Platform: NES
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: June 1993 (NA)
Genre: Platformer
Nerd Rating: 7/10
Reviewed by: InfiniteKnife
The original DuckTales, released in 1989, was an absolute treasure of a game. Among its best highlights were the gameplay and the music. It still stands as a personal favorite among game soundtracks. In 1993, Capcom released a sequel, hoping to capitalize on the success of the first. How did it fare? Well……..not as well as I would have hoped.
In DuckTales 2, the game begins with a cutscene where Huey tells Scrooge that he’s found a torn piece of a map drawn by ancestor, Fergus McDuck. This map holds the key to a great treasure and we all know how much Scrooge loves that bling, so off we go on our 2nd quest. Like the first game, the 5 main levels can be completed in any order and have a treasure to be collected after defeating a boss, but I was surprised to find that the map pieces were not the main focus. There is a piece hidden in each level but collecting them is not a requirement to beating the game.
Gameplay remains largely unchanged. Scrooge can walk, jump, crouch, golf swing to break rocks, and uses his pogo attack for offense. New to DuckTales 2 are a few additional functions of the cane. First, there are a few blocks that can be grabbed and pulled, allowing access to some higher areas. There are also a few cannons that can be fired by pulling the fuse. To add to the already solid platforming design, there are now hooks Scrooge can grab onto with the cane, from which you can jump to the next one.
You can pull that cannon to fire it, just pogo the crab, first.
Another neat addition to this game is the variety of cane power ups given by Gyro Gearloose. He can be found in 3 of the levels and gives Scrooge the ability to pull heavy blocks, destroy strong ones with the golf swing, and break certain blocks by pogo jumping on them. If the levels aren’t completed in a certain order, you’ll have to revisit a few later on to be able to access all areas.
He’s not really that hard to find.
Collecting treasure is still an important part of DuckTales 2. There are many small and large jewels to collect that add money to your total. Some are hidden in chests, but others can be found by jumping in certain spots. Like in DuckTales, there are some big treasures hidden in a few levels that give a huge amount of money.
What makes money way more important in DuckTales 2 is the item shop. After each level, you can purchase some useful things with the money from the treasure you collected. Among them are a safe, which allows you to carry over your money, cake, which refills health at any time, 1-ups & continues (which I definitely needed early on), extra health, and one of the map pieces. I found it kinda funny that Scrooge’s nephews are supposed to be helping him out and charge him apocalypse prices for items.
I played DuckTales 2 on Normal difficulty and in the beginning, it proved to be a bit of a problem. I died. A lot. It was brutal to find out that if you have no continues, you lose everything and have to start all over. Word of advice, buy a continue as soon as you can! Because you can use items, heath drops are more rare, which makes sense, but it was a pain early in the game.
Once I got the hang of the enemy patterns, it wasn’t too hard to avoid damage, so there wasn’t too bad of an overall learning curve for the game. I felt that the bosses were a bit easier than the levels themselves. The patterns aren’t hard to pick up on and there is plenty of time to dodge attacks for the most part.
This guy does a lot of swooping.
The soundtrack was one of the absolute best things about the original DuckTales. The level themes were memorable and fit the locales perfectly. This was not nearly the case with DuckTales 2. Not only did the music feel uninspired and boring, the individual themes were shorter and got really annoying when they continued to loop endlessly through the level. I feel like they really dropped the ball here. The music is a HUGE part of what made the original so great and at times, I felt like I’d rather play this one on mute.
After beating the 5 main levels, you’re thrust RIGHT into the last boss fight. I mean, you need to go right a bit and up a ladder, but there isn’t much buildup. I didn’t find it very hard and from that boss to the end felt super rushed. There are 3 different endings to the game, (2 good and 1 bad) depending on whether or not you got all the map pieces and if you finished the game with any money.
If you get all the map pieces, a secret level is unlocked where you find the hidden McDuck treasure. It’s just a regular level with a boss at the end, but it was neat that it was there to find. The difference it makes in the ending isn’t really significant. The “bad” ending happens if you end the game with $0. Scrooge’s rival, Flintheart Glomgold makes off with the treasure and you’re left wondering why you spent the time playing the game at all.
At least you can still pogo on spikes!
Aside from what I’ve already mentioned, I do have a gripe, though. Both Gyro and Launchpad call Scrooge, “Uncle Scrooge” which is completely wrong. In the show, they refer to him as Mr. McDuck and Mr. McD, respectively. Most people probably wouldn’t notice, but I usually catch details like that.
Overall, DuckTales 2 was a bit disappointing. It doesn’t get a totally bad score because it has enough of the good parts of the first game going for it to be solid. My first playthrough took about 2 hours and my next took a bit less than half that time. I didn’t know this sequel was even made until a few years ago and due to poor sales in the US (because the SNES was out in 1993), the game itself is pretty rare.
All things considered, DuckTales 2 could have been worse, but it was hard not to be a little disappointed when it didn’t live up to its predecessor. Still worth a play, but afterwards, you’ll probably want to go back and play the original again.
Enjoy!
Written by InfiniteKnife
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My personal favorite games are those in the Survival Horror and Sports (baseball) genres, but I can find at least a game or 2 in just about any category that I love to play.
I grew up on Nintendo consoles (NES and SNES) and have been an Xbox guy since the first one was released in the early 2000s. It’s hard to stay away from the classics as the 16-bit era is probably still my favorite overall.
