DuckTales was a successful cartoon back in its day, and it trumped even other shows produced by the same people - for example, the Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers cartoon was cancelled after a relatively short run(by cartoon standards) due to an extreme lack of quality. It actually seems as though they put more effort into the video game adaption of that cartoon than they did on the actual cartoon! But, enough rambling on about Chip & Dale, what about THIS game, and the level of quality that IT brings? We're about to find out.

Let's start off with the graphics, which actually look really good - everything is detailed, and all of the sprites have a certain charm and personality to them - even the enemies! Though I may not be too picky about graphics - as long as they don't impede the gameplay, I'm fine with them - these graphics still look pretty fine. The ending cutscene, which is also the only cutscene in the game, also looks good - I'm talking about Ninja Gaiden quality here. You see, this is why Capcom is well-renowned even now.

The music and sound is of similar quality, especially some of the level soundtracks - The Moon has one of the best and most well-known soundtracks to be found on the NES! And all the other stages have similarly good music tracks. The sound is also well-put together:everything sounds excellent, except for the noise which occurs upon killing an enemy - it gets a little bit annoying after just a short while. But, enough of that, let's get on to more important things!

The storyline is quite simple - Scrooge McDuck seemingly wanted to become even richer, so he sets off to find five hidden treasures located in different parts of the world. Of course, there are many obstacles in his way, which is what you should expect from a video game.

Now that we've got those things out of the way, let's get on to the most important part of the game - the game itself. So, basically, you get a choice of five different levels - The Amazon, Transylvania, African Mines, The Himalayas, and the aforementioned The Moon. Each level has a different bit of difficulty, but they're mostly ordered downward, from easiest to hardest, except for the African Mines. You also get a small shot of the treasure that you'll be retrieving in each level - and, amusingly enough, the treasure for The Moon is a piece of green cheese.

When you actually start playing the game, you'll be astounded at how the game flows perfectly and almost never lags or flickers. This is the result of Capcom's programming talent, which still manifests itself today. And it's also because the levels are very well-designed - they're difficult enough that seasoned gamers will have trouble with finding secret passages and even secret treasures, while small children can simply get through it normally while being provided with enough items to keep going. It's some of the best design I've seen for an NES game, and it's nice to see that there's a company that actually cares about making their games playable for their target audience.

Of course, the other parts of the game are well-crafted, as well. The controls are simple enough that a small child can grasp them easily - move and duck with the D-pad, jump with the A button, and hold B in midair to...use the cane as a pogo-stick. Okay, I have to give it to them, I never would've thought of anything like that. The pogo-cane is your main method of attack - you can't just jump on the enemies, you have to bounce on them with the cane to defeat them. It's also your main method of transportation, as it allows you to jump a lot higher than with regular jumps, and it also protects the player from spikes. It still won't protect you from water, though:that's still Scrooge's biggest weakness.

The game mechanics are quite simple - three hit points and three lives. Of course, you can get extras of each:there are two extensions for the health bar, totaling five hit points, and you can find extra lives scattered throughout the levels. The score is measured in dollars instead of actual points, so it may seem strange, but it's really not - Scrooge is going on this quest for money, remember? There are small gems, worth $2,000, large gems worth $10,000, and large red gems worth $50,000. And along with those items, there's the health-restoration powerups. These include an ice-cream cone that refills one HP, and a cake that fills the entire bar. There's even a few appearances by a maid character from the cartoon - she tosses ice-cream cones at Scrooge, which really helps children with playing through the game without getting too frustrated. All in all, there's still enough depth to go around...

...but, the difficulty is on the low side. Though there are three different difficulty settings, even the highest one won't challenge the average gamer for very long. That's one of the other things that keeps this game's score back from a 9 or a 10 - it won't last the average gamer very long. I'd estimate about 3 days, at the most, to find everything in the game and explore everything it has to offer on Difficult. Though your skill may differ, 3 days isn't very much playtime, especially when the game is being sold for $50.

But wait! There's also multiple endings - two, to be exact. How do you get these endings, you might ask? Well, to get the first one, you just have to finish the game normally, no special conditions needed. The second one, though, requires you to beat the game with over $10,000,000 collected money, and you also have to get the two secret treasures. It's still not too hard to get it, though, so it only bumps the Difficulty and Depth scores up by one point.

All things considered, this is a fantastic game, and it's definitely worth your time. There are so few problems that it's actually quite unbelievable, and literally everything about the game is made with a special charm that few other games have been able to capture.

Final Rating - A(Just a step below perfection)

NovemberJoy : We still have rerollings and even new episodes

NovemberJoy : I have never played this game before (Duck Tales/ Nes) but now that I finished this I can say yeah was/is fantastic game.