I wasn’t expecting Ducktales Remastered in the slightest. I even did a little cartoonish double take when I saw the poster hanging up near the Capcom booths. I found out about it just a little bit too late to play it, unfortunately, but I did manage to squeeze in some time watching people play it and talked to some of the reps. This isn’t just some cheap HD remake, either, but a complete recreation using the game as a reference point.
All of the familiar controls look to be intact, which is awesome. I loved using the cane as a pogo stick in the original game, and it’s great to see it coming back here. I always found the attack more compelling than just jumping on heads like in most platformers. It was also handy to traverse difficult terrain and allowed for some neat movement, so hopefully we’ll see more of that in this game.
Beyond controls, the areas are all inspired by the levels of the previous game, but have been greatly expanded. I noticed a map that looks like it was right out of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night; something that tells me just how huge the game might be when it’s done. If a single level is that big, it promises to be a pretty huge game in the long run.
Holey moley, this game looks gorgeous. I wouldn’t be surprised if the developers had gotten their hands on some of the animation cells of the original cartoon series, because the in-game characters all look and move like the show. It’s like watching a moving cartoon when you see these characters. The backgrounds all seemed to have been rendered in 3D, but it’s the characters and enemies that just look great. Can’t wait to see them in action.
I thought I heard the original voice of Scrooge McDuck over the din on the show floor, but I thought my imagination was just getting away from me. As it turns out, they managed to get all of the voice actors from the show to reprise their roles, right on down to Alan Young playing Scrooge. I’m somehow always shocked that Disney can find all of their voice actors after all these years, and I’m really pleased to see that they’ll all be back here. Given how the game looks like an interactive episode of the show, I think the original voices are really going to make the game stand out.
Finally, let’s all get to the real important part: the money bin. You can swim in it. I can’t even describe how I’m feeling as I write those words. That was the stupid, ridiculous dream of every child growing up watching that show. As you play the game and collect treasures you’ll be able to do just that, diving deep into piles of coins that should shatter your skull on contact and just swimming along through them. It’s absurd, probably just something to do as a silly diversion, and absolutely nails the game’s appeal.
If they’re willing to put in trivial aspects like that, aspects that aren’t especially necessary from a gameplay perspective, then I think they’re really going to create an excellent experience here. This is the sort of quality of work I’ve come to expect from Wayforward, though, and I’m not really surprised that they’re displaying an attention to detail that shows they love the source material and can draw inspiration from it. Its release date seriously can’t come soon enough for me.
