No gameplay mechanics jump to mind when you’re stuck with
making a title around a character with a speech impediment and a temper
problem, so what did Sega decide to go for? PLUNGERS. Yep, it really shows the inspiration
and possible substance abuse going on with Japan developers of the time, if
Virgin Interactive were told to make a Donald Duck game they’d probably give a
jetpack and minigun and make a Space Harrier clone.
Plungers actually turns out to be an inspired choice,
instead of brutalising his enemies like most cutesy kids games Donald opts for
the much more traditionally cartoon method of sticking a plunger on their faces
and running by. There are two other weapons in the form of bubbles and popcorn
which will remove enemies entirely but these have limited ammo giving an almost
Mega Man like sense of strategy to basic gameplay. Plungers can also be
upgraded to stick to walls and on the bellies of low flying girls allowing a
rather silly sounding idea to open up Quackshot
to all sorts of adventuring possibilities.
That’s the true secret to the good of Quackshot, it feels
like an adventure and it all feels very Indiana Jones. There’s non-linear world
map that works as a level select, in reality this is a lie as there’s only ever
one level Donald can beat at a time but all levels can be attempted until you
hit the checkpoint which will stop you if you don’t have the right item. Donald
can then call the airplane flown in by his young nephews which might have been
a misguided decision; you don’t want to be heading to the South Pole to find a
Viking diary only to have some kids smash the plane into some Easter Island
heads. The airplane allows you to leave levels at said checkpoints and also
return to those checkpoints when you return to the level with the correct item,
so Quackshot gives itself a larger adventure feel by having a lot of location
changes but doesn't do the typical retro thing of wasting large buckets of your
time by repeating levels.
Quackshot is a
surprisingly atmospheric too; outside levels feel large and fast to give a
sense of the environment and indoor areas have more concise platforming
challenges and feel a lot more claustrophobic. The music reflects this too,
catchy happy themes for the outside world, slow and moodier inside. Boss
battles are cool though, one character you meet will only give you an item you
need if you go through her labyrinth and fight her tiger so you beat it down
with your hardcore popcorn gun. There’s also a fight with a vampire duck which
is cooler than the one in the Ducktales game JUST SAYING.
There is something wonderful about playing Quackshot today, there’s constant
attempts to recreate the NES 8-bit style, and there’s a lot of games that come
out that resemble SNES style platformers, but Mega Drive games especially ones
like Quackshot are a lot more unique. There’s some about the electronic almost
DOS like sound effects and weird overall jankiness that comes from limitations
as opposed to artistic designs which will never be recreated again. Although a
lot of Mega Drive games have aged horribly, there’s an unique quality to them
that sucks in people’s nostalgia for old games, so the few genuinely really
good ones like Quackshot should
remain celebrated.
So there’s a lot to remember Quackshot for, besides having a pointless mechanic where Donald
eats a lot of peppers and goes on a killing rampage, perhaps the slowest and
worst water level in any game ever and some cheap platforming and cryptic
design towards the end, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable adventure to this day. Now
go and start petitioning for Quackshot Remastered,
I want to see the stains on those plungers in full high definition.
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