A piece of your childhood will return this summer with Ducktales Remastered. Time to take a look back at the original.
Music. It’s what makes good games great. Ducktales is no exception. If you haven’t figured it out by now, I love video game music. The Moon level has some of the best music in video games and plenty of people who create a “best-of” list have the Moon in there somewhere. The menu has that catchy music that gives players the feel that something big is going to happen and doesn’t give that “just a menu” feeling. The title theme for the show as remade in NES 8 bit form to perfection.
All the music is great but some of my favorites are Transylvania and the boss theme, and the Moon of course. You can’t mention Ducktales music without mentioning the Moon. The game built on the cartoon formula but added so much more to it. It had levels with secret areas, like the transportation mirrors in Transylvania or the fact that you need GizmoDuck to help you get through the Moon level to fight the rat boss because the Moon is made of cheese. Come on, that should make perfect sense to anyone reading this? I don’t know who came up with the idea for Scrooge to be able to jump pogo-style on his cane, but that person deserves a lot of the credit for making Ducktales a great game. The game feels like it has that “just long enough” feeling to it. With the length, the levels don’t repeat the same concepts, too much, and the music keeps the player entertained as well as the boss battles.
The boss battles aren’t that hard but at the same time, they are innovative and fun. Why didn’t the developers create a new level for the final showdown with Glomgold rather than just using Transylvania again? I’m not gonna kill the game for these moments because it was so innovative for 1990 and the music was spot-on. If you had told me that the NES game was going to get remade at some point, I would have said you were crazy. Companies have been shying away from risks like this but with the cult following the original Ducktales has; it should open the door for Disney remakes like this. Capcom has already hinted at Chip and Dale if Ducktales does well, and why wouldn’t it? If the internet is any indication of how it will do, then it will do just fine seeing as though everyone is talking about it.
Let’s look into what the new version is going to have. The year was 1990 and the NES couldn’t make Scrooge McDuck wear the right color clothes. Years later and now he will wear his trademark Blue shirt. Combine that with better graphics and you have the elements of something great. It sounds like they are going to work on the music which is code for screw it up. The music should stay what it was on the NES. Make a modern looking game and have it sound old school. It would be the best of both worlds.
