#36 - Duck Tales

This is easily my favorite Capcom/Disney NES game. The rest just don't really compare... well, okay, Rescue Rangers 1 was a ton of fun for me too, but Duck Tales does it better for me. The controls felt tighter, the levels felt like they were designed better, and the songs just felt sooo much better. While you could make the argument that both games did their styles justice, eh, Duck Tales just felt better designed to me... and don't get me started on the rest because they ranged from mediocre (the sequels, Adventures In The Magical Kingdom) to shitty (Tale Spin and Mickey Mousecapades).

But yeah, Duck Tales was a great game. Three things made it really stand out to me - one, it was very faithful to its license. Besides the fact that Scrooge can use his cane as a pogo stick (if he did that in an episode, let me know, and give me the episode name so I can check if you're bullshitting), it feels like a compilation of episodes. Generally, Scrooge, his three nephews (Huey, Dewey and Louie) and Launchpad McQuack (who calls Scrooge "Mr McD" - nice touch when they get stuff like that right, it shows they gave enough of a shit about the license) go on adventures all over the world to get treasure so that Scrooge can get richer, but there's always trouble afoot. Whether it's a beast or a relic come to life, it's never that easy, and his nephews always get in shit... just feels like a bunch of episodes, which makes it work.

Two, the soundtrack is *bleep*ing excellent. I mean, this has the moon song that a lot of people know of and would make love to if it was possible, but that's not to discount the rest of the soundtrack, which sounds great. The iconic Duck Tales theme song sounds *bleep*ing excellent and on key for an 8-bit rendition, and the rest of the levels all have upbeat, catchy songs that give you a sense of adventure, and they all manage to compliment the settings quite nicely.

Thirdly, the levels are big and expansive with a lot of secrets to find - which you're encouraged to find in order to get the best ending for this game. It never feels like a chore to go through the levels if you just plough right through them, and the secrets actually felt like secrets which you had to sometimes bust your balls to find. I see no problem with the levels, they're just very well designed.

If I had any problems, it would be that the bosses are too easy, it's a bit of a short game that could use a few more levels, and that you had to return to a level three times - once to get through it like the other levels, once briefly to get a key, and finally, once for the final stage... laziness, people. I don't know why they didn't make another level for the final showdown. Silly Capcom.

Summary - A fantastic platformer that stays true to its license
Rating - 9/10

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