DuckTales
1989 · Platform · NES
Overview
DuckTales (1989) is Capcom's NES platformer: Scrooge McDuck pogos on his cane through five treasure-hunting stages, including the Moon.
Deep Dive
Scrooge McDuck sets out to become the world's richest duck by finding five legendary treasures, visiting the Amazon, Transylvania, the African Mines, the Himalayas and the Moon in any order. His cane doubles as a pogo stick for bouncing on enemies and over spikes, and as a golf club for swinging at rocks. Stages hide secrets and alternate endings depend on the fortune collected. The Moon stage's music became one of the most loved pieces of NES music.
Developer Story
DuckTales was developed by Capcom in 1989, designed by Tokuro Fujiwara. Despite being a Disney licensed game, Capcom was given significant creative freedom and created one of the NES's best platform games. The pogo stick mechanic — using Scrooge's cane to bounce on enemies and objects — was novel. The five non-linear levels and the Moon theme music made it iconic.
Did You Know?
- DuckTales' Moon theme, composed by Hiroshige Tonomura, became one of the most beloved pieces of video game music — it has been covered thousands of times.
- The pogo stick mechanic — bouncing on enemies with a cane — was a completely original traversal and attack system.
- The five worlds could be completed in any order — a non-linear structure that rewarded different strategies on different playthroughs.
- Capcom was given unusual creative freedom by Disney, resulting in a better game than most licensed titles of the era.
- A remastered version, DuckTales: Remastered, was released in 2013 and featured voice acting from the original cartoon cast.
Sources & further reading
- DuckTales (video game) — Wikipedia
