Disney's DuckTales

aka: Disney's DuckTales: La Bande à Picsou, Wanpaku Duck Yume Bouken
Moby ID: 8606
NES Specs
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Duck Tales for NES is a traditional platform game in which the player takes the role of greedy Scrooge McDuck in search of treasures around the globe. He counts on his three nephews and on other Duck Tales characters to help him in his quest through inhospitable places such as the Amazon rainforest, the African mines, the Himalayas, Transylvania (where he meets Dracula Duck) and even the Moon.

Each one of them reserves the old duck lots of adventure, different enemies and hidden rooms.

The game features a 2D side-scrolling platform gameplay very similar to Mega Man. Graphics are colorful and cartoonish, music is reminiscent of the TV series, and controls are very simple.

Spellings

  • わんぱくダック夢冒険 - Japanese spelling

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Credits (NES version)

7 People

Producer
Disney Producer
Director and Graphic Design
Game Designer
Sound Designer
Sound Programmer
US Instruction Manual by

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 82% (based on 35 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 109 ratings with 4 reviews)

Capcom does it again.

The Good
Duck Tales has a lot of good things that I like. The music isn't quite as stellar as the Batman soundtrack I ranted about, but it's still good enough to keep your volume up on your TV.

The graphics are standard 8-bit graphics that you'd normally expect, but they stand out for me. The game is very colorful, and just something great to look at throughout all of the game's 5 tough, and treasure-laden, stages.

The controls are easy to grasp, especially with all the abilities that the main character, Scrooge McDuck, has in his arsenal (Cane Bounce, Golf Swing, Climbing, etc.) They are easy to learn, and easy to execute once you learn them.

The non-linear game play is also a great addition, which helps if you have trouble finding what you are looking for, you can go back anytime and retrieve what you have been looking really hard for.

The Bad
The difficulty was lacking in this game. Now granted, it is considered a kids game, but most people who play these games now a days aren't kids anymore, we young adults are expected to have a little difficulty added into these kind of games. These games have their tough moments (Enemy pattern, stage navigation), but is clouded by a lot of low difficulty moments, most notably the boss fights, which, for me, are all ridiculously too easy.

Other than that, cons in this game are very limited.

The Bottom Line
Duck Tales is a 1-Player side-scroller, based on Disney's popular TV show, that puts you in the shoes (or webbed-feet, rather) of Scrooge McDuck. McDuck is after all the treasures of the world, and looks to become the worlds richest duck. There are 5 stages to explore -

  1. The Amazon
  2. The Himalayas
  3. Transylvania
  4. African Mines
  5. The Moon

All of those stages include a boss, and after you defeat that boss, you get a special treasure, there is one in each level. If you explore hard enough, you'll find 2 special hidden treasures. The game also includes helpful side-characters, who can help you nab those difficult treasures, Huey, Louie, Dewey, Launchpad McQuack, and Mrs. Bentina Beakly, all helpful to Scrooge, and also all popular characters from the TV series.

Duck Tales is an overall great game, for people who are searching for great control, game play, and graphics. But if you are looking for a difficult game, this isn't for you.

NES · by Crazy Horse (10) · 2008

One of the weirdest sidescrollers I have ever seen

The Good
I should probably mention that this is a tie-in product, based on the similarly named TV show that aired somewhere in the 80's and has been re-released countless times since. It's probably worth checking out just because it's the only game based on a show/movie that's actually pretty good. I never watched the show myself though, I caught my little sister watching it a few days ago, but I did read the Donald Duck comics back when I was younger and I really enjoyed seeing some of the characters back (like that Witch).

The levels were really well designed with alternate routes leading to the same locations and lots of interesting secrets to find. At one point I noticed that part of the ceiling behind a support character was gone, so I talked with him and then walked through him, to my surprise the ceiling was actually gone and you could jump up there and walk to a secret room (Super Mario Bros. style). The non-linear nature of the game makes it a very welcome addition to my collection because most other sidescrollers are rather linear.

The levels have enough variation to keep you interested, the stage at the top of the list is in the Amazon and it's filled with all kinds of dangerous animals and native-Americans, but the stage after that is in Transylvania and looks a lot like Castlevania. There are also quite a lot of interesting events in the stages, such as riding around in mine-carts and hanging onto a flying helicopter in order to get over a gap. Each level also has it's own final boss which guards the treasure and these are interesting as well, although each of them can be defeated by jumping on them with the stick.

The most efficient way to get around is by jumping on your cane which looks absolutely retarded. The idea is that you jump and then press down + B which makes Scrooge jump around on his cane. Not only is this faster, but you can also reach high places by using this tactic and you can kill enemies that walk underneath you. I remember when a friend came over and we started playing this game, the look on his face when he saw me bouncing around the map was priceless.

The music is pretty damn good and very memorable, it's not overly cheerful like in Super Mario Bros., but at the same time not too dark and fast like in Castlevania. Just like in the stages, it comes with a lot of variety. To be honest, the music is the only reason that I even bough this game. I saw it appear on some top 10 list a while ago and the channel belonged to a pretty big website, so when they talked about it an quoted somebody from their forums I became intrigued.

The Bad
The controls are absolutely the biggest problem in this game, the earlier mentioned jumping around on the cane only works if you lad precisely on land, a few pixels too far and you are going to stop and get hit by one of the enemies. There is also another attack which you pull off by repeatedly tapping the B-button, I can't for the love of god imagine why you couldn't just tap it once. This attack is also needed very early on to hit blocks with your cane (some blocks can't be destroyed by jumping on them) and since I don't have the manual that proved to be much harder to figure out then it should have been.

The game is really big on putting you in situations where you can't dodge an enemy. The earlier mentioned helicopter flight ends with a collision involving your elderly face and a bee and I tried everything to jump off before the bee would hit me, but there is no way you are going to dodge that. There was also one time when I died and the game spawned me next to an enemy. Of course there are also the instant death pits which I despise in every single game they are in.

The game has a life system and a timer, both of which are terrible gameplay ideas and should never have been used in videogames. The lives system is the one that confuses me the most, why would you want to use something like that? It was used to make sure that little children would keep coming back to arcade machines if they ever wanted to finish a game, surely the home console concept was intended to make sure that even normal people can finish a game and not just the ones who have insanely rich parents.

The fact that you can go game-over is also worsened by the fact that some levels require you to find items in other levels, take for example a door in Africa that can only be unlocked by using a key found in Transylvania. Not only do these situations make no sense, but they also suck when you die and have to get those items again before you can play another stage. It also makes it pretty useless to allow the player to choose the order in which they want to play the levels, seeing as it still forces them to follow a certain pattern.

The Bottom Line
Duck Tales is one of the most popular games on the NES and I can see why, it's a non-linear sidescroller based on a very good Disney show that's very unique in it's design. There are a lot of sidescrollers on the NES and even more on the Super Nintendo, but you won't find a single one that is like Duck Tales (not counter Duck Tales 2). If you are a collector, then you are simply obligated to have this NES game in your collection because you won't find any other game that can possibly fill it's place.

Duck Tales recently aired on television again, but I am not sure if that was just a short nostalgia hour or if they are starting the show again. One way or another, kids will probably need a little adult help when playing this tie-in, but they will almost certainly be entertained by it. Adults who don't have never watched the show are still going to have a very good and unique NES game, but they are going to miss out on the best experience, seeing as they don't know the characters.

NES · by Asinine (957) · 2011

A good platformer on the go (on the po-go really)

The Good
Ducktales is a platformer developed by Capcom.
The NES game was the first entry in a successful partnership between Capcom, Disney and Nintendo. Naturally the GameBoy required a port. So, how is it?
Well, quite faithful to the original. Yes, the levels have been re-designed and though they seem a tiny bit shorter and perhaps easier, for the most part everything is here. Nice graphics, an OK sound rendition, the option to complete the levels in different order, the required knowledge of secrets to move forward, the variety in enemies, the secret rooms, and the one thing that defined the original: The pogo stick mechanic. Which feels really good! Is identical to the one in the NES, so the platforming fun is guaranteed.

The Bad
For the most part the bosses are very easy. Except for the last boss: count "Dracura" (ha, ha love that!), very close to be unbeatable because of a failure in design that the original fight just didn't have.

The Bottom Line
Ducktales for the GameBoy is a very nice port. As a platformer is less challenging but also less frustrating and so, better in my opinion.
The NES game might be the more complete version but I rather play this one.

Game Boy · by pelida77 (36) · 2023

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Trivia

North American version

To comply with Nintendo's censorship policies, the North American release was changed so that the crosses on the tombstones in one level said "RIP".

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Related Sites +

  • Howard & Nester do Duck Tales
    A regular feature in Nintendo Power magazine, Howard & Nester was a comic strip about two game whizzes who would one-up each other, while disclosing hints and tips, in the settings of various recently-released games for the NES platform. In the November/December 1989 two-page installment, Howard frees Nester from the wrong side of a wall on the Moon by summoning Roboduck (... indicating that the comic author only played the prototype, before Roboduck was given his correct name, "Gizmo Duck", back.) All this without infringing on any Disney intellectual properties, using generic ducks.

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  • MobyGames ID: 8606
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Mumm-Ra.

Game Boy added by Ben K.

Additional contributors: chirinea, monkeyislandgirl, Pseudo_Intellectual, CaptainCanuck, Atom Ant, Patrick Bregger.

Game added March 14, 2003. Last modified December 24, 2023.