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| Andrew Desrosiers |
Duck Tales -remastered-
Golden Goose or Ugly Duckling?
Welcome back dear readers, your friendly neighborhood gamer Andrew D here and today we’re gonna be talking about “Duck Tales” (not phony tales, nor goblin tales, no Duck Tales woo-ooh-hoo! )
Right, so as some of you may have heard Capcom is set to release “Duck Tales -Remastered-“ via online digital download sometime this summer for Xbox 360, Ps3 and Wii-U.
Supposedly the game is a “Re-imagining” of the classic 8-bit Duck Tales released on the N.E.S. in the 1980’s and features among other things: hand drawn animated sprites, original Disney character voices, richly paint and “re-envisioned ” level backgrounds, a soundtrack built from the original but with more modern amplified iterations of classic melodies. (It's okay if you have no idea what the hell any of that means, truthfully I’m not really sure myself !)
Also the “Remastered” game is suppose to have a new tutorial level to teach you how to pogo jump and cane smack things upside the noggin, (FOOORE!). Even a museum to check your progress achievements and leader board status and as well as the ability to track your horded wealth and even take a swim in it in Scrooge's famed money bin! The game claims to be just as much fun as the NES classic it’s based off of only updated and with a few new features that will win over hard core retro fans and newcomers alike.
So what’s not to be excited about?
Well lets take a minute and discuss the NES verison of Duck Tales.
In some regards it seems to be copying Mega Man a bit mostly in regards to the level selecting and boss fights albeit watered down compared to Mega Man though this may just as likely be a fluke.
The game consisted of five levels (technically six) which needed to be explored in order to find each of their legendary treasure (on the moon level this was green moon cheese…yummy!) These were of coruse guarded by a boss character that needed to be pogo-ed in the head a few times before coughing up the said treasure.
The five levels Transylvania, Amazon, Himalayas, The Moon, and African mine (the sixth being Transylvania again) were full of secret rooms and hidden goodies, so much so you could hardly go 5 feet without a diamond or ice cream (health) popping up out of nowhere. The gameplay being one of the better examples of what a fun 8-bit game could be whether it was pogo stick jumping on bad guy heads with your cane or walloping a rock, block, treasure chest etc into them. Also listening to the hysterical sound effects they made or shimmying up a rope or jumping across platforms over bottomless pit the gameplay was varied and fun, the backgrounds beautiful and imaginative, the music seemed to fit the level moods well and were pretty neat to boot too. The sound effects again were a riot in of themselves everything from the sound of defeated bad guys to shimmying to the sound of Scrooges brain rattling around after getting whacked by a solid object with his cane were always fun to him and added to the charm that made Duck Tale so much fun.
The enemies were also just as verified and just as charming from spiders, mummies, jetpack wielding space ducks, homicidal snow bunnies… (no really the look in those bunnies eyes screams crazy, normal bunnies do “NOT” look at you like that) ghosts, and some carnivorous tomato looking plants that make Mario’s piranha plants look like tulips were all fun enemies to mess with!
All in all the game was a simple and quick to play through game that kept you coming back again and again.
So again why not be excited for a remake of such a grate game? My answer to this is another “Remake” of a beloved retro game, has anybody here ever played Ninja Turtle 4 aka Turtles in Time?
Epic game right, loads of fun?
The remake “Turtles in Time-Reshelled ” was (without getting to into detail) to the original game, what M.Night.Shamalan’s Airbender was to the show The Last Airbender; a travesty!
The remake of Turtles in Time change “everything” that gave the original it’s charm, among them changing characters moves, switching a up down left right style game to diagonal style play to changing the end of level boss Slash with a freaking mud monster nobody’s ever heard of to “DELETING” one or more whole levels from the game!
Also it caned the two player vs mode and if I remember completely changed the soundtrack, in short they ruined it.
That said Duck Tales-Remastered’s talk of being a hand crafted “re-imagining” of the original and it’s “re-envisioned” level backgrounds along with it’s “modern amplified iterations of classic melodies” all leave me a bit wary.
Especially since I still own the original Duck Tales game and truthfully I’ve not see many modern takes on old sh cool games live up to the originals.
8-bit games have a special charm to them from old 2-d graphics to goofy sound effects and soundtracks whatever, if you’re trying to build a game the harkens back to “the golden age of gaming” then you can’t just throw a bunch of modern game development methods and features at it and expect it to be good you have to really strive to emulate and in some cases straight up copy the things that make those “cherished” classics grate, so in a sense if it ain't broke don’t fix it till it is, or don’t reinvent the wheel!
This is not to say however that a game like Duck Tales-remastered is automatically going to be bad, but I for one don’t see the sense in a leader board function for games like this or Turtles in Time.
Also I’m kind of bummed that with all the “new” features to the game that no one thought to include a co-op play option so more than one person could plop down on the coach and play offline co-op together as I imagine this would inevitably lead to some hysterical mishaps and make the game more enjoyable.
So to sum things up while I’m am still very much wary of this so called re-imaging of one of 8-bit gaming’s most iconic titles being all shine and no fun, I am still very much curious to see if it will live up to it’s lofty claims and am willing to give it a fare chance before condemning it, I am however still airing on the side of caution with regard to my expectations of the game or getting excited about it!
But what about you dear readers? Are you excited about Duck Tales-remastered’s release or worried, do you think yours truly is right on or just paranoid? Tell us what you think and keep an eye out for Duck Tales-remastered when it releases for Xbox, Ps3, and Wii-u via digital download this summer!
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