QuackShot starring Donald Duck

The Good
QuackShot Starring Donald Duck is part of a Sega 16-bit trilogy of Genesis titles starring Disney characters. QuackShot, like Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion, really looks, sounds and feels like a labor of love.

Instead of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck gets top billing in this game as a world class, adventure explorer. It is nice to see Donald Duck actually get to star in his own video game.

Quackshot features the amazing, 16-bit graphics, animation, music and sound effects seen in Castle of Illusion and World of Illusion. The controls are easy to pick up, with some good Disney/Sega humor tossed in along the way.

Donald main weapon are plungers. Yes! Shooting Plungers is actually a pretty cool idea, and works for Donald. Different Plungers can do different things and our hero also has a nifty popcorn or bubble-gum shooting pistols.

The game perfectly combines standard, single player, side scrolling platforming with some mystery/adventure game elements to it.

Donald has to find/speak with other (notable) characters in order to get clues and better weapons. This introduces a bit of Adventure/Role Playing elements into the game.

Yeah, you will need to pay attention to what people say (sometimes even do a bit of work to find a character) in order to progress in the game.

It is rare to find a 8-bit/16-bit era video game that is able to so wonderfully combine platforming with adventure gaming elements, but this game does it.

The Bad
QuackShot can, at times, become a tad bit too frustrating, especially, if you are not entirely sure where to go.

The Plunger you start out with is weak, and sometimes, now and again, you may feel like the game could do with some more icons to restore health, add ammo to your popcorn/bubble gum weapon or give you some extra tries.

It is not, entirely, clear if this game is a video game adaption of the Disney Ducktales TV series or not. The cartoon series was airing when the game came out, but (beyond Donald) most of the Disney characters are reduced to supporting roles/cameos.

Perhaps the biggest complaint about the game is that its a tad too short. I could have done with some more adventures, but, alas, it was not meant to be.

The Bottom Line
QuackShot Starring Donald Duck is a great Sega Genesis game, carrying on a tradition Sega started with Castle of Illusion, and it is also one of the best video games starring a Disney character.