Old School Games: Ducktales

One of my all time favorite games ever! Surely I can't be the only one who considers Ducktales among the all time classic Nintendo games. Would you like to know more?



If you're around the same age as me, that early to mid twenties range, you'll remember the Disney afternoon. The shows came on just after school and featured animal heroes. Among those cartoons was Ducktales. It followed the richest duck in the world and his three nephews going on various adventures. One of the better Disney animated series. So we were already familiar with the world and its characters, but how do you make a game where the playable character is an eighty year old duck? Same as most other NES licensed game: an action platformer!



What makes this game so awesome is the gameplay. You can't jump on enemies to kill them you have to bounce on your cane. You can also use the cane to whack objects in the levels to attack enemies or collect more treasures. Sometimes you'll have to bounce across enemies heads over a giant bottomless pit. In the Himalayas stage you can't bounce on the snowy parts. You'll just get stuck.Another cool gameplay feature is the bosses. Classic example of pattern bosses. The type who if you fight him a couple times you'll learn his pattern and be able to beat him. One last quick touch is the helicopter pilot. Lets say you're bored with the level your on and want to go back to the stage select screen. Useful if you're low on health or low on extra men. The only negative I can think of is that its easy to run out of extra lives and no passwords.



The premise is you going around the world collecting treasures. You pick from: The Amazon, Himalayas, African Mines Transylvania, and The Moon. Yes, you can even travel to the moon when you've got Scrooge McDuck money. Whats really interesting is some levels make you travel to other ones before you can progress further in them. For example, at the start of the African Mines you get sent to Transylvania to find a key. You don't see that kind of stuff in nes games every day.



What more can I say about Ducktales? How about this: if I ever make a list of the best games for the regular Nintendo, Ducktales is on that list. I didn't mention it, but the game was developed by one of the last old school developers still around: CAPCOM! They also developed a sequel. Great game or greatest game? I don't know, but I do know that I like Ducktales a lot.