In the first of a series of reviews covering titles featured in the Disney Afternoon Collection, we'll be looking at Duck Tales. I'm not yet sure how many of the games on the collection that I will cover, as I may not have enough to say about some to justify writing a full review. I guess it'll just be a nice surprise. Without further ado, here is Duck Tales.
The NES era is what many consider to be a golden age for Capcom, licensed games, and the 2D Platformer. Capcom was pumping out great title after great title on the system; the Mega Man Series, Little Nemo, Demon's Crest 2, Bionic Commando. Not to mention the publisher's work on Disney properties. In the midst of this renaissance, Capcom released Ducktales.
Duck Tales is considered a genuine classic and it's not hard to see why. The game is designed around an interesting pogo mechanic wherein protagonist Scrooge McDuck can use his cane to bounce off of enemies, hazardous terrain, chests, or plain old ground in order to get a boost. This feature is used to good effect, creating moments where the player is able to build up a nice sense of flow as they alternate between regular jumps and pogo jumps to negotiate the obstacles before them. It feels satisfying to hop through segments that would be more troublesome for less versatile heroes.

The soundtrack is a certified classic in and of itself, featuring upbeat tunes that mesh well with Scrooge's floaty controls. From the classic Ducktales theme, to original songs, there isn't a dull song. The track from the moon stage is a particular highlight, developing its own reputation as one of the all-time greats among chiptune music. The soundtrack is well done on its own, but works even better within the context of the game.
Despite the praise I'm able to give for the individual components of Duck Tales, these pieces aren't able to coalesce into a whole that I find to be particularly great, much less superlative. The levels are kind of generic in terms of theme, the level design itself is pretty plain, and no individual moments within the game stand out as particularly memorable. When I'm thinking about the soundtrack or the ingenuity of the pogo mechanic, I feel like I should enjoy the game more than I ultimately do. It's true that there are some areas of the game that I consider to be lacking (which I'll get to soon), but I think the biggest contributor to this sense of being underwhelmed is a combination of Duck Tales's sterling reputation and "merely" solid delivery. Duck Tales is a good game- absolutely- but it doesn't have enough to take it to that next level for me. Everything it does well has been done better in many other games, including the pogo mechanic.
Duck Tales's weakest point is definitely its visuals. They aren't poorly done by any means, but I find them to be considerably lacking. Enemy designs are too simple and don't go together well with the art style of Scrooge or the levels. Meanwhile, the levels' visual design is far too plain for my taste. The Moon and Mine levels are decent, but the other 3 have very little going on. The snow level in particular is just a mass of solid blues and whites, with some black being added in a later on. And the background for much of the jungle level is this solid blue void with nothing going on.

Bosses are another low-light. Several use unpredictable patterns that are hard to avoid unless you start to blindly guess which way they're going to move. Visually, they're pretty generic as well. Since the bosses are such a minor part of the experience, their subpar quality isn't a huge deal, but I can't really say that they added to the experience either.
Don't take this the wrong way; Duck Tales is an above average 2D platformer and the pogo mechanic is an interesting feature, but I feel like it was put to better use in later titles that I played before Duck Tales. Shovel Knight makes better use of the exact same mechanic, while the Donkey Kong Country series makes rhythmically bouncing off of enemies in sequence much more satisfying on a visceral level. So what makes Duck Tales unique has been done better elsewhere in my book. And once the luster of that wears off, there isn't much to make this anything more than a pretty good platformer for me.
But that being said, Duck Tales is indeed a pretty good platformer. It is worth playing for fans of the genre, the NES, or Capcom. Duck Tales is also an important part of video game history, inspiring later titles like Shovel Knight and setting a precedence for quality licensed games. Today, it is a solid platformer that can't help but be lost amidst a surge of other great games in same genre, on the same system, by the same developer.