Time to pay the bagpiper: Disney's DuckTales | NES Works 152

A beloved NES classic? Here? On NES Works? Yes, believe it or not, it's true. I don't have any particular affection or nostalgia for Disney's DuckTales (the cartoon or the game), having been a bit too old for the show and too burned by Mickey Mouscapade to rent Disney/Capcom games for NES. I first played the game as a fairly elderly adult who still only has passing familiarity with the cartoon. And you know what? I still think it's a pretty fantastic game. In fact, DuckTales may be the platonic ideal of an NES licensed game. It plays really well, giving players a simple, fixed set of controls that require some degree of skill and practice (I still can't make a clean pass through the boulder trap in the Amazon stage) but reward those who master the techniques with a remarkable amount of versatility for its octogenarian hero. The free-form level designs and open-ended stage select system encourage players to experiment, explore, and mix things up on subsequent playthroughs without becoming a sprawling, confusing labyrinth of a game. There are secrets to find and multiple endings to unlock! Familiar foes and friends alike! Memorable music! Fun graphical details! It's a short and not especially difficult game, but for its target audience of tween Disney Afternoon fans, it's a perfect introduction to the vocabulary and techniques of the NES action format. Is it a perfect game? No, probably not. But is it perfect at being what it needed to be, and what its creators clearly set out to make it? Oh, absolutely. Please support this documentation project through Patreon (www.patreon.com/gamespite) or by picking up some of the related books (www.limitedrungames.com/collections/books). Or preorder Metroidvania: The First Decade from a fine book chain or comic shop, such as B&N (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-history-of-metroidvania-jeremy-parish/1148489848?ean=9781506754543). Thanks!