DuckTales:-Remastered-Review DuckTales: Remastered Review

   16/08/2013 at 17:11       Chris OToole       2 COMMENTS. - Score 3/5
 - Capcom, Wayforward Technologies, Steam, SEN, XBLA

First things first, if you sang the review title you are in the right place, for DuckTales Remastered is crafted from the bones of the old Nintendo game, based upon the late eighties cartoon masterpiece which was itself drawn from the pages of Carl Barks' seminal Uncle Scrooge comic book. In fact, if you still love these characters go and google more of Barks' work, that guy was a bloody genius and a minor hero of mine.

So anyway, with this much heritage behind it, how does Wayforward Technologies cope with the task put before it? The answer, most pleasingly, is that they knock it straight out of the park. Capcom could not have chosen a better studio for this remaster, as Wayforward are the 2D maestros of the videogame universe, some their previous works include the well underated Double Dragon: Neon, A Boy and his Blob and BloodRayne: Betrayal, one of the best platformers nobody ever played.

The original NES game this was based upon was a rock-hard platformer from the guys that brought you Mega-Man, and I have fond memories of pogo-sticking around the (for the time) quite well drawn levels, and enjoying it immensely, but nothing quite prepared me for how DuckTales: Remastered now looks. If anything is ever going to give your eyeballs a joygasm it's the look of this game, it's just like playing an episode of the cartoon, from the way the characters move, to the all new voice work provided by the original cast. Even the backgrounds are painted by actual real-life honest to goodness Disney artists. The soundtrack has also undergone a huge overhaul, with the familiar eight bit tunes brought bang up to date, but in a considered and reverential way. These hummable ditties are still going to get stuck in your head for hours upon hours, believe me.

Gameplay is much as it was back in the day, tough and unforgiving DuckTales: Remastered is an old-school platformer. In most levels you are given a map with points marking where each of your goals lie, and it's up to you to jump your way there, pogo-sticking to death any baddies that have the audacity to get in your way. In the original game this meant pushing down on the pad at the correct time, and it was fiddly to say the least, this time though Wayforward have given you the option to just hold down a button which makes life just that little bit easier. If you still find the game to be too tough there is also an easy mode where you are no longer sent back to the start of a level after you lose all of your lives, and it's chock full of generous checkpoints. Which is super-handy if you want your kids to be able to play it too.

All in all Ducktales: Remastered is a perfectly judged update, taking the core game and polishing each and every other aspect of it until it positively glows. This is an entirely successful effort from Capcom and Wayforward and hopefully there will be more to come.

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