Darkwing Duck

"This is by no means a bad game, but at its core, its pretty much a somewhat dummied down Megaman."

Here you have Darkwing Duck. He jumps, he shoots a gun that can only have 3 bullets on the screen at any time. You go through stages and shoot the boss at the end of the stage to death. There are 7 stages in the game. Some are a lot longer than the others, and two in particular are far more difficult than the others (Wolfduck's and Liquidator's). Of course, going along with general video game logic, the hardest stage has the easiest boss at the end of it. You start with a choice of 3 stages you can go to. After you beat these 3, another 3 stages open up. After that the boss stage opens up. Sound familiar-ish? There is only one final boss stage, though. You also cannot save your game, but you do get continues. This game will most likely take a lot of continues (and maybe even restarts) for the player, until the player gets accustomed to the mechanics and enemies of the game.

Well, Darkwing can't slide and charge his gun up, but he can jump and grab onto things like hooks and platforms above him. He can also pull up his cape to block basic projectiles like bullets, daggers, basketballs, and cannonballs (Don't try to block fire guns). Enemies can also not be hit twice in the same second. This means DW can't just run through stages like a madman, since almost every enemy has more than 1 life. He'll get butchered if he tries.

You don't get new weapons at the end of every stage, instead you collect amounts of gas as you go through the stages to use with whatever gas gun you have at the time. The guns are all over stages but you can only have 1 at any given time. One shoots an arrow you can climb, one tosses up a cloudy ball which explodes on the ground and sends bullets left and right along the ground, and the other shoots bolts diagonally up and down the way you're facing. Aside from that, most of the game s just run and gun, while keeping arrow gas around to reach goodies you wouldn't be able to get otherwise.

The arrow gas shots are the EXACT same shape as the Super Arrow shots from Megaman 5, just to point that out.

The sounds are decent. Not much is all that catchy, but nothing is terrible either. The boss music is good enough to provide a decent tone, and all the themes are short, repetitive tracks, like they always are. You won't find anything special here, but at least your ears won't bleed.

One of the major problems in this game is that some enemies are simply rigged and are completely ridiculous. I dare anyone to try to get through those two shell throwers near Wolfduck's in-stage save point without taking any damage. I'm not sure if I ever pulled that off even one of the times I tried. There are also things in the last stage that take obscene amounts of shots to kill, and they can beat the hell out of you if you don't know how to fight them properly. Another problem is it doesn't always grab onto hooks and platforms, which can lead to some annoying hits or deaths.

Lets go into the bosses now. Each boss follows a distinct pattern takes 16 hits to kill (Unless you're using gas; arrow gas kills a boss in 6 hits). None of them are exactly that hard, just tough. (Quackerjack has a slight randomnes to him), and Wolfduck is ridiculously easily. Now, the first 3 bosses are Liquidator, Quackerjack, and Wolfduck. I know Liquidator and Quackerjack are main villains, but who the **** is Wolfduck? What was he like in the show one time? The later 3 bosses are Bushroot, Megavolt, and Molarity. Molarity falls into the same category as Wolfduck. Who the hell is this guy? What I found unforgivabe about the bosses, however, is that not only is Negaduck not the final boss, but hes NOT EVEN IN THE GAME. The final boss is Steelbeak. My first reaction was “WHO IN ******* HELL IS STEELBEAK” (I remember him now, kinda). If you're looking for a classic Darkwing/Negaduck showdown, you're going to be disappointed.

Overall, this game isn't really “bad”, but it does have a few flaws and the obvious distinction that it looks like a weaker Megaman. Its not too difficult but not too easy. The lack of Negaduck is an automatic minus, though. How can a DW game not have him? Anyway, if you're a fan of the MM series and/or you like shooter games like them, then this game is worth picking up. This game won't take all too much time off your hands once you know what you're doing, but its moderately enjoyable and it'd be a good buy from some used games bin for $5.00, should you see it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/06