Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers

"Donald Duck won't get mad at this game."

In the gaming world, there are literally hundreds of licensed games out there. And as an unwritten rule, most of them aren't very good. Fortunately, this game happens to be one of the exceptions to that rule. It isn't revolutionary, and it has its share of flaws, but you can still have a fun time with this game.

The story is very basic. Basically, Daisy is trying to do a report on Merlock and his lair, when she gets spotted and captured. Now that Daisy is in Merlock's clutches, Donald Ducks steps up to save the day with some help from Gyro's transporter device. Gladstone also tries to help, but you never actually play as him, and all he ever does is appear in boss scenes getting hurt in some way or form (in other words, he's comic relief). So yeah, the story isn't anything special.

The core gameplay is very similar to that of Crash Bandicoot. In other words, what you do is run across numerous levels to try and get to the end, without getting hit by enemies or falling down a pit to certain doom. Along the way, you can attack by using the square button, and you can also collect drinks to recover your health. If you get hit, then you become Berserk Donald and are temporarily invincible for a little while. If you get hit as Angry Donald then you will lose a life. As I said, it's all very similar to Crash Bandicoot.

There are four worlds to travel to, and from there you can warp to either three or four separate levels (did I mention Crash Bandicoot, already?). The first level is usually one where you go upwards towards your goal while facing several enemies. The second level is usually in the style of a 2D platformer i.e. you see it from sideways. The third level involves running away from an evil giant hand before it uses you as a yo-yo. Overall, the game is pretty fun.

One very interesting feature of the game not often seen in platformers is that of special moves. If you collect five cogs within one second, then you get a letter of the word special. If you do this enough times to make the word ‘special', you get a special move. Here's how you do a special move: you have to jump on three enemies in a row (without touching the ground), and then you have three seconds to input a five button combination. This probably sounds quite difficult on paper, but in practice it's a lot easier. After inputting the command, Donald does some sort of humorous move (such as doing Mexican dancing after making a golf putt) and then cogs are worth twice as much. Overall, they can be very funny, and I'm glad that the developers tried out something original.

The boss battles are crazy and imaginative. For example, in the first boss, you face a giant chicken which is thrusting eggs with chicks in them at you. Who doesn't love that sort of thing? The bosses are quite easy to beat (except maybe the last one), but, like with the rest of the game, there is a lot of humour in there, which I would say is worth at least a chuckle.

Visually, this game is pretty impressive. For a game that's almost 8 years old (as of September 2008), the game looks pretty good. The framerate is nice and steady, and all of the characters made the transition from 2D to 3D very well. The backgrounds also look quite detailed and everything in the game is very colourful. Some of the enemies look a bit bland, but other than that the graphics are fine.

The sound in this game is equally good. The music is very happy, clap and peppy, which means that you may find it a bit annoying, but it's nothing horrendous. The best part is by far the voice acting. Just like many licensed games, all of the characters sound exactly like they do in the cartoons. Not bad at all.

However, the game has some flaws which are worth mentioning. For a start, the camera can behave very erratically at times. The camera is at its worst in the side-scrolling levels and the ones with the giant hand (whose bright idea was it to have the camera facing you?) You may think that you are certain to make a jump after judging the distance, only to then fall a bit short. It's not a massive game-breaking flaw, but it's annoying enough to be worth mentioning.

In addition, as I've already stated, this game contains nothing new except for the special moves. It just feels like the developers wanted to play safe and not take any big risks. To add to this, if you're a seasoned adventure game player, this game will probably feel too easy for you. Not ‘you could play it blindfolded' easy, but you probably won't have much trouble with the game overall. Then again, this is to be expected, since this is a kid's game after all.

Thirdly, the hit system in this game feels off. In most games, there is either a three hit system, or a one hit system but you can gain shields to take extra hits. This game instead has a two hit system, and you cannot do anything to raise that to three hits. Also, when you play the game there's a time limit, but it's such a large time limit that it's almost completely pointless. The developers essentially wasted their time inserting it into the game.

But how is the game in terms of depth? Well, although the main part of the game is very short (don't expect it to take more than about six hours), there are a lot of extra things that you can unlock, such as a secret world and lots of costumes for Donald to wear. There are also two challenges for each level, one where you have to try and do a set number of special moves and another where you have to beat a time limit. If you like to complete games 100%, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of this.

All in all, this is a good game, but it has some clear flaws. As long as you don't expect too much challenge out of the game, then this game is definitely worth a try. This game isn't hard to find, and it will most likely be dirt cheap, so if you see this game in store and you want to play a fun and funny little platformer, buy it. It also makes a great gift for a small child.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/15/08

Game Release: Donald Duck: Quack Attack (EU, 12/22/00)