Donald Duck Goin' Quackers Review

Release dates:
North America: December 13, 2000
Japan: Unreleased
Europe: December 15, 2000 (As Donald Duck Quack Attack)

Game details:
1 Player
VMU compatible
VGA Box
Widescreen support
Jump Pack compatible
Standard controller

There are a lot of Disney games out there. ”Aladdin” for the Genesis/MegaDrive is one of my favorites. I remember that ”Tarzan” for PC was great. I haven't played a lot of Donald Duck games though. I've played one on the GameBoy Advance called ”Donald Duck Advance” (?'s, !'s and @'s included) which was developed by UbiSoft, the same guys that made ”Goin' Quackers” for the Dreamcast. Are they any similar? Yes, my friends, they definitely are. How? Read on.

Gameplay
Disney games are made for kids. You can't argue with that. This game...well. My dad, whom was sitting next to me while I was playing the game, said ”you can tell that it's a game for kids because it's the same thing over and over again”. He said this while I was playing through the first level in the first world. In total, there are four worlds. When I made my way to the end boss of the second world, he changed his opinion, dramatically. I don't even want to talk about this one. I think it took me seven tries to beat the freaking ”Beagle Boy”. After that came the Halloween themed world. This one was harder. Much harder. I won't describe this world in detail but it sure fits the Halloween atmosphere. I also never thought it would be this easy to control Donald Duck with the Dreamcast controller. They did a great job on this one.

It sure is a hard game, albeit there's a lot of replay value in it. Sure, some parts of the game (like the bosses) you might want to forget about. But other than that, it's great. It's fun, has a lot of humor in it and features both easy and hard bits. You collect ”tortilla chips” in each level to unlock the boss level. The reason I call them ”tortilla chips” is basically because they look like tortilla chips. The game ”flows” and it's easy to figure out where to go and such. It sure was frustrating at times but the Halloween feeling compensated a bit.
So don't get me wrong, it's a ridiculously fun game. If you're either a fan of platformers, Donald Duck or video games you'll surely love this. It features challenge and entertainment. What more could you possibly want from a game? A good storyline? Good graphics? Good music? Luckily for you, it features all three.

Storyline
There's a storyline in this one, folks! And a pretty good one at that. I just have to say that it's very well written. It's funny, it's quirky and it's cool. The introduction is great. You get to see Donald, Gladstone Gander and Gyro Gearloose watching TV. The reporter on the TV, which is Daisy, is inside Merlock's temple. Merlock then notices Daisy and kidnaps her. Your quest is to rescue her before Gladstone does. There's nothing advanced or innovative about the story, but it's still charming and funny.

Graphics
As I said before, it features good graphics. Better than good, the graphics are great. Even though it has a cartoon feel to the graphics, they still look great. I can't really tell you how or why. The animations are fluid; the characters are well designed and look like they should; the more important textures are in a higher resolution and this was rare in console games in 2000; Donald's animations he makes while standing completely still are really funny and cute and the level designs are creative. Although, they are repetitive. Each level follows this kind of pattern. It doesn't matter if it's easy or hard, it still follows the same pattern through out the entire level. The same enemies and the same holes where you can die 24 times. But all the levels look great and still pleases the eye, which is a problem with Playstation games and Nintendo 64 games. Oh god, the games for those systems look horrible. I got Rayman feelings while playing the levels with the side-scrolling view and Super Mario 64 feelings (I don't know why it's always this plague of a game) while playing the third-person levels. Yes, it's a hybrid, people! Give UbiSoft some credits for this. They sure deserve it.

Sound
I also said that it features good music. Why would I lie to you guys? You're my homies. Right? No, it doesn't have any hip hop music in it but there's some scary music in the Halloween world. The music is good through out the whole game. It sure fits the environment in the levels. It makes such a difference.

Fun fact: they reused the sound in this game for the GameBoy Advance version. Same thing goes for the level design.

Conclusion
Another great Disney game. This time on the mighty Dreamcast. As I said before, if you like video games, you'll love this. You might want to pull your hair while playing it but just stack up on some extra life in the first two worlds and you'll be fine. It's fun, it features great graphics, great music and Donald Duck!

9.0/10