Ducktales Remastered Review

[brendala]

Please forgive my incompetence at drawing Duck characters. But I just had to express my love for them in art form!




I've beaten this game twice already. I bought a PS3 just so I could play it and it was worth EVERY PENNY!! It's like experiencing a lost episode of the original cartoon!

If you love Ducktales, Disney, old school gaming, and/or beautiful hand-drawn animation, BUY THIS GAME NOW! The sprites are GORGEOUSLY animated and replicate both the look of the cartoon and the feel of the 1989 video game flawlessly. And, for all the people who just want to experience the story without the sadistic old-school NES difficulty, there's an Easy Mode available to play.

And yes, the iconic money bin is a mini-game that you get to swim around in! :)


RANDOM GUSHING!!!

---The new music is appropriately epic and fun. But there is an option to play with the original 8-bit tunes for all the purists out there. And the soft piano remix of The Moon that plays over the ending credits is just beautiful. It seriously almost made me cry!

---The sprites are hand drawn and animated. And they look AMAZING! The little animations have so much character that I often found myself doing things like letting Scrooge get caught by a killer plant just so I could watch the animation of him smacking the plant around to free himself.


---The replay value comes in the form of unlocking things by buying them with the money Scrooge collects in the game. And the stuff you get to collect is more pretty artwork and music. This made me happy! :)


---Best of all, all the surviving voice cast returned and they sound fantastic. Special props go to Russi Taylor (the actress behind Webby and the nephews) because she still sounds exactly the same as she did back in the day. Just....wow.

Most of the replacement actors do very well. I didn't dig Fenton's new voice (though the actor sounded better as GizmoDuck). But I'll cut the new actor some slack considering how unique the original voice was and how hard it is to parrot another actor's sound.

The replacement that surprised me the most was Mrs Beakley. She was voiced in this game by Wendee Lee. Yeah, Faye Valentine is playing Scrooge's chubby, elderly maid (and she emulated the original actress so well I didn't know she had been replaced until I saw the credits)

As for Alan Young, he may sound noticeably older than he did in the original cartoon (understandable considering he's now 94-years-old). But when he needs to sound enthusiastic, he sells it. And his Scottish brogue still sounds like perfection. And I absolutely love the idea of Scrooge (the most badass old guy character ever) being played by a guy who is awesome enough to still be working well into his 90s. And June Foray (who is the same age as Alan Young) still rocks at playing cackling villains. But June Foray's awesomeness is a surprise to no one.


In short, BUY THIS GAME AND BUY IT NOW!!!!
It's hella fun. And if it sells well, maybe we'll get a remake of the equally awesome 1989 Rescue Rangers NES game. And I want this to happen more than you will ever know!! ^_^

Comments

[amelia-seyroon.livejournal.com]

I WILL BUY THIS GAME AND I WILL CHERISH IT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

Looking back, I think Magica was my favorite villain. She always cracked me up.

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

I got this for my Wii U the other week, and I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID. Even Fenton. He was the most glaringly different, but easy enough to overlook. Alan Young does sound a lot older now, but it still works for Scrooge since..he's old! Lest we forget, he walks with a cane for a reason. ^_-

Which setting did you play it on? I started out on medium, but couldn't finish the Amazon. When my fiancé and brother-in-law came over, they both grew up with the NES game (I didn't), so I let them restart and they went for easy...and I beat it easily on easy. Go figure. I'm trying to tackle medium again, but the Amazon boss kicks my butt! It's actually almost refreshing playing a game that punishes you for not playing well. Ah, my childhood!

Anyway, I'm glad that gallery unlocks don't go away if you erase a game, so I'm about halfway through purchasing everything. But in all seriousness, I loved listening to those voices again! I was impressed also by Frank Welker's characters sounding exactly the same, considering I haven't heard some of his recent characters sounding anything like Bigtime, etc. Makes me wonder if the actors continued to replicate the voices in the years since Ducktales was in production. Kind of amusing to think about. :D

I REALLY want to see more of the Disney NES games redone like this, since I never got to play a single one! Ducktales: Remastered has given me hope that I may not entirely miss out as I did growing up.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

My sister and I tried the medium difficulty first. But we kept dying before hitting the bosses. So I turned on the easy setting so I could get through the story (and I've replayed the easy levels a bunch of times to farm cash to unlock the gallery)


I feel bad for not mentioning Welker in my review. He didn't have as much dialogue. But he deserves props both for sounding the same AND for keeping all the Beagle Boy voices distinct from one another.


Makes me wonder if the actors continued to replicate the voices in the years since Ducktales was in production. Kind of amusing to think about. :D

Scrooge and the nephews have shown up in a few specials over the years (Scrooge had a bit part in one of the recent Kingdom Hearts games). So I guess it helped that those two actors weren't totally out of practice.



I REALLY want to see more of the Disney NES games redone like this, since I never got to play a single one! Ducktales: Remastered has given me hope that I may not entirely miss out as I did growing up.

AGREED! The dudes I met at the Capcom panel at WonderCon were genuinely passionate about this project and it shows in the final game. So I'm hoping Ducktales is successful and Capcom & Disney give them the go-ahead to make more remakes like this one.



Also, the Rescue Rangers NES game was equally amazing and deserves a re-master just like this one!

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I ought to go through the easy setting again, but there's more cash to be had in harder settings. And...something about hidden treasure on the hard setting?

I have heard that Rescue Rangers was an excellent game! I've only ever seen screen shots of the game though. I only had two friends and one cousin with an NES growing up, and for some reason they usually just had the Mario games. (For some crazy, crazy reason.) Maybe if nothing else, Nintendo will release it on the 3DS or Wii U Virtual Console.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about hidden treasure in the hard setting! I'll have to check that out!

Rescue Rangers was an excellent co-op game (you could choose either a one-player game with either chipmunk or a two-player game with both). That's part of the reason I want that remake so bad: it would be nice to be able to play with my sister or a friend.
Rescue Rangers also stole a little from the Mario series (the level select map was VERY similar). So it has the same feel as a Mario game (while Ducktales felt more like a Mega Man clone LOL)

[gullwhacker.livejournal.com]

It felt like an episode or five of the TV show. Everyone in character, voices all sounded right, fun gameplay - I started on Normal, had to retry a few times but I beat the game.

And then the PS3 crashed in the final cutscene. Ah well.

So, if I start over, my gallery unlocks remain? Excellent...

[neophoenixte.livejournal.com]

Sorry to plant this here, but you don't seem to keep an email or other quick contact method handy that I can get to very quickly. Please delete/moderate this comment at your discretion.

April/Yoshi's mom texted me, asking me to try to get a hold of you. April/Yoshi's in the ICU. No specifics other than found collapsed on floor. I don't know if you have contact information or need it. If you need it, contact me via gmail (same username) or Facebook/Twitter (same username, my consistency is sickening but useful) whatever method is easier for you. LJ's hard to watch, so my response to comments/LJ messages is likely to be slow, if at all.

Again, delete/moderate this comment at your discretion as it's clearly off-topic from ranting about this (very awesome) game. :P