My friend Tonya, lifelong duck aficionado, chose this for our little game club this month. Well, they picked the console game specifically but I duked and went for the handheld tie-in, and I don’t regret it.
Quack Attack has a release hostory I’d call a “saga”. It’s basically a Crash Bandicoot clone by Ubisfot on the Rayman 2 engine, and much like Rayman 2 many of its console ports have a bunch of differences despite being more or less the same game. Also like Rayman 2, it had a 2D “version” on the GBC (plus a later GBA game, but don’t worry about that for now). I was drawn to the GBC one since I loved Rayman 1 & 2 on GBC, with their lovely little sprites, and this is also in the same engine as those.
Tonya informs me that this particular release is more faithful to the Italian duck comics world in terms of character designs, which fits with it being made by an Italian branch of Ubisoft. Much like my experience with Ducktales Remastered, my ignorance of that universe didn’t really stop me enjoying the game.
On first glance, this is a fairly straightforward 2D platformer. Our hero Donald can jump and double jump (woo!), and that’s about it. He can take two hits, the first changing his posture from a cheerful gait to an upset state, as well as muting the melody line of the soundtrack in a nice touch. His other ability, to get mad and smash things, is contextually activated by powerups placed strategically in the levels. In this mode he gets his health restored, is invincible, runs faster, can break down doors, and smash through certain floors. This is, I understand, thematically true to the character, and as the game progresses it’s used more and more for clever puzzle-platforming opportunities.
Indeed the complexity of the design changes by world. The forest is a pleasant romp; the city (Duckburg) becomes quite inventive at using the environs in its challenges; Magica’s manor gets quite puzzley indeed; and the jungley temple ruins are a brutal gauntlet of traps. There’s even a bonus world for getting all the hidden blueprints in each level: a crystal-filled alien dimension, recalling Phaaze or Xen.
The game’s not long and throws plenty of lives at you, but does get quite difficult at times and the hitboxes can be tricky. The final boss especially is a real pain in the tuckus. But using my handy-dandy emulator features I was able to clock it in a couple of evenings. I was particularly impressed by the level designs. Although two of the themes were reminiscent of the aforementioned Ducktales, Quack Attack GBC goes a lot further with making intricate and interesting interactive stages, and is utterly charming to boot. You could say it’s… quacktacular.