DuckTales: Remastered attempts to update the classic NES console game based on the animated television series produced by Walt Disney Company. A wonderful success for Capcom at the time, the original DuckTales game from 1989 continues to show up on the lists of best games for the Nintendo Entertainment System from fans and critics alike. The development team at WayForward, which has an extensive history of producing platform games for Nintendo’s handheld consoles, put itself to the task of breathing new life into the beloved title from gaming’s past.
In many ways, Remastered is a full remake of the original DuckTales. Scrooge McDuck, the rough around the edges billionaire, is back with his supporting cast. His three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, alongside their friend Webbigail, are prone to getting themselves into tight situations. As obsessed as Scrooge is with collecting treasure and protecting his fortune, he’s equally motivated by maintaining the safety of his family, and will not hesitate to come to their rescue. Scrooge is aided by his butler Duckworth, the maid Mrs. Beakley, his adopted “caveduck” Bubba, the absent minded pilot Launchpad, an inventor named Gyro, and his accountant Fenton.
The art and music received a complete makeover in the new DuckTales, but the levels and mechanics remain the same. This is a classic action platformer with simple rules and controls. That can often be a good foundation for making the game accessible to players of all skill levels, but it also can make the game repetitive for those with high expectations.
The updated game art is one of the features that stands out the most. Character sprites look as if they were pulled straight from the old television set sitting in my parents’ living room circa the early 1990s. The animations are full of expression and give new personality to the classic characters and horde of unnamed enemies. The background to each level features rich colors and textures, pulling off the illusion of depth perfectly. There is life beyond what you see in the foreground. This becomes especially effective in the last level of the game when your arch rival transitions between the two layers while dishing out insults along the way.
I’ve become more attuned to game soundtracks in recent years, and the score for Remastered does not disappoint. The music is a wonderful mix of original compositions by Jake Kaufman and themes from the old NES game and television show.
Another new addition to DuckTales is voice acting. WayForward was able to use some of the surviving actors from the animated series to voice the main characters. Hearing those familiar sounds instantly brought a smile to my face. The dialog is rife with cheesy one liners and puns, but that’s to be expected from a children’s cartoon. By no means is Remastered an attempt to update the game for an adult audience, and I would be highly disappointed if it even tried.
The story for the game is just as outlandish. These are walking and talking ducks, for goodness sake, and for some reason the developer thought it needed further explanation. The cutscenes aren’t delivered very well For a game as short as DuckTales, which you can easily play through in an evening, the break in the action is too frequent. Even though you are encouraged to try levels multiple times on varying difficulties, you’re still faced with these roadblocks every time you complete a necessary task.
Moving through the game world is incredibly enjoyable while proving frustrating at the same time. Scrooge can walk, jump and bounce on his cane like a pogo stick. The latter of which you discover early on in the game, and never want to stop using. Your character responds smoothly to the controls, and you have a wonderful amount of control in the air. This lends itself to the possibility for rewarding game elements like jumping puzzles and challenges. Unfortunately, those were incredibly rare in the original game and are therefore mostly absent from Remastered, leaving you to hop your way around levels mindlessly.
Despite the simple interactions between your character and the game world, there is a fair amount of challenge. At times this is due to the area around an enemy or harmful part of the environment not matching what you see on the screen. There is also a problem I encountered where Scrooge will stop bouncing on his cane whenever you land too close to a ledge. This caused a number of unfortunate deaths as I leapt over a gap expecting to bounce again when I landed in order to clear an enemy, only to stop dead in my tracks, take damage from the oncoming villain, and plummet backwards to my death.
Levels are not timed, giving you the ability to explore to your heart’s content, and back track when necessary. The ways in which you complete each level isn’t linear and neither is the order in which you chose them. You must finish all of the five areas to unlock the final encounter. You have limited lives, and no matter how far you progress, if that counter reaches 0 you are forced to start the level from the beginning. With each level taking an average of 15-20 minutes to complete, a mistake made during a boss fight on your last life will break your heart. This made the problems I had with collision, the cane bouncing, and frequent breaks for cutscenes that much more pronounced.
This is the dilemma with bringing games from the past into today’s world. Platformers have evolved immensely over the years culminating in games like Super Meatboy and the latest from the Rayman series. The beauty of those games lies in how players are shown new ways to control their character, given the chance to master the technique, then immediately required to use it conquer new challenges. With DuckTales, the moves you make in the introductory level are the ones you’re stuck with for the entirety of the game.
DuckTales: Remastered is a nice, albeit short, trip back in time. WayForward delivered on a bright and polished reworking of a game and character that is close to my heart. It is successful at creating a window to the past, evoking nostalgia while simultaneously bringing to light all its flaws when compared to modern platformers. The new paint job is easy to look at for modern eyes, but reminds me how far the industry has come. Retro gaming fans and folks who grew up watching the cartoon series will get a kick out of seeing Scrooge and the crew back in action. Others might not truly understand how great the game once was.
Mike White is a gaming writer for CraveOnline and co-host of the gaming podcast Next Gen News. You can follow him on Twitter @theWhitestMike.
We purchased a copy of DuckTales: Remastered on Steam for $14.99.
