1 – 2, 1 -2 -3 . Duck Tales, a-woo-hoo. Now that’s out the way, after being in my head constantly whilst playing this game, any time any of the music stopped playing, the Duck tales theme song would take over. Even nearly 20 years after it first started broadcasting I can still sing all the damn song. Duck Tales remastered has finally been released to quite some fanfare, which is not a surprise seeing as the game Is quite the cult classic from Capcoms heyday. Releasing on pretty much all platforms apart from hand held, quite disappointingly, for a quite small and assessable sum of £12.
There are always two types of Re released remasters for video games, you get the more recent (usually) HD remakes, which are usually just the original game up scaled and some Anti Alias slapped on top, God of War is a good example here. Then we have the much older games usual, that have a full remake, and are brought into 1080p, usually with options to switch between old and new graphics, Halo Anniversary and R-Type Dimensions, which are in my opinion two of the best examples of how to do a remaster.
Ducktales Remastered is a fantastic remake, but it’s not one of the best, it comes with all the bells and whistles that improve on the original in many ways, but there are some features that could have been added to make the this feel even better. One of those is as mentioned before, being able to unlock either the original game with original graphics and sounds, or being able to switch between the two on the fly. That would of made the game a perfect remake in my opinion it might seem like a small problem, and it is. With Capcom announcing that more remakes could be on the way depending on the success of DuckTales, well I hope they take this on-board.
So is this game a pure remake? No, it has some small additions, the ability to save your progress is one hell of a update from the original on its own if you think about it. Some bosses have been made more difficult, with different attacks and some more life here and there. But mostly it is the same game as the original NES version, but at the same time this also means some of the same problems have not been addressed which is a bit frustrating considering the love that has gone into remaking the graphics.
Graphics are obviously one of the reasons you are here, and they look fantastic, hand drawn sprites look as close to the original cartoon as you are going to get, and they look great in HD at 1080p. A new addition to the game as well, Backgrounds! What was once bland, and in some levels a block colour, we now have something to look at! I did really enjoy the levels, apart from the space level, the original black backgrounds made you it feel empty and alone, now it doesn’t feel as such, but this is a game based on a cartoon so its not supposed to be too serious now is it! Regardless the work that has gone into this shows and it looks fantastic.
The only other part that helps this remake as much as the graphics is the brand new voice acting, because oh yes the original cast is back to voice all your favourite characters once again, can you tell there getting older? Oh yes, do you care? Probably not once nostalgia sets in(Casting a Scottish duck as being tight fisted with money, was a joke I missed as a child). Of course these cut scenes are only good for nostalgia for older players, and once they have been seen once I found myself skipping them fast. They also do tend to stop the flow of game play in some areas, where I just want to carry on with the game instead of listening to the quite slow voice acting .
For those who are die hard fans of everything Duck Tales, collecting Scrooge’s money now actually has a useful addition outside of creating a swimming pool for old Scrooge, being able to buy lots of extra items to unlock them. Most of these are concept art for the game and the original TV series as well, it was a trip down memory lane seeing some of these drawings let me tell you, for the collector and nostalgia player, this gives you everything you’ve ever wanted.
Controls for the game are just as tight as they were on the NES back In the day, pogo jumping is just as entertaining as it once was, and finding all the hidden gems and treasure chests are just as tricky in some areas, with some I still cant figure out how to get since I first played this game. There is one small area for game play that I think the ball was dropped on, the game has now been given the ability to save, which is great. But if I want to play the game through again I do not want to have to go through the tutorial again and again, the option to skip all this would be great, its not game breaking at all, but the amount of games where the starting tutorial is a massive deterrent from me picking it up a 2nd time is too high to go through.
All in all this is a fantastic remake that will evoke a feeling of nostalgia for many people who loved this back then. It isn’t perfect but many subtle changes help bring this game into the 21st century, but the lack of some options such as being able to play the game in its original format, and some irritating tutorials gives this game a 4/5 over all, and once more, all together now, Duck tales a-woo-hoo.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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