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You'll QUACK Up Trying To Play This Game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a review of this product: Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers (PlayStation 2 video game). Amazon may display this review on the page of another version of this product, for which this review may not apply. After reading this review, please click on the link so that you can be assured that the product this review applies to is the same one you thought it was for.

(This is a review that I originally wrote on 10/30/2002)
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Besides the Playstation 2, this game was also released on the Playstation, the PC, the GameCube, the Gameboy Color, the Dreamcast, and finally the Nintendo 64. I would suspect that the review I'm about to write would apply to all versions of this game, or most of them at least.

STORY

Simply put ... Daisy has been kidnapped by the evil Merlock and it's up to Donald Duck to rescue her.

GAMEPLAY

The game is essentially a corridor platformer ala Scooby-Doo & The Cyber Chase for the Playstation (or the Crash Bandicoot games, from what I've heard). There are a few areas (or worlds, or whatever you want to call them), each with a few stages. The first one or two stages heads away from the camera. The third is essentially a side-view, like a standard 2-D platformer. The fourth goes towards the camera with a giant hand chasing you (if it catches up to you and touches you, you're dead). The fifth is the boss stage.

I have no problems with corridor platformers, or platformers of ANY kind. However, this one just sucks! I can't keep track of the number of times I've died because what I thought was solid land was a cliff I couldn't see. To make matters worse, you're given a two hit kill (as opposed to the standard 3 hit kill of most platformers). The first hit makes you "Angry Donald" the second hit kills you. The little Donald face in the corner that shows his "mood" doesn't help to let you know how close he is to dying. Why couldn't they have had a simple two "piece" display that goes down a piece when he's hit? (I hope you can understand what I'm trying to explain.) Of course, checkpoints are far and few between, which makes dying and restarting even MORE annoying! Plus, you have a timer to content with. If you don't reach the end before the time counts zero, it's the end of you. Timers on a platform game are murder since they discourage patience and exploration - two keys to enjoying a platformer. You can forget about finding any of the secrets with a timer around.

As if all that wasn't enough to make the game bad, listen to what you have to do to pull off a special move:

1. Grab 5 gears in less than 1 second to get a letter of the world SPECIAL. Do this 7 times to get the entire word and earn a special move.

2. To perform the special move you bounce off 3 enemies in a row without touching the ground. Each bounce will light up a light bulb on the display.

3. When all 3 bulbs are lit (after the third consecutive bounce), you have to quickly (before touching the ground) press either R1 or Triangle.

4. Donald will then freeze in mid-air, at which time you have 3 seconds to enter the 5 button combo for the special move you want to do.

Of course, "Angry Donald" can't perform a special move. You must be "Happy Donald" (Normal) or "Hyper Donald" (one step above Happy, but still with a 2 hit kill) in order to do them. And since all the odds are stacked against you already, it should be no surprise that special moves can't be done in a boss level.

And the benefit of performing a special move? Donald will be invincible for a short period of time and gears will value more during this period. BIG FREAKIN' WHOOP! If I'm gonna do all that for a stinkin' special move, I want it to kill all the enemies on the board and give me easy sailing to the end.

AUDIO & VIDEO

This is the only area in which the game is good. The visuals look pretty good, though the characters look a bit strange during the 3-D cutscenes. They could have made a bit better transformation from the 2-D cartoon to the 3-D game world.

The sounds are even better as all of the original current voices are present: Tony Anselmo as Donald, Tress MacNeille as Daisy, June Foray as Magica De Spell, etc.

REPLAYABILITY

The game doesn't even have playability, so forget about RE-playability! I quit playing in the middle of the second world/area ... and I only made it that far thanks to a CodeBreaker code for infinite time.

TO BUY OR RENT?

Avoid at all costs!

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