Darkwing Duck (NES Review)

Darkwing Duck
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developed by Capcom
First Released June, 1992
Included in The Disney Afternoon Collection

You can hang from certain platforms and use your cape to block certain projectiles. Well, that totally makes up for being a bland Mega Man knock-off with mediocre-at-best level design and forgettable bosses.

I suppose I just spoiled my opinion of Darkwing Duck in its entirety in the very first caption. I didn’t grow up with the property, as it was off the air soon after I turned 3 years old. But hell, I didn’t grow up with DuckTales or Rescue Rangers either, and I liked those games just fine. The difference is those stand on their own AND hold up to the test of time. And then there’s Darkwing Duck, which is a low rent Mega Man, only without any of the elements that made Mega Man popular and timeless. Instead of collecting a variety of fun weapons from beating bosses, you can only carry one secondary weapon at a time, and they’re found just laying around the stages. They’re decent enough guns, I guess. One is a toilet plunger bullet that sticks to walls, creating a platform. One explodes on the ground into small projectiles, and the third fires two bullets diagonally. That last one I found to be nearly worthless in the stages themselves, and overpowered when dealing with bosses. Go figure.

The Mega Man comparison wasn’t just based on this being a platform-shooter with a generic pea shooter. Even the enemies are close to Mega Man in design. These guys are functionally identical to Mega Man’s Sniper Joe enemies, right down to requiring multiple cycles of standing around and waiting for them to shoot again so you can attack. You’ll encounter other familiar reskins along the way.

Darkwing Duck really does try hard to have clever set pieces and utilize the hanging mechanic as often as possible. But, this is completely negated by spongy basic enemies that either take FOREVER to open themselves up to attack or are placed in a way where the hanging platform shoots just over them. They combine to give Darkwing Duck the slowest pace of the Disney Afternoon games. I get the impression that this was trying to be harder than previous Disney platformers on the NES, but the way they went about doing it was just about the least exciting way possible. Instead of being “harder” it’s more about waiting around and dodging a lot. The enemies became so boring to engage that, if skipping past them was an option, I usually took it.

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There’s seven levels in Darkwing Duck, but it feels like they ran out of ideas about three levels in. Levels one through three can be taken in any order, then the same goes for levels four through six. It doesn’t really help. Once you realize that, whether you’re hanging and shooting or running and shooting, the enemies are going to be placed in a way that assures you don’t have a clean shot at them, it doesn’t really matter what level you’re in. You might as well be fighting identical enemies for all the jumping and shooting you have to do. I don’t know a lot about Darkwing Duck, but the game needed more. Gadgets, a grappling hook, SOMETHING! None of that’s here. Do you know what is here? Banana peels, which temporarily stun you if you walk into one. This feels like a game that’s facepalming itself. When you have to use the hanging mechanic to avoid spikes, even that manages to be uninspired. I really walked away from Darkwing Duck feeling that Capcom was all gung-ho to make another awesome Disney Afternoon game, watched a season worth of episodes, and said “yea.. I’ve got nothing.”

You pretty much have to trial-and-error your way through figuring out which projectiles your cape actually blocks.

And then there’s the bosses, which are easily the most underwhelming in the Disney Afternoon. All but one utilize hanging from the platforms they jump around, and since that’s the primary mechanic that sets Darkwing Duck apart from most NES platformers, I suppose that should be a good thing. But, they’re dull encounters that lack the finality of a decent boss battle. They’re challenging enough, I guess. These were the only parts of the game I lost lives on. But all but one boil down to “use the platform/hook to hang and avoid projectiles.” Like with the placement of most basic enemies, the bosses are just short enough for your basic pea shooter bullets to fly over their heads while hanging, so you actually have to let go and put yourself in the line of fire to also get a viable shot off. That is, unless you have the double diagonal shot, which completely nerfs the fights. I started taking it for granted that was the weapon I wanted when I figured I was reaching the end of a stage. Then I got to the final boss, who is angled in a way that the gun I was used to working with isn’t that effective. After losing a pair of lives to him, I made a beeline for the upper left hook and ended his first phase in about five seconds with the basic pea shooter. His second phase was probably the easiest boss in the game. So easy, in fact, that I didn’t even bother getting the life refill he dropped.

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Much like other games in the Disney Afternoon “franchise” I’m sure the enemies are references to characters from the TV series. I’m guessing this killed with fans of the TV series in 1992. But, it’s not 1992 anymore, and I’m not remotely a fan of Darkwing Duck. Maybe if I had been, I would have been charmed instead of bored for most of the experience. Like most Disney games from Capcom, it looks great. Nice sprite work. That’s all Dee-Dubbya has going for it. It’s easily the worst of the Disney Afternoon games. At least Talespin had some memorable boss encounters. Darkwing Duck doesn’t even have that going for it. The most memorable aspect of it for me was a basic enemy that seems to have been a satire of the Terminator, and even that gag is run into the ground by being too spongy and giving it a third form that was essentially an automatic point of damage against me. There’s a reason why nobody was clamoring for a remake of this from Wayforward. DARKWING SUCKS! Let’s get monotonous!
Verdict: NO!

Darkwing Duck later died of injuries sustained during his game’s ending.