Deadly Duck

"Anyone for spitting at aliens?"

Back in the day, between this game and Space Invaders, I lost many sleepless nights playing for the high score on Deadly Duck (pathetic, isn't it?). This game is actually good despite it's lack of recognition. Well, I'll get on to it...

Graphics: 10/10

Hey, this game is pretty old, but for its time the graphics are great. The duck (whom you play as of course) looks like a little pink duck swimming on top of water. The aliens (and I'm assuming that's what they are) are also pink, but look like a cross between floating ant heads and flying two-legged spiders. There is no background in the game, so you only see a black backdrop, a popular game tradition with Atari (and pretty much all most of the cartridges could handle). It sounds pretty bad yes, but it wouldn't be fair to judge the graphics by today's standards, now would it? For back then, this game was about the best eye candy could be on a console.

Gameplay: 8/10

First off, I just want to say that this game is very similar to Space Invaders, so don't mind me if I compare them a little. Since more people out there have probably played Space Invaders than this game, I'll hopefully give you a better idea of what it is. In Deadly Duck, you assume the role of a pink duck who must destroy alien-like creatures for some reason. Your only way to bring about destruction of the monsters is to, well...spit. Yes, you spit at them. The creatures travel around the top of the screen while dropping small items that look like tiny planks of wood. Once the planks of wood land on the water, they'll prevent you from moving to certain areas of the screen for a couple of seconds until they disappear. However, if one falls on you....you guessed it, you die. Also, with the exception of the first level, a line of floating ''things'' will hover back and forth between you and the creatures. If your spit hits it, it will cause an explosion of, what I'm guessing, dust. I don't think anyone needs to ask if that will kill you if it hits you. Now, like the shooting in Space Invaders, you can only let loose one ball of spit at the creatures until one makes a hit or goes off screen, you can't fire multiple times all in one second. This is something that annoys me, and really increases the time you'll have to spend on each level (but that's probably the point). Also, the layout of the two games is quite similar. You must move back and forth while spitting to have a better chance of killing each creature (and it can be very tricky, they're not all lined up like in Space Invaders, they also don't descend in for the kill towards the end of each level). Your ball of spit does shoot up kind of slow also, so with all of these factors put together, you should expect to take a while on this game.

Sound: 9/10

Bleep, bloop, bleep, bloop, etc....

I just gave you a prime example of what you'll hear in this game. But like most older games, these sounds are the most fitting. The only real annoying sound I can think of is when you die, it makes kind of a pathetic ''I just blew up the world'' sound. There's no music, but since the whole point of this game is the high score, that may have been a distraction if it was added (yes, I just gave away the secret to why many Atari games don't have music....or not).

Buy/Rent?

Everything in this game guarantees at least a challenge, and it will keep you busy. If you like games such as Space Invaders, then you can probably tolerate this one. If you're a huge fan of today's 3D games with huge environments, then you may want to stay away (although I'll admit, I'm an obsessive PS2/Gamecube gamer and STILL love this game as well as many Atari 2600 games). Renting and/or buying this game at a store is probably out of the question, but that's one of many reasons why the internet is so great. If you think this game is for you then go for it, I KNOW it won't cost you much.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/09/02, Updated 12/09/02