This is the Dutch Nes Gamer Speaking. And im proud to present my first game spotlight on nesworld.
The Game im going to put in the spotlight??.... Ducktales of course. Why you ask? Because ducktales is, was and always will be my favorite nes
game. Ok then, here we go Ducktales in the spotlight.
My story about ducktales starts in our local Dutch video store years back.
This was no normal video store because it didn't only let you rent movies
but also nes games! A dream come true for me back then,why? Because nes
games where not cheap.( 129 guilders,about 60 euro) So i had to save money
for a LONG time to buy a game. But now i could rent nes games and enjoy
them a hole week for 10 guilders.
So im in the local video store looking threw al these nes games.
I see Ducktales and decide to rent it for 2 reasons.
- I really loved the cartoon serie
- Because i heard Ducktales was a game you could beat in a couple of days. So this is a great game to rent instead of buying it.
So i rented the game and went home.
At home i power up the nes and got my first suprise.
Man that tittle screen music was awsome,it was just like the cartoon.
For people that don't know.
Ducktales is a Disney cartoon serie that was on tv in the late 80's.
With scrooge mc duck as the main character of the show.
Scrooge mc duck is the richest duck in the world and is
always on adventures with his nephews to try and find treasures and
increase his wealth. Ducktales became very populair and many merchandising
was made including a nes game. The nes game was developed by capcom that
made almost all the disney franchises and released in 1989 in europe.
Ok,now you know about the cartoon serie but what is the game all about?
Well,in this platformgame there are no princesses that have to be
saved!Like other platform games. because the game has the same goal as the
cartoon. You have to take scrooge mc
duck to 5 different levels: the moon/the amazon/transylvania/the himalayas
and the african mines. in these levels you have to collect as much
diamonds(money) as possible and defeat the end boss for the lost treasure.
Like i said: no princesses have to be saved just become richer.
Ducktales has non-linear game play so you can start with any level you
like(can i hear anybody say megaman)
The levels are very different but all have great graphics (very colorful
and bright)and the music fits every level perfectly. I personaly like the
moon level music the best.
If you have some knowledge about programming for the nes.
You can see that capcom made a small miracel here,considering that the nes
has a limit of 4 colors and most nes tunes(music) last about 15 seconds
after the repeat,some ducktales songs are easly twice that long and dont
get boring.
The controls are very smooth and scrooge mc duck has a special item called
the crane. His crane can be used as a golf club to hit items or as a pogo
stick to jump over spikes and on enemies. Very nicely found by capcom.This
really ads something to the gameplay.
The game features many charachters from the tv serie like
gizmo,launchpad,beagle boys etc. What i really liked was the end battle
with flintheart glomgold. That was really good taken from the tv serie.
Most of the nice elements that are taken from the tv show are in there
because of the help of ms. waddington a disney producer that made some
good changes at the end. If you ever play the ducktales prototype you will
see much differences including a chance of enemies on the moon(this enemie
was featured in the tv show)
 Final game |  Prototype |
Anyway, i really enjoyed playing ducktales that week. It has it all the
gameplay/control/graphics/music and it is for me the best nes game. But
the game did get 1 bad aspect. And that is that the game is to damn short.
I rented the game and had the game beaten in 2 days. So yeah you can beat
the game pretty easy. But it has something that not many nes games have
and that is a great replay value. Maybe its just
me(or because im a greedy dutch guy) but i played the game over and over
that week i rented it. I dont have much with scores but i became as greedy
as scrooge and wanted more and more. discovering more hidding treasures
and i discoverd something that no nes game had before.
A alternate ending! man i was suprised back then when i saw it!could not
believe my eyes.
At the end of the week i had to return ducktales to the video store.
Man i hated that! so i rented it again a few weeks later.
If you don't have ducktales at home already,dont rent it.
buy it somewhere ,its a classic game and 1 of the best games out there for
the nes.
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