Collection essentials #49: Disney's DuckTales (NES)


Another Capcom Disney game. DuckTales was, perhaps surprisingly, Capcom’s best-selling game on the NES, and it has a reputation as one of the best platformers on the console. You play as Scrooge McDuck traversing several levels in search of treasure. The game has a non-linear structure, as you can pick any of the five levels when you start the game, and you’ll sometimes have to revisit old levels, and you’re also highly encouraged to explore everything in the levels in search for more treasure. Scrooge has a fun attack where he can hold his cane down in the air to defeat enemies by bouncing off their heads. The game is also famous for having a very good soundtrack, with the song for the moon level being particularly revered.


DuckTales (not the pictured copy) was one of the first NES games I owned when I finally got one as a young teenager, but I guess it came at the wrong time, because it didn’t really click with me back then and at some point I must have sold it. Even playing it now I’m weirdly not very good at it, and I still haven’t beaten the game. So I don’t have a lot of personal history to it, but it’s still an iconic NES game that I consider essential. 

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