DuckTales - Remastered

Fact #1: Approximately 95% of all video games based on TV or movie licenses are god awful abominations that need to be taken out behind a barn and shot.

Fact #2: The DuckTales game for NES not only fell squarely in the other 5%, but is considered one of the best games ever developed for the system.

Let's look at fact #2 for a second. This is such a universally accepted fact that in the trailer for the Remastered edition of DuckTales, WayForward and Capcom included quotes from developers Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim) and Cliff Bleszinski (Gears of War) about how the original shaped how they made games.  It was nearly perfect as a platformer, requiring a degree of skill to master, but highly rewarding. I recall sometimes plugging it in even when I had a Nintendo64 because it was just a really good pass-the-time sort of game.

Now, let's take a look at the new, remastered edition of the game that was released on multiple platforms earlier today.

Holy. Crap.

Okay, first off, graphically, it's goddamned beautiful. Cell-shading was a really ugly trend in games for awhile back on the PS2, but designers eventually realized that there are certain types of games that lend themselves well to that format. This is certainly one of them. Not only that, but it blends it with some 3D animation here and there to great effect. Not only that, but enemy sprites from the original have been equally updated for a great, dynamic new look:

Sweet Jebus that's beautiful. And they fixed one of my biggest gripes with the original by making sure that Scrooge is wearing the right goddamned colors. I could never figure out as a kid why he was in red, when his jacket on the show was clearly blue. 

Ok, next up, music. Holy god, this is equally beautiful. The classic 8-bit midi tracks from the original were updated to modern standards and thank god for that. Don't get me wrong, I love the original music and the Moon theme is still ranked as one of my all time favorite pieces of gaming music. My concern was primarily that they would change the tracks somehow, which did not happen. And while we're on the subject of sounds, first off, how great is it that WayForward and Capcom got as much of the original voice cast of the show together? Very, but I'll discuss that more in a bit. There's one other little thing I want to mention regarding sound: ambient sounds. See that mummy-duck up there? Well, in both versions, he's attached to a ball and chain, and you could golf-swing the ball at him to take him out, great they kept that as well by the way, but in this version, when he moves around, they included the sound of the chain clanking. Now that is some great attention to detail you don't see that often these days. 

Now, going back to the voice cast, something that I've seen a couple of sites gripe about today is the inclusion/focus on story. And I really don't get the problem. It enhances the existing bare-bones story of the original so much that it actually feels a little like you're playing an episode of the old cartoon. And when you include the original voice cast, it makes it that much better. And if you don't want it, just pause it and select the skip option. So yeah, not sure what the hang up is.

Gameplay is tight, uses only two buttons on my PS3 controller (X and Square), and yeah, sometimes it feels like you hit the pogo button only to have Scrooge land bare-footed on spikes or whatever, but you know what? On a pure nostalgia level, I don't mind that one bit. How often back in the NES and Master System days would you swear up and down that you did the move correctly just to have things go wrong? And again, I am perfectly okay with that.

So, I haven't had a chance to play with many of the extras. Okay I've played with one extra. And man is it awesome. Want a hint?

See that big door back there? You can go in it. And anyone who watched the cartoon growing up knows what's back there.

That's right.

You get to swim in the damn money bin. Now, seriously, how freaking cool is that?

So, bottom line, is this game worth the entrance fee? Hell. Yes. It doesn't matter if you're too young to have played the original or not, it's a solid platformer with a nice sense of humor, good controls, and beautiful visuals. Yeah, there's a few things here or there that will frustrate you (god I hate mine carts in any game), but again, that's part of the charm of an old-school style platformer. There's a reason Capcom has had some success publishing new 8-bit style MegaMan games. Because platformers are part of our gaming heritage. Before first-person-shooters, before sandbox games, there were platformers. And god love 'em, I wish we had more new platformer style games released.