With Capcom suddenly pulling the plug this month on all digital sales of this, I figured it was as good a time as any to revisit a remaster of a game that I grew up loving, Ducktales. I’ve got some extremely fond memories of the original, having spent many a day renting this bad boy on the weekend, and heading to my buddies place to spend hours beating our head against the wall trying to beat just one more level. In typical Capcom 90’s fashion, this game was HARD, and every boss beaten made you feel like a champ.
With a instantly identifiable theme song, and a unique gameplay design for the time, Scrooge McDuck pogo jumped his way into our hearts originally in 1989 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Gameplay revolved around our hero searching for 5 treasures from around the world, with only his trusty cane to defend himself. You could either use your cane to swing at rocks, or to pogo jump to land on your enemies and reaching higher areas. It quickly became a classic, and spawned a sequel in 1993, which is one of the more expensive NES games out there, due to it being released at the end of the consoles lifecycle and not selling well because of it. (Copies are currently selling for 150 dollars, for just the cartridge!)
Your average video game collector nowadays…
Fast forward to the year 2013. Frozen yogurt is all the rage, grown men are wearing onesies again and the vine is the most popular form of expression of the millennial. Younger Grumpy Old Gamer would have figured the apocalypse must be coming upon us…but no. Somehow we were all spared the 4 horsemen for now.
I refuse to post a pic of a onesie….enjoy this puppy instead.
A game developer by the name of WayForward, released Ducktales Remastered in August of that same year. Excited for the remake, I picked up a copy on Steam right away, and then proceeded to do what I do with most games I buy….which is to play it for 20 minutes excitedly and then to forget about it forever.
Current events brought this game back onto my radar though this weekend, and fresh off 8 or so hours beating the game this weekend, I have a nostalgic perma-grin on my face. Lets break it down.
The Graphics
This game is flat out beautiful, with a hand drawn look and vivid colouring throughout. Characters have all been re-imagined, and the animations really come alive. The developers did an amazing job of recreating the original areas of the game in a newer 2.5D style landscape and making it look like you’re playing a cartoon. All characters have a full range of animations and bosses range from normal size to monstrous, taking up most of the screen.
The Audio
The audio is on point as well, with Alan Young (the original Scrooge from the TV series) coming on board to record a boatload of new lines for the game. The soundtrack from the original is back as well, completely retooled and updated with real instruments and vocals, and will have you bobbing your head along throughout the game. And for those nostalgic for the original MIDI music from the NES game, its all unlockable by using the money you accrue throughout the game.
The sound design throughout the game is superb as well, with the pogo jumps sounding just right, and everything from the chain climbing to the chewing noises from the piranha plant chomping down on Scrooge sounding perfect.
The Gameplay
The game gets a little more divisive for me when it comes to gameplay. While I have fond memories of the originals gameplay, after 30 years, my tastes have evolved a little. The remaster perfectly recreates the feel and controls of the classic, but playing now feels a little shallow. You can basically coast through most of the game just continuously pogo-ing, and gameplay does not get much deeper than that. The exploration aspect of each level is still fun, but this is not going to have a lot of replayability value to it. It’s like an ice cream sunday, its great in small doses but you don’t feel like another one for a while once you’re done.
The voice acted cut scenes is another great idea/bad idea in the remaster. It’s great to see the story fleshed out, and the characters sound great…but it seems like there is a lot of padding being done to the run time, as there are many MANY cutscenes throughout each level, and you’ll find yourself just hitting escape and skipping them eventually.
The Verdict
Now, don’t get me wrong, I DID have a blast playing this game, and re-living all the sweet slurpee memories, but I won’t be playing this game again for a while I think. Ducktales Remastered is a sweet, silly look back at a better time. It’s a great looking, fun game, that will be a wonderful trip down memory lane for fans of the original, but does show how far and deeper gaming as a whole has come since our childhood. If you see a physical copy of this in a thrift store somewhere, its definitely worth a play if you’re old enough to remember the original, but younger audiences might find the game a little shallow.
This IS the same generation that made eating Tide Pods a thing, however…
The Grumpy Old Gamers 
Leave a comment