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DuckTales

Scrooge McDuck on a pogo-stick cane

Classic GamesSource-checked

Capcom's 1989 NES game of Disney's cartoon series sends Scrooge McDuck after five treasures in the Amazon, Transylvania, the African Mines, the Himalayas and on the Moon, bouncing on his cane like a pogo stick. Made by the team behind Mega Man and produced by Tokuro Fujiwara, it let players choose their route, scored 90% in Britain's Mean Machines, was converted to the Game Boy in 1990 and was remade by WayForward in 2013.

Scrooge McDuck cannot jump very well, so Capcom gave him a cane to bounce on. In DuckTales, made for the NES in 1989 from Disney’s television cartoon, holding the jump button turns Scrooge’s walking stick into a pogo stick: he bounces on enemies’ heads, over spiked brambles and up to ledges a normal jump will not reach. The game came from Capcom’s Mega Man team, and it shows: five stages, chosen in any order, each hiding a treasure and a guardian at the end, such as the King of the Terra Fermies deep in the African Mines.

Fast facts

  • Developer and publisher: Capcom, under licence from Disney.
  • Producer: Tokuro Fujiwara.
  • Released: NES, 1989 in America; in Britain, April 1991. Game Boy, 1990.
  • Stages: the Amazon, Transylvania, the African Mines, the Himalayas and the Moon.
  • Remake: DuckTales: Remastered (WayForward, 2013).

A world-wide treasure hunt

Nintendo Power previewed the game in its July/August 1989 issue. Scrooge “goes on a world-wide scavenger hunt for the five most valuable treasures known to duckkind”: the Giant Diamond of the Inner-Earth in the African Mines, the Crown of Genghis Khan in the snowy Himalayas, and on the Moon a green cheese said to make even “an old duck like Scrooge” young again. His nephews and Webby turn up with hints, and Launchpad the pilot will fly him home to Duckburg if he gets lost. Diamonds of three sizes add to his fortune, food restores his energy, and a magic coin makes him briefly invincible.

The choice of stages is not quite free. The African Mines are locked until Scrooge has found a skeleton key hidden in the Transylvania castle, and in Transylvania magic mirrors teleport him between rooms. On the Moon he needs the robot-suited Gizmo to get through a wall inside a UFO.

Reviews

It stayed in Nintendo Power’s charts through 1990, reaching ninth place that summer. In Britain, where Capcom released it at £34.99 in April 1991, Mean Machines gave it 90%: “A great game with a true sense of humour.” It found a few “niggles about the controllability of McDuck” and some repetition in the underground passages, but liked the main sprite, the music and the three difficulty levels. Capcom showed a Game Boy version at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in 1990.

The music has lasted longest. Wikipedia credits the score to Hiroshige Tonomura, and later writers single out the Moon stage’s theme as the best-known piece in it.

Capcom’s Disney games

DuckTales was one of a run of Disney games from Capcom on Nintendo’s machines. Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers followed on the NES in 1990, and Nintendo Power listed Darkwing Duck, The Little Mermaid and TaleSpin among Capcom’s Game Boy games for 1993. DuckTales 2 came to the NES and Game Boy in 1993. A different game, DuckTales: The Quest for Gold, came out for home computers such as the Amiga.

DuckTales: Remastered

In 2013 Capcom brought the game back. DuckTales: Remastered, developed by WayForward Technologies, redrew the characters as hand-drawn animation, rearranged the music and added voices, some from the cartoon’s original cast. Capcom’s producer, Derek Neal, told Retro Gamer it would be “faithful to both the NES original and the show”, with a tutorial level, a hub in Scrooge’s money bin, three new areas and a new final level. Capcom lists sales of 1.8 million for it. Wireframe also saw the original’s influence in Yacht Club Games’ Shovel Knight, whose hero bounces on his shovel.

Sources

  • Nintendo Power issue 7, July/August 1989, pp. 60–63: preview (the five lands and their treasures, the nephews, Webby, Launchpad, diamonds, snacks, the magic coin, the pogo jump, the skeleton key, Gizmo).
  • Nintendo Power issue 11, March/April 1990, pp. 41–42 and 68: readers’ charts; the skeleton key and Transylvania. Issue 14, July/August 1990: the Game Boy version at the summer CES; the readers’ charts.
  • Mean Machines issue 6, March 1991: NES review (Capcom, £34.99, April release, 90%).
  • Nintendo Power issue 14, July/August 1990: Chip ’n Dale Rescue Rangers (Capcom). Issue 44, January 1993: Darkwing Duck review and Capcom’s Game Boy plans (Darkwing Duck, The Little Mermaid, TaleSpin). Issue 53, October 1993: DuckTales 2.
  • The Games Machine (Italy) issue 30, April 1991, p. 11: Duck Tales: The Quest for Gold.
  • Wireframe issue 7, February 2019, p. 53: Tokuro Fujiwara profile (DuckTales, “from the Mega Man team”; Shovel Knight).
  • Retro Gamer issue 116 (2013), p. 6: DuckTales: Remastered (WayForward; Derek Neal interview).
  • Capcom, “Platinum Titles” (web): DuckTales: Remastered, 1.80 million units. https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/million.html
  • Wikipedia, “DuckTales (video game)” (web, secondary): the composer credit and the Moon theme. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckTales_(video_game)

See also

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