I can't think of a decent Duck related pun.
I hear Ducktales is something of a classic on the NES. I personally never got to play the title and henceforth don't have a nostalgic comparison for this game to live up to. In someways I'd like to think that is a strength as it allows Ducktales: Remastered to stand up as it's own game but in other ways it means I can't tell what is better or worse than the original. Either way, I have to say that Remastered is something of a disappointment.
The game has a bare minimum plot that involved Scrooge McDuck finding treasure, saving his nephews on occasion and fighting off various villains from the TV series. In an attempt to flesh out the story to a degree the voice actors from the cartoon series have been brought in to reprise their roles.
On a positive note this adds an air of authenticity to the game as you really are hearing the characters you used to know and love from the cartoon, but perhaps the game went a bit too overboard. While a bit of dialogue at the beginning and end of the levels would have been appreciated, almost every time you collect an item the game stops and has to says something. The momentum grinds to a halt.
I could have probably forgive this if it wasn't for the fact that dialogue is really slow and flat. While I don't think it's fair to blame the voice actors for the performance, since they are all getting on a bit these days (Alan Young who plays Scrooge is 93) it perhaps means that the game should have been designed to take this into consideration.
On the other hand the game looks gorgeous and is a massive example of why we should see more 2D platformers in this day and age. The hand-drawn sprites look as if you are controlling an episode of the cartoon. There is nothing more I can say on the visuals other than "Fantastic!"
For the most part I could have overcome most of Ducktales short comings on the superficial side. After all voice acting and visuals are only there to enhance your experience. A 2D platformer only really needs two things to thrive. Good controls and decent level design.
In fairness it has the later down. The levels are easy to navigate and completely support the old school enemy respawn tactic that was only used because of limited memory space. But I can accept the throwback to a simpler time.
The game even comes with difficulty levels that really suit different levels of skill. On easy mode you have twice the amount of health, infinite lives and a map to help you find all your key items. On normal mode health is regulated, lives are limited (if you lose them all you need to restart the level) but you keep the map. On hard the map is lost (at a guess this emulates the original the closest). Finally if you are up for it there is an Extreme setting which makes you complete the game in a single sitting a set of lives.
All in all this means the game should be great but it isn't. These sort of games need their gameplay to be tight otherwise you end up with a frustrating mess on your hands. In this case it's the famous pogo attack and hit detections that lets this game down.
Unlike most platformers you can't just damage enemies by jumping, you have to press an addition button or two (depending on your settings) to use Scrooge's cane to damage enemies. This is the most vital element of the game and suffers from inconsistent reactions.
Countless times I have pressed the button to use the cane only for the game not to read it and resulting in me taking unnecessary damage. Scrooge will also randomly decide to stop pogo-ing at times. There seems to be no pattern to this, sometimes its after three jumps and other times I can go from one end to the other without a problem. The game also has issue reading edges on both ledges and enemies meaning you are once again about to hit the enemy but take damage instead because Scrooge will cease his attack.
It's unfortunate as if this game was a bit tighter it would have been a excellent game for me to play when in the mood for a bit of a throwback to a bygone era but frustrations with hit detection and attack input means it will most likely be confined to a darker area of my memories.
