Disney DuckTales: Remastered

The Good
Disney's Ducktales (1987 – 1990) is one of the best cartoon shows to air on television in the 1980s, and, arguably, one of the few animated series, from that era, to be as appealing now, as it was when it first aired.

While plenty of licensed Ducktales merchandise was made, it never felt like the series existed primarily as an extended commercial. One of the best licensed products to come from the Ducktales franchise, was the Ducktales NES video game (released in 1989).

Capcom picked up the rights to publish a video game based on the show, and the game quickly won praise for its graphics, music, game play mechanics and overall respect for the licensed Disney cartoon characters. Much the same can be said about this remastered edition for the Xbox 360 system.

The remastered edition maintains what was great about the original NES game, with significant hardware-driven advances.

Much, if not all, of the cast from the original series does voice work in the game, and the remastered edition looks and sounds like the cartoon. You can even take a dive into his famous money bin.

Fans of the original NES game will have no problem controlling Scrooge McDuck in the remastered edition. McDuck may be a senior citizen, er senior duck, but he is still tough as nails.

His trademark walking stick can be used to knock out enemies, open chests and move rocks. As was the case in the NES game, McDuck can bounce on his walking stick to hop across spikes and even jump on enemies in order to avoid lava and bottomless pits.

You can collect diamonds (of various colors and sizes), cakes (to restore hit points) and each level typically has several items that you have to locate before facing the boss.

The Bad
Do not let the Disney nature of the game fool you, it is actually much harder than it looks. The difficulty level can quickly go from normal to super hard with the drop of a hat.

Certain levels have some tricky jumps to successfully complete or die. The restart points, after you die, in the game are sometimes fair and sometimes a bit petty.

While the game saves your progress after you defeat a level, a password or save feature for bosses would have been nice. This is especially a problem with the final level in the game.

The final boss in the game is very, very difficult to defeat. He transforms into several different, deadly forms. If you take any hits while the boss is transformed into a dragon or an army of bats or a giant face, you are royally screwed.

The final boss (I will not spoil the plot twist involved) can only be hit once, in between transformations, and the only way to hit him is to jump off one or more bats, which allows you to get high enough to hit the boss, but only if you make the jumps perfectly.

The Bottom Line
The Remastered edition of Disney's Ducktales looks and sounds much like the classic cartoon series. Fans of the original NES game will quickly pick up the basic control mechanics, and the difficulty level is, mostly, suitable for average gamers.