REVIEW: QuackShot (1991, Genesis)

Greetings, retr0pians, and welcome back once again to Disney-Thon. As we’re currently nearing the conclusion of this little saga, there was one game other than DuckTales that I just knew I couldn’t leave out, that game in question being the action-platform game, QuackShot.

Developed by Sega themselves and released for the Sega Genesis in 1991, the game revolves around Donald Duck and his nephews as they embark on an Indiana Jones-esque quest to find a legendary treasure while being pursured by Pete and his gang. Is this game really worth quacking up over, or will it just make us lose our temper like Donald does all the time? Let’s find out, shall we?

THE LOOKS – Out of all the games I’ve reviewed this month, I would say that this one has the most ‘cartoonish’ look to it. Starting off with the character sprites themselves, they’re pretty decently made, with most of them taking cues from Carl Barks’ comics in their overall design. In terms of backgrounds, they’re also very nice, with quite a lot of them being based off locations in the real word not unlike DuckTales, some of which can really give the game a sense of atmosphere, and adventure. Then again, considering that this game was released rather early in the Genesis’ lifespan, it’s no suprise that the games really had to give us something to appreciate in the visuals.

THE SOUND – One thing that has appeared to be a recurring theme throughout Disney-Thon is good music. This game however…yeah, unfortunately there isn’t really anything special in the audio department. While not exactly bad by any means, most of the level themes tend to be pretty forgettable at best, and slightly irritating at worst. Also, the sound effect when you hit your enemies with your plungers are pretty ignorable for the first few times…but after the 400th time, you might as well be wishing you NEVER heard it in the first place.

Race cars, lasers, aeropla-oh wait, wrong Disney duck…

THE GAMEPLAY – At this point, I’ve pretty much reviewed more licensed games that I really should’ve considering that I’ve been doing this gig for a mere 3 months now, with many of them either falling into being just good, just forgettable, or just plain horrible. In this game’s case, it mostly tends to fall into the former. But first, let’s just get the problems out of the way. Starting off with Donald’s controls, the best word I can describe them with is ‘floaty’. Once again, while they aren’t bad by any means, they can still be kind of a hassle to get a hang of. Now with said, let’s get into the positives! In comparison to all the other platformers at the time, QuackShot, along with Sonic, probably stick out the best. While the levels themselves are mostly linear, there are times when you might run into a roadblock, some of which you can just go into your backpack to get an item so you can get past, or backtrack to another level to get said item. However, unlike most games, this can actually be quite enjoyable due to the levels actually being quite clever in their design. You can also refill your health or temper meters by eating food that can be gained by shooting your enemies with the yellow plunger gun, the red plunger gun, the popcorn gun, or the bubble gun, which can also be used to solve the many puzzles that you’ll encounter throughout the game and even be upgraded. While definetely not without it’s flaws, the gameplay is still very convival.

THE BOTTOM LINE – QuackShot is by no means a masterpiece, with it’s odd control scheme and forgettable music, but it manages to make up for it with levels and gameplay that will provide you with plenty of entertainment.

7/10