DuckTales

"DuckTales" from 1989 for Dendy is a classic game based on the cartoon of the same name. From the very beginning, a pleasant drawing catches the eye, which is clearly inspired by the animated original. The characters look recognizable, and the backgrounds and levels are made with sufficient detail for their time and the capabilities of the game console. Bright colors and cartoon style give the game a special charm, allowing you to enjoy the adventure atmosphere of the richest drake on the planet.

One of the features of the game is the interesting mechanics of passing levels. The main character, Scrooge McDuck, uses his walking stick to jump and attack enemies. This adds a peculiar rhythm to the gameplay, because it is necessary to constantly consider where and when to activate this ability. But I remember well that it was necessary to hold down the button on the joystick, which over time made my finger cramp from such constant jumps. Funny.

Each level offers its own unique locations - from the African jungle to the moon, which adds variety.

However, the game did not leave a particularly strong impression. Despite the good elaboration, its mechanics quickly become monotonous. The levels are interesting from a design point of view, but do not offer many surprises or challenging tasks. In general, the game is "without a twist" for me personally.

Overall, DuckTales is a pleasant platformer that can be appreciated for its style and gameplay foundation. But I didn't become a fan.

6 out of 10.

I have not yet played the remaster of this and thus cannot compare. Most of what I write here is based on the emulated one in the 2017 Disney Afternoon Collection, which takes several of these licensed games that adapt some of the most popular shows from that programming block. It was definitely a strong financial decision. They sold a ton of merchandise and stuff like this based on them. I haven't watched the 1987-1990 original in a quarter century, but back then I did play this on GameBoy and I distinctly remember thinking it was great and faithful. To be sure I doubt this would be of significant interest to anyone who doesn't have nostalgia for it and/or love this series.

Today in the aforementioned not quite a decade old release, you can quick save anytime although there's only one slot(and you may wanna use that very carefully for reasons that are about to become obvious) and Rewind. The latter will only go so far in helping if you dawdle too much, on account of the time limit. Neither of them remove the challenge. They do open this up to those who have carpal tunnel like I do today.

The basic game play loop goes as follows. You play as Scrooge Mcduck, searching for treasure. It is a sidescrolling 2D platformer, in some ways similar to the first Super Mario Land titles. This does have more of you actually finding your way rather than it always being one direction, which makes the limited time more tense. You can use your cane in two different, important ways. As a golf club launching rocks and the like, which can be tremendously useful for hitting stuff that's high up, and for some reason goes extremely underused in the otherwise quite good boss fights, at least one of which is against someone that I was really excited to get to go up against on account of what they're like in the TV appearances. Also in one of the, on account of technology rare, instances of this being as cartoonish as one might think, if you hit an immovable object you will find you are not an unstoppable force: his eyes will roll around to convey that he is dizzy. I understand why one has to indicate the direction, but for some reason it is also necessary at least at times to hold the up key for it to work?

The other is the pogo. If you use it and you are able to get above them, then it will take out nearly any enemy, the main difficulty in dealing with them being noting and memorizing the movement patterns and finding the right moment to attack them. You can also use it to destroy blocks, open chests and the like. I genuinely truly have no clue whatsoever why it is that they made the controls for it so awkward. Personally I would have simply made it that you press B once you've already jumped pressing A. Instead, what it is, is that you use the down button, then B then A, and if you let go of at least one of them there's a decent chance that the pogo will just be put away leaving you high and dry until you can get back into a situation where you can ready it again.

It's not only bad guys that pop up here. You will also get information and advice from the ducklings(Huey Louie Dewey... and apparently there's one called Webby? I do not remember that last one at all), Mrs. Beakley drops desserts if found, Launchpad can fly you back with what you've gotten. As far as I understand you can play the five levels in any order you would like, personally I tend to just start at the top and work my way through. All of them are listed from the start. They are as follows: the Amazon, where you are at ground level, explore caverns beneath, and also go up high. Transylvania, which is by far the most maze-like of them, fitting the mysterious vibe we ascribe to that place in real life. The African mines,which features the minecart from the intro to the television series. Himalayas, where you can get stuck in snow with the cane for a second or two if you land wrong which is enough for one of your foes to harm you, it also has slippery ice. And finally Moon, where you encounter aliens, don't wear anything to protect yourself from the atmosphere and for some reason gravity isn't different.

It goes without saying that there are some insensitive aspects, given that this was made for white people and features exotic locations. There are a lot of times where this gets frustrating and even until you adjust to it unfair in how it plays. This was from back when they had to make games a certain minimum length. I can never remember if it's because otherwise kids would rent it and it wouldn't last the weekend and then they'd be able to rent something else without having to pay more or if it was the return policy of stuff you bought.

This is very much one of those where you are extremely unlikely to be able to do it the 1st time you sit down with it. Today you won't have to start all the way over a bunch of times on account of the ability to simply undo your most recent missteps. As such, in my opinion, these decisions made that make it harder are now charming instead of angering. And this was always rewarding and addictive to try which is obviously necessary when it's straining to get through. Now, considering how similar this is in many ways to Mega Man 2, the one area where this compares very unfavorably to that, is how many different types of ammo and the clever use of several gadgets in that one. This has no equivalent to that. Recommended. 8/10.

Scrooge McDuck and his many chums enjoy piloting motor vehicles and collecting ancient, rare treasures. Just like the television show, Ducktales puts you in the shoe-less feet of Scrooge. Scrooge jumps on his cane and can attack with it too. He cannot dive in the "money bin."