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Review: Capcom's Darkwing Duck for the NES.

Nintendo NES,

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SystemOfLies
10-24-13 10:01 AM

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IgorBird122
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Capcom's Darkwing Duck for the NES.

Game's Ratings

Overall

Graphics

Sound

Addictiveness

Depth

Story

Difficulty

Average User Score

8.3

10-24-13 10:01 AM

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Darkwing Duck:

A cloud of smoke and he appears, a master of surprise! Use that cunning mind behind a shadowy disguise. Nobody knows for sure, the bag guy's are out of luck. Here comes Darkwing Duck! Yeah! So F.O.W.L is at it again and threatening the world and it's time for the terror that flaps in the night to bring these criminal scumbags down! Such a beloved cartoon of the early nineties which combined slapstick comedy and action packed crime fighting. It was a perfect fit for a late NES release title. Back then Capcon had a deal with Disney which meant great games for us! Darkwing Duck is one of the best NES releases of all time. And that's a quacking fact! I'll explain more in the breakdowns, you'll see.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics are amazing for this time period. Plain and simple. The level designs are some of the absolute best artwork on the NES and every level has it's own beautiful background. Add in some great stage decor and some well designed interactive obstacles and you're looking at a perfectly polished piece of work! The Sprite designs are very beautifully rendered. Darkwing Duck himself looks amazing in this 8-bit rendition. Almost all the characters from the cartoon are here and all the sprites are done in a very cartoon like fashion. The cut scenes are done amazingly as well, that just like the levels are really something you just have to try out and see for yourself! One thing I can say for sure is that you're never going to be bored off with some bland one color background like some of the other NES titles out there. This game is on par if not surpassing other great visual games such as Castlevania, Ducktales and Chip N' Dale the Rescue Rangers. Like I said before. You just have to experience it! I give the graphics 9 Quacker Jacks out of 10.

Sound: 7/10

The music and sound effects in Darkwing Duck is some of the best stuff you'll find on the NES as well. It's not just stock music that's been tweaked or rehashed from previous games. It's very unique and puts you right into the mood of the game. There is the 8-bit rendition of the Darkwing Duck theme song and much more. The boss battles even has their own music. Now the one thing I love the most about the music is that it's not your average music. The same composer also did the music for other great games like Mega-Man and such but other than that there is not much of a comparison between the two other than being made of pure awesomeness! Darkwing Duck features a music that is more of a jazz inspired flavor rather than the rock or pop sounding music of the Mega-Man franchise. The sound effects are great as well. Nothing noteworthy of being overly annoying or too distracting. Instead the sound effects just blend right into the game as they always should. I know it's sort of a petty thing to harp about but for me sometimes the sound effects can really ruin a game for me. This is definitely not the case here though. All in all I give the sound a solid 7 Steal Beaks out of 10

Addictive Game play: 8/10

The game play values of Darkwing Duck are really quite fantastic. It's a perfect blend of great controls about, average difficulty, entertaining characters and great sound effects and music. I set out to play this game through for the review alone and found myself simply playing it because it was that awesome! I found myself actually having to reset just to play through some of the levels again just because I was immersed into the game play that I wasn't taking in the time to really think critically about the game's features. And even then I wasn't bothered at all playing through the game again. The controls are very tight and responsive, which is a must with platforming action adventure games like this. There is a bunch of different maneuvers to pull off which I will touch more upon in the depth of the game, but they really help pull of the game and make it that much more enjoyable and addictive. There is also a level select screen for the game that features 3 levels you have to complete to advance to the next series of levels which greatly increase the replay value of the game. I'll touch on that a little more as well in the depth section. All in all this is a very addictive game and should have any action platforming gamer coming back for more and more. I give the addictive game play 8 Sneezing Turtles out of 10.

Story: 8/10

You take on the classic role of Darkwing Duck. Mild mannered single parent by day turned vigilante caped crime fighter by night. The evil F.O.W.L (Fiendish Organisation for World Larceny) syndicate is at it again threatening the city and it's Darkwing Duck's job to clean up the streets (and bridges and forests, etc) and put crime in it's place. Armed with a gun that shoots various gas rounds and some amazing acrobatics the bad guys are in for a real surprise! The story is great and suits the game rather well. It's like an epic interactive episode from the show in which you end up squaring off against the various villains from the show. F.O.W.L has staged a massive crime wave in the city and it's up to D.W. to foil their schemes. As long as you were a fan of the show you should enjoy the story line as much as you did the show's story lines. But if you're new to Darkwing Duck it's probably just going to be a generic story line in your eyes. All in all perfect story for the game I give the story 8 Banana Brains out of 10. (Banana Brains is Quacker Jack's sidekick)?

Depth: 5/10

There is a ton of stuff to do in this game. Seriously. At first you may be thinking "How much depth could a side scrolling platforming action game have?" Well, lots. The game doesn't really take forever to beat but the average gamer should find their self playing it for an hour or more to beat. There is a lot of maneuvers to master like the cape block which blocks almost all the enemy projectiles coming at you. You have the ability to jump and hang onto things like rings, hooks and platforms above you. There is three weapon upgrades you can get for your gas gun including the gas arrows, the lightning rounds and the heavy gas. There is also the hunt for the bonus stages in every level there is usually 2 bonus stages for you to find and go through. You also have the choice of selecting which level you want to play just like in the Ducktales games. So on the outside it doesn't really offer up a lot of depth but if you peer inside you'll find there is really so much to do that it usually takes a play through or two, maybe even three to find it all! I give the depth 5 Heavy Gas rounds out of 10.

Difficulty: 6/10

The game is pretty average on difficulty in my opinion but there is still a slight learning curve to the game. The controls as I have said before are great but you're going to have to take the time to get used to them as well. It's kind of confusing with learning to jump from hanging platform to hanging platform such as the rings and hooks. That's one thing you definitely have to master if you want to get any further in the game. Another thing that makes the game a bit more difficult is the lack of recovery time after you've taken a hit. This can quickly kill you in some of the areas and some of the boss battles as you can receive your allotted four hits quicker than a hick up leaving you one dead duck. Fortunately though there is a lot of extra lives in the form of Darkwing Duck dolls scattered about the levels and bonus levels which lightens the sting of the missing recovery time. Just like in other classic games like Mega-Man and Castlevania you'll find yourself being thrown backwards a little after taking a hit as well and this can kill you instantly if you're hanging from a hook or a ring or when you're jumping over a pit and you take a hit. The power ups for the gas gun really help you out as well. The arrows will definitely be a must to acquire as they take out the bosses in the boss battles the quickest. All in all this game is great for the fact that just about anyone can pick it up and start playing with out to much of a problem. I give the difficulty rating 6 Masked Mallards out of 10.

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(edited by SystemOfLies on 10-24-13 10:07 AM) Post Rating: 1 Liked By: Dragoon26,

10-24-13 07:48 PM

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SystemOfLies : This is a great review you made. Well all I have to say is that this review has lots of information. Keep up the good work and have a nice day.

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12-15-13 12:04 AM

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supercool22 :

Thanks, Man. If you like the way I write the reviews be sure to check out my other ones. Most of them will be for NES games but I do some for Sega as well. Always glad to know people enjoy em

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12-15-13 12:14 AM

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Wow, I do got to say, you really put a lot of time and effort into this review, it's nice, it's readable, all categorized, and each one is all well worded, keep up with this great work, and looking forward on more great reviews from you.

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