Darkwing Duck

"Darkwing Duck, a masterpiece of its time."

HISTORY OF THE SERIES

Darkwing Duck was a cartoon that debuted around the same time as Duck Tales and Tail Spin. It was about a common duck, Drake Mallard, who fought crime with his rather tomboyish daughter Gozalyn, and his goofy sidekick Launchpad McQuack (also seen in Duck Tales). Saint Canard seems like a safer place with Darkwing around. Every attempt the evil organization F.O.W.L. made against him, Darkwing would easily shut them down. Later, the Fearsome Five, lead by Darkwing's evil cloned negatron version, came in, but it too was destroyed by Darkwing's good luck...er extreme super hero nature.

Now, on with the game review.

GAMEPLAY: 9

There is nothing better then killing the evil agents of F.O.W.L. with a gas gun. Yes...a gas gun, which is Darkwing's weapon of choice. The levels overall repeat themselves a bit when it comes to the layout style. You are either climbing up or climbing right, with the rare event of jumping down. The amount of enemies keeps you on guard at all times, and your invincible cape comes in handy a lot (your gas gun has no affect on a few of the enemies). Some enemies have only certain weak spots, so you need to be good at memorizing weaknesses. Overall, the gameplay stays very true to the series.

GRAPHICS: 9

Considering that this is a NES game, Darkwing Duck had some very nice graphics. Everything was rather clear, and enemies, secret areas, items, etc. were easy to distinguish. There were few games for NES that surpassed that of Darkwing Duck, probably because Darkwing was one of the later games before SNES came in as the main Nintendo console.

MUSICAL INTERFACE/SOUND: 8

I can still remember Liquidator's sewer level music. Darkwing Duck's music was rather good for the time, and also considering the console, Darkwing's music can impress a lot of classic gamers. Each jump, climb, shot, etc. had its own unique sound, somewhat impressive for the time.

LENGTH: 6

This is where it really killed Darkwing. There were only 7 levels in the game! On top of that disappointment, none of the levels were horrendously long, keeping them somewhat short with a few older versions of "checkpoints"

DIFFICULTY: 8

Of course the First Three levels aren't much of a challenge, but when you get up to the final four levels, things start to toughen up. The bosses start to have more defenses, some enemies become immune to certain gasses, and damage that once did only 1/4 your life is suddenly doing 1/2 your life. The final boss, SteelBeak, really brings out the challenge in the game.

CONTROLS: 8

Darkwing's controls were like any other NES game of its time: short, sweet, and to the point. There were no real hidden button configurations, and figuring out how to perform moves was so fast, you could master the controls by maybe (at most) midway through the first level.

RELATION BETWEEN GAME AND CARTOON SERIES: 10

It followed what Darkwing would do in the show almost exactly. The enemies appeared in their overall threat level that Darkwing saw them as in the show. In the hidden "GO" spots of each level (there are 2 in every level) you can see Gozalyn and Launchpad, helping you catch goodies that you drop for them.

REPLAY VALUE: 7

Even though you don't need to play the game again (like every other NES game, it won't change at all after you beat it...you can expect the same things again) its still fun to revisit from time to time.

WHY I RATED THE GAME A 9

I loved the game, it was my favorite NES game for a very long time. I was a great fan of the show, and still love to play the game. My scores come from my, and a few others (even a friend who had never heard of Darkwing before playing). We averaged the scores, and here you go.

Now with that, I feel like playing Darkwing Duck again...

As Darkwing would say...

"LET'S GET DANGEROUS!"

Thank you for viewing this Review, I hope you enjoyed the review, and enjoy Darkwing Duck for as much as I have.

-=GeneralBlue=-

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/04