The 8- and 16-bit eras were famous for dull, dreary 2D platformers created to latch onto the success of any and every popular license a publisher could find. If it was popular in the late '80s, there was likely a god-awful platformer based on it. How many of those games can you name now, and how many do you remember actually enjoying?

Very few games of that era did much with the properties they were based on, but there is at least one very prominent exception: the NES game Duck Tales. It took the Disney cartoon and did some amazing things with it, and every inch of the game was memorable and unique. Everyone who grew up gaming in that time period remembers the title, but they may not realize the talent that went into making it so enjoyable.

Who worked on this?

Duck Tales was released in the United States in 1990, produced by a Capcom employee named Tokuro Fujiwara. The name may not ring a bell for everyone, but he also produced the Mega Man series and created Ghosts n' Goblins. He produced Gargoyle's Quest, Breath of Fire II, Tomba,... the list goes on.

Keiji Inafune was responsible for the graphic design of Duck Tales, and he was also the character designer of Mega Man, the producer of the first two Onimusha titles and Lost Planet as well as Dead Rising. Yoshihiro Sakaguchi composed the game's music, and he also composed the music to 1943 and Final Fight. These individuals were already successful, but looking back at their individual contributions to gaming since is staggering. The level of talent behind Duck Tales was amazing.

Before we begin, let's take a trip down memory lane. The music in this game was superb, and I still find myself humming it regularly. Close your eyes so that we can take a step back into our childhoods.

Man, that's still great stuff. The game was split into five levels, and like Mega Man you could tackle them in any order, or go back to a level to search for items you may have missed the first time through. Each level had a boss guarding a treasure you had to collect, and there were two additional hidden treasures that got you the not-very secret ending with a slightly different graphic and text. The entire game could be played and finished in about 40 minutes, but if you were like me, you dumped hours and hours into the game.

Unlike most games of the time, you didn't just jump on the heads of enemies to destroy them; you had to pogo on Scrooge McDuck's cane. To do this, you hit the "A" button to jump, and then hit the "B" button and pushed down. This was a pretty intense move for the NES, but it felt great, and many players never walked in the game, preferring to simply jump here and there. You could also swing the cane like a golf club or in some cases use it to find hidden objects. I'm not sure why hitting a suit of armor turned a helmet into a treasure chest, but it felt perfectly right at the time.

The game went deep into the cartoon's character roster. You had to find Gizmoduck's remote control to have him blast a barrier on the Moon level. Launchpad could be found in the levels, giving you the option of returning to the hub level. Bubba Duck could be found frozen, and would give you a prize if you freed him. Magica De Spell is the boss in the Transylvania level. Other characters pop up to help or hinder Scrooge, and each level seemed to have at least one surprise or secret.

Go back and play this and you'll realize how fun the mechanics are to this day. It sounds and looks great, and feels very different than the rest of the cartoon-based crap of the period. Duck Tales was a bright splash of light on a dim day, and listening to the music still makes me happy. We're proud to add Duck Tales to our list of masterpieces.

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