Duck Tales

I elected to pick Duck Tales next because I have very vivid childhood memories of playing it over and over. I remember the music, a good portion of the game play, and how I begged and begged for it as a six year old to be spoiled by my mother getting it for me. It was time to get into it and make those memories live again. 

Duck Tales is another superbly crafted game to come from Capcom in the late 80's to early 90's period.
Newcastle Arcade

Duck Tales is another superbly crafted game to come from Capcom in the late 80's to early 90's period. You can jump in and start playing in 5 seconds, and nothing is lost on the fact that there is no introduction or storyline behind you, the game just speaks for itself and you get stuck into doing whatever it is you feel like you should be doing.

Being a platformer things are quite simple in-level and you just work your way from point A the point B, but Duck Tales gives you just a bit more freedom as the 5 levels of the game do not need to be played through in sequence. Most levels are also quite big with various direction and paths you can take to reach the treasure at the end, and they're absolutely riddled with hidden treasures and 'short cuts'. 

Everything about this game fills me childish glee that is very specific to gamers of my vintage, as it ties in heavily with watching Saturday Disney religiously to start every weekend and bopping around the lounge room singing the Duck Tales theme, hoping that one day you too will get a chance to swan dive into a monolith'esque money bin full of gold coins. For the younger generation of gamers I can see how it wouldn't all that exciting, but the game has enough substance to hold it's own even without the hit Disney TV show as a back story. 

The controls are simple as was the case with all games release on 2-button controllers, but has some nice innovations like the cane being used as a pogo stick and your primary weapon. While it can get a little tedious constantly holding down and bouncing everywhere, you also get a god-like feeling doing it as you can bounce over dangerous terrain without being hurt and power through a level killing everything in your way, as long as you don't hit it side on!  

Every screen and level in the game is backed by a fantastic musical score, which keeps you bopping along (or in my case almost dancing) the whole way through. The levels are all quite different and display a full range of colours, enemies and obstacles which wrap this game up into an impressive package. Given that the levels can be played in any order, none of them are particularly more challenging than the others which drops the difficulty level of this game dramatically. Once you learn the pathways through the levels the real fun in this game comes from trying to speed run it, or even run it without being hit or getting maximum cash etc - the game itself is not that hard, even on difficult.

You can walk, jump, golf-swing the cane (must be stationary pushing against the object you want to hit), or pogo. Given that pogo is the method of killing everything and allows you to jump on spikey terrain without being hurt it's really the only choice and the best way to get around this game.

There's no alternative in weapons, abilities, no magic and no armour. The sole purpose is to get cash (diamonds) and treasure (1 treasure per level which you must defeat the boss for, and 2 hidden treasures throughout the game). The level enemies pose no real threat, you just need to traverse through them. Level bosses are quite easy once you practice a little and the main challenge is finding the correct path through the levels, which only takes 2 or 3 runs to figure out.

Review by - Newcastle Arcade

Ducktales- Longplay NES
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Ducktales the Movie Intro