gamers know of Ducktales, it's the game's awesome music. The Moon theme is known as one of the NES' most iconic songs and yes it's a great song, but honestly I think there's a ton of great music in this game. The theme for Transylvania is also another one of my favs. Here's not Moon theme in all of its glory.
One thing that also makes Ducktales ahead of its time was the game features not one, two, but three endings. A normal ending for simply beating the game, a bad ending for beating the game with $0 (can be done with a life restore cheat, but you pretty much have to try to end the game with 0$) and a good ending with Scrooge having at least $10,000,000.
Ducktales would end up getting rave reviews and sold well. The game would get a sequel in Ducktales 2 in 1993, well past the show's original run. The cartoon itself would get a reboot in 2017 and even makes a reference of the moon theme in one episode.
Ducktales (video game) would also get a remaster in 2013 with updated graphics, music, gameplay, and even cutscenes with voice lines from some of the cast of the original cartoon. The remaster would get positive reviews as well. Honestly both version of the game are fantastic and worth playing.
In the end, Ducktales is a great platformer for the Nintendo Entertainment System and might be one of my top ten games on the legendary system. If you're into 2D platformers such like Megaman or even Mario, you'll want to give Ducktales a try. It's a quacktastic 8-bit era platformer.
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| Ducktales gets 4 out of 5 stars |
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