NES #26: Darkwing Duck

Well here's the one you've all been waiting for. After all these months of anticipation, I'm finally writing about your favorite game. You'd better sit tight because this game's got a lot of nuance and mystery attached. What's that you say? This is just a typical side scroller? It's not you're favorite game but in fact one you've never really thought about much? Actually I knew that going into this post, but since it's been almost a month since my last NES game, I thought you would cut me some slack. Well that's very kind of you.

Alright well enough talking to myself. It's time to talk about some Darkwing Duck. It's based on the cartoon series from twenty years ago. If you didn't see it you missed out, especially if you're now an adult. You can watch it if you want, but I doubt it would be the same. You can try, but can never truly recapture the joys of childhood. Am I sill not talking about the game? I'm really trying to avoid this one.

Okay so Darkwing Duck is a typical NES side scroller on the way easy side of things. It may actually be at the base of the Capcom difficulty scale. It's easier than Rescue Rangers and even shorter. If you are an adult who has been playing Nintendo for 20 years or so, and you're just picking it up for the first time than you shouldn't have too much trouble with it. I know this from experience. The only two parts that gave me trouble were Liquidator's level and the final battle with Steelbeak. Although even that turns out to be easy when you've learned the technique.

So what is there to set this game apart from other games? Well like Mega Man and Duck Tales you can select your level. Although unlike those games it make absolutely no difference in the game which order you beat the levels in. DW's got a pretty cool gas gun, but the only special gas weapon that you'll ever need to use is the arrow gas. Actually avoiding the other types of gas made the game a little bit more challenging. I sort of enjoyed it. Oh and I do like the way DW can hang off of ledges and get back on. That's probably the game's best feature. You can go up and down very easily, and I wish more games would've followed its example. So there's a negative, neutral, and positive thing about this game. I think that's pretty good.

I wish I had more to say about this one. I never got to play it as a kid and was actually a little excited when I found it recently at Savers of all places. I wish I had got to play it in 1992 when I was really into the cartoon. I would at least have some good memories about it. Of course if you read my Rescue Rangers article you know that I don't automatically love a game just because I played it as a kid. So perhaps it's just was well. You get a totally honest opinion not biased by nostalgia. I had an alright time playing this game. It's one you don't see in stores too often so if you see it cheap sometime you should probably pick it up. Just don't expect it to be Contra or anything. It's not a classic, but it gets the job done. I'm just glad there's not 400 games just like it on the NES. What's that you say? There actually are? What have I gotten myself into?