Disney's Donald Duck Goin' Quackers

"A simple Disney platformer that doesn't offer a challenging adventure."

Every so often, game companies decide to release games from popular series and put them into their own adventures. Whether it be Spider-Man swinging from building to building, or the Power Puff Girls fighting action, each game has its own feel. Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers is nothing more than your mere platforming game. The only problems with this is that the game is Disney orientated, which limits the audience to primarily kids. Not only that, but when your game is comprised of twenty short levels, and can easily be beaten in one day - something went wrong. Goin' Quackers is another adventure game featuring Donald Duck, everyone's favorite voice squeaking bird. While it does have an impressive visual appeal, and the game was developed by Ubi Soft (the future makers of Splinter Cell), there's no true reason to come back to the game. The basic storyline involves your typical Donald Duck witnessing the kidnapping of his love, Daisy, by an evil magician named Merlock. Before you can go and save her, you must travel the world and capture ''puzzle'' pieces in order to open the teleport to Merlock's Castle. Not so bad for a duck, eh?

Graphics [8/10]
Surprisingly, for a N64 game, the visual graphics are simply amazing. To start off, this is very close to being top notch graphics similar to Mario 64 or Conker's Bad Fur Day. The biggest factor is that the entire environment in Goin' Quackers is 3D, complete with enemies, powerups, and tons of obstacles. The best feature by far is the superb animations inside of the game. When Donald uses a teleporter, a giant hand reaches out, grabs him, and then shoves him down the teleporter. All of this occurs with pristine framerate and no skipping studders. Donald has tons of poses ranging from grabbing his hat, to sprinting like a mad man when he gets injured. Ubi Soft did some great stuff with this game. Enemies are well designed, and fit the themes of the levels. Construction workers are walking in the urban zones, while big Frankenstein gorillas creep throughout a haunted house. Backgrounds are even better as they're not your typical flat 2D bitmap.

Lava falls, towers, and interesting structures can be seen in the background. If a young kid picked this game up, he would probably be captivated, and reminded of his/her own imagination. Unfortunately, the actual stages you play on are composed of two views. You can either play a behind the duck view, where the levels are based on going straight forward with no turns or free movement. The other viewing mode on certain levels is similar to that of a 2D platformer, where the screen scrolls horizontally, and you see the side view of Donald Duck. While the overall environment is impressive, these two views limit Goin' Quackers from being a true spectacle. You don't have the ability to roam throughout as you wish, plus framerate slowdowns are frequent due to the large amount of polygons on screen at once.

Sound/Music [6/10]
Overall, the sound is both appealing and lacking at times. To start off, Ubi Soft included some great voice acting in this game, and they sound exactly like their counterparts would if you were watching the cartoon show. Donald Duck has the nice high squeezy voice with his lisp, and Daisy sounds fearful as ever. The actual in-game music is spruced well for an adventure game. Each title is matched to the apparent theme. A ghostly mansion has that spooky psycho music in the background, while the inner city has the sound of drills and constant traffic. Unfortunately, there's nothing that will break the ice, or sound a ringing tone in your brain. You're not going to be dancing next to a fire hydrant, but more of the less pleased by what you hear. As for sound effects, they're decent. Most enemies who get destroyed make a simple poof sound, although Donald Duck makes some great Duck-Kung-Fu effects. Bosses make their individual moans and groans when you nail them, but for the most part, don't expect too much.

Gameplay [4/10]
The key factor to a successful adventure game is basically a variety of different gameplay modes to complete the quest. The problem with the gameplay in Goin' Quackers is that it gets repetitive too quickly, and becomes more of a bore than an exciting quest. Gameplay involves two simple modes of gameplay. You can play either behind Donald Duck where he advanced through the levels, or you play on a side-view similar to most platform games. Controls are quite simple; you can punch, jump kick, or double jump. But this is exactly where Goin' Quackers suffers. The gameplay is so simplistic that you will never use any special abilities or complex moves. Since you're mission is to collect a puzzle piece from each stage (there are four stages to each world - 4 worlds), completing stages to full capacity is narrow minded. Most levels have obstacles such as pits, moving platforms, and enemies that walk continuous patterns. While level designs are somewhat decent, for the most part, you rarely have to attack enemies. Jumping on top of an opponent will kill them, practically rendering the attack button useless.

There is really only one powerup in the game, and it's a milkshake. The milkshake boosts Donald Duck into one crazy mofo allowing him to run down any opponent with ease, but its effects run out after a while. For the most part, Goin' Quackers suffers from any change in modes. Levels alternate between the two gameplay modes, and many things are ripped out of other games. For example, Crash Bandicoot features many levels similar to that of which Donald Duck ripped out of other games. It's understandable that the game is kid orientated, but there simply is not enough controls or complex combos to keep an average gamer busy. Ubi Soft tried to extend the depth in the game by adding a special ''toy'' mode, and time trial mode. While both are aspiring ideas, it was just a pathetic attempt by Ubi Soft to extend the lacking gameplay.

The average learning curve for this game is less than five minutes. Any kid could pick it up and probably beat it in a day. It took me less than four hours to beat it in one sitting. Simply put, Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers has no innovative gameplay. Most elements are ripped out of other games, and the only interesting feature in the game is boss battles. Many boss battles require some quick and resourceful thinking. But for the most part, there is really only one thing you have to master in Goin' Quackers - the double jump. This is where the true lack of variety in the game contributes. Almost every task you accomplish in the game requires the double jump. You double jump on platforms, jump on thin pillars, jump on enemies, jump on bosses; you jump on everything. How much of a jumping freak can you get when it's the only thing you do every single minute of the game?

Fun [4/10]
When you're constantly hopping like a mad man, the fun aspects of gaming go down the drain. Even though boss battles can be entertaining, for the most part, Goin' Quackers feels like a dirty chore you're doing in a house. Levels can be finished quickly, and a world can be beaten by the time you eat an apple. There's not much fun gained when you're jumping on top of enemies, rather than kicking their butt like in a fighting game. The occasional cut scenes in the game try to add humor, by putting a few funny jokes here and there. But there simply isn't enough to make Donald Duck an enjoyable experience.

Replayability [2/10]
Platform games are expected to provide challenging experiences constantly. Not only that, but after you beat the game, there should be more to attain except gratitude for defeating the final boss. Goin' Quackers offers nothing new or explosive to keep it a replayable game. The two additional side quests were only added to keep gamers busy, and after the twenty levels, there is nothing else. Boss battles may bring you back for a challenge or two, but once the game is beaten, it's practically over. When an adventure game can be beaten in one single day, there is something seriously flawed with the gameplay aspects. With no true use for the attack button, and constant jumping, the replay value in this game is limited.

Difficulty [3/10]
Jumping is everything. If you can master the double jump, then you've practically mastered the game. Goin' Quackers doesn't require any fancy attack moves, or agile eyes. All you need is a joystick, and the A button. It's sort of depressing to see how linear platforming games can get on such a modern system. Enemy AI is an absolute joke as most opponents simply walk patterns without attacking. Bosses are the biggest challenge in the game, providing a thrilling and exciting rush. Even the additional side quests aren't that hard, which practically ruins any true challenge. Kid orientated games are suppose to provide a fairly easy challenge, but even a big fat baby could probably beat this game.

Final Factor [5/10]
Back in the older days, platforming adventure games use to be so fun. There would be tons of different and exciting ways of characters venturing their way throughout foreign worlds. Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers offers no new exciting way of defeating a challenge. You're Donald Duck, with no mission except rescuing Daisy. With only two side quests, no additional game modes besides single player, and an easy one-day challenge, this is not the game for everybody. This is just your average platformer, with impressive visual displays, but not much else to offer. Replay value is almost a joke. If you do happen to cross this game during your lifetime, don't buy it. It's a kid orientated game, with kid jokes, and Disney designed. It wouldn't make a bad weekend rental, but it would make a horrible headpiece at the top of your N64 collection.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/03, Updated 07/27/03