Fairy Tale Spotlight: DuckTails: Remastered (Video Game Review)

In 1989, Capcom put out a video game adaptation of Disney's hit afternoon cartoon DuckTails onto the NES. This was a great show at the time and filled with the grand adventures of the richest duck in the world, Scrooge McDuck. The game itself borrowed heavily from the show in that it portrayed Scrooge McDuck searching throughout the globe for a number of treasures. Each level was very unique with its own surprisingly memorable musical soundtracks. It was a genuinely fun game.

Probably the most notable thing that Scrooge could do in this game was use his cane like a pogo stick. He used this trick to dispatch with enemies and to safely bounce over hazardous areas. It wasn't anything he was ever seen doing in the show, but it was a fun game mechanic. Nobody really complained.

It is safe to say that the this game went down as one of the all time most popular NES titles ever made. The Moon Level theme music in particular is widely known and popular to this very day. I remember renting it a number of times and enjoyed it immensely.

But you could only do so much with games back them. It was the 8-bit era after all. Much of the plot really came from the manual, and there was not a whole lot of text in the game to explain exactly why anything was happening. Fast forward to 2013, and a company by the name of WayForward Technologies ended up making DuckTales: Remastered, which was a complete remake of the original 1989 game.

DuckTales: Remastered was a retelling of the original game with virtually the same gameplay; however, all of the graphics were redone with hand-drawn artwork and animation. The entire cast of the original show was brought back to voice their characters for the first time in almost 30 years. The soundtrack was also redone, and wonderfully so. Much love and attention and respect was paid to almost every aspect of the original game while making the new one.

The developers also bothered to give the game a much more cohesive story with cutscenes to help the player a long. There were also two new levels that fit right into the original story and helped tell it in a much more efficient way. And to wrap it all up, the end credits not only gave you an ultra version of the iconic DuckTales theme song, but also a masterful piano version of the famous Moon Level theme.

I have played this game twice so far. It is a charming adventure that pays very close attention to what the show was like when the show was originally out. It doesn't try anything new or weird. It was simply a love letter to one of the greatest children's cartoons of yesteryear.

If nothing I have said has been very convincing, there was yet one more addition to this new version of the game which was the final icing on the cake for me. Back at Scrooge McDuck's vault in the game, you are allowed to jump, dive, and swim around in a pool of gold coins. There's no reason that you should do this, but the fact that you can shows how much the creators of this game really loved what they were doing. This game is an act of love, and I do heavily recommend it.

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