Gaming History 101

Release Date: August 13, 2013
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: Capcom
Price: $14.99
Platforms: Xbox 360 (XBLA), PS3 (PSN), WiiU (eShop), PC (Steam)

Most HD remakes require a certain degree of love for the original game, especially when you consider a brunt of them just increase the resolution on lower quality assets.  In the case of NES classic DuckTales, this doesn’t really apply.  It was a stunning game that had few flaws when placed up against other titles of its time.  There was much work to do bringing it into modern times and if you are going to do this type of upgrade while still retaining sprites, WayForward is probably the best equipped for the job.  The visual result is spectacular, justifying the somewhat melodramatic title of Remastered in a mere screenshot.  Unfortunately it seems the team was so focused on keeping the aesthetics intact that they spent little time on gameplay.  As a result DuckTales Remastered is a title that will tug at your nostalgic heartstrings before crushing them under the minor, but significant, tweaks of this modernization.

If you aren’t familiar with WayForward‘s previous works, they have grown a reputation for bringing back the past with hand drawn sprites integrated into contemporary gameplay.  It is an astronomical cost in both work and resources, but I have been impressed with everything they have provided before (Contra 4, A Boy and His Blob, and Bloodrayne Betrayal to name a few).  Not only that, but this developer has also shown striking success with licensed products as well, Batman: Brave and the Bold and Aliens: Infestation are must plays, so I felt that with Capcom and Disney at its back this was a match made in heaven.  Upon starting up the game it looks like all the time and money sure paid off.  It’s like the cartoon came to life, with solid animation that looks like it leaped off the cells of an animator’s sketchpad.  Environments are bright and beautiful, re-creating the worlds from the NES counterpart to perfectly adjust for “nostalgia goggles” (ie: what your mind remembers of a game versus what it really looks like today).  Touched up with all of the original voice actors and not a flat performance in the bunch, I can’t imagine how this title could ever demo poorly, especially if your previewers aren’t playing.  In terms of visual and audio appeal, WayForward knocked it out of the park.

Then comes the gameplay, which is where the whole project falls apart.  The technical complication with such gorgeous sprites is that collision detection cannot be properly determined and therefore hit boxes are utilized.  WayForward has always struggled with this on big screen console games, although the portable outings, whether by the benefit of low resolution or smaller screens, don’t seem to suffer the same fate.  When you couple that with the dexterity and precision that DuckTales requires, it can get quite frustrating when Scrooge falls right through a massive boss, receives damage, and puts him right in the pattern to get hit again.  This wouldn’t be such a big deal if you hadn’t just played a 20-30 minute level for the forth time, which in contrast had almost none of the challenge these boss encounters or late dexterity tests do, and had to skip through dozens of annoying cutscenes along the way.  Furthermore Scrooge’s jumps and pogos seem a little off, feeling floaty and imprecise when compared to the much older version.  I know many of you readers may scoff at this statement, claiming Scrooge seems to control perfectly with no awkwardness to his movement at all. If you’re comparing it to today’s games, sure, but when you play the NES version and this version back to back, the pixel-counting detail we used to commit to games simply doesn’t hold up in Remastered.  I heard of pogo issues from other reviewers, but I must admit that I didn’t have any problems.  That’s not to say that the game doesn’t perform like an ideal update 90 percent of the time, but in this particular case the devil is in the details.

Put it all together and you have a game that looks, sounds, and presents itself as the best gift a retro gamer could receive, but after a few hours you’re left hurt and heartbroken.  This truly proves that the best graphics and sound in the world cannot hide the fact that if a game doesn’t play right, it just isn’t enjoyable.  Normally I side with WayForward’s titles, appreciating the full presentation despite the weak collision and amped difficulty, but in the case of DuckTales Remastered I just cannot ignore the flaws.  It’s not difficult in the way old games were meant to be – you would replay frustrating obstacles in an attempt to perfect your run – this whole high risk high reward at a mere boss battle or new area isn’t difficulty, it’s developer trickery.  Still, there is an audience for this game and assuming you can commit to hours of working your way through the levels and overcoming the annoying gameplay tweaks it can be one rewarding accomplishment.  Perhaps I don’t have the time or patience to learn a game inside and out, not for difficulty but rather for flaws, in order to see that coveted game ending.  As a retro gamer my heart tells me I wanted a remake like this – and I can’t stress enough that if WayForward working with Capcom couldn’t pull it off, there aren’t many other options – but now that I’ve tasted the finished product I’m feeling that perhaps the gems of the past should remain that way.

Final Score: 2 out of 5   Please see our review policy for how games are scored and what each score means.

DuckTales Remastered was played via a review copy provided by Capcom and was tested on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms.  I played for approximately seven hours and was unable to complete the game at this time.  A majority of the game was played on medium, however this was adjusted to both easy and hard to assist in determining differences in difficulty.