Retro Weekends plays and reviews Duck Tales for the NES. All gameplay footage taken from real hardware.
What we thought
As Disney games go I think this was better than Chip N' Dale, I think there's more to it, the level layouts are better, and it has more replayability as well because of the way that you accrue money as the game progresses and get different endings based on how much you make. Some of the levels change the rules a bit to keep the game interesting, the Himalayas for example weaken your main attack as you get stuck in the snow when using it. Good game, good graphics, good audio.
4/5
I think this is a deeper game than some of the other Disney games released around the same time, the game is not just platforming and nothing else, it has some minor adventuring aspects as well. You have to explore the levels to get permanent health upgrades and there's also secret treasures that allow you to get a better ending if you can find them. Whilst it's firmly a hop n' bop game, the way the cane attack is implemented means that the game has a different spin than the usual fare, as the cane bounce can be used to safely bounce on spikes and such as well as enemies. Each level in the game has original graphics, they're not reusing background elements like for example the Mario games, which is also nice. Overall I think its a great game, though perhaps not as good as the best offerings from Nintendo in the genre.
