Quackshot es el primer juego protagonizado por el pato Donald para la Sega Mega Drive (MD), fue desarrollado por SEGA y lanzado en 1991.
En este juego de plataformas, encarnaremos al pato Donald que emprende su marcha en busca de un fabuloso tesoro sobre el que ha leído en los libros del Tío Gilito. A lo largo del juego viajaremos por todo el mundo (Egipto, Transilvania, un barco Vikingo etc.) consiguiendo varios objetos y mejoras que nos permitirán finalmente encontrar el tesoro.
El diseño de niveles creo que es adecuado, los del principio mas imples y los del final un poco más complicados. Además, tendremos tanto fases lineales como otras tipo mazmorra, y el juego nos llama ir cambiado entre niveles para seguir avanzando en la historia. A pesar de ello la mecánica principal de ir con una pistola disparando desatascadores de baño no me ha enganchado tanto, me parece que los controles y físicas de Donald tendrían que ser un poco distintas para poder disfrutarlo más. Por otra parte, tengo que admitir que algunas de las últimas fases tienen segmentos calcados a ciertas películas de Indiana Jones, y que eso me ha dibujado una sonrisa en la cara.
El apartado sonoro está bien, con tres o cuatro temas destacables, poco más que añadir en este apartado.
El apartado visual es generalmente bastante detallado, siendo uno de los primeros juegos de Disney para la MD, SEGA se ha asegurado de hacer algo que sería imposible de hacer un hardware de 8-bits. Aún así, he notado que las animaciones no tienen tantos fotogramas como en juegos posteriores de 8-bits que SEGA lanzó para Sega Master System. No puedo evitar compararlo con el World of Illusion, el cual también tiene menos fotogramas en las animaciones, pero creo que los key-frames están mejor que en este juego. Mención especial a las serpientes y el tigre que apareces, los cuales son claramente Kaa y Shere Khan de Mowgli, me ha gustado que apareciesen.
En resumen, Quackshot es un juego que se desmarca bastante de los otros plataformas de Disney de la época, gracias a su mecánica de la pistola lanza ventosas, pero por algún motivo no he conectado tanto con el gameplay como con otros títulos de Donald o Mickey.

It took me over 20 years to finally sit down and play this through to the very end, and it was fun!

I've got to say, at least on a personal level, that the Sega Genesis will always be, for me, the system with the best-looking games ever, at least if we are talking about pixel art. There's something just so charming about its very limited yet extremely versatile color palette. This, the Illusion games, Sparkster, Dynamite Headdy, Beyond Oasis, Thunder Force IV, and Sonic 3, among many others, will forever be the peak of how video games can and should look.

While I was looking for a longplay on this game to solve a puzzle that I couldn't figure out, I read one comment that said, "Graphics never got any better than this," and I can definitely agree with that statement.

Your main weapon, the plunger gun, is such a cool idea; you can stack them up against a wall and use them to climb, or stick them into an enemy and grab the handle of a plunger to use them to ride on them... I just wish it was implemented in more ways, as it feels like there are so many unexplored possibilities, and that's my overall biggest complaint with the game; as fun as it is, it feels a bit simplistic in its design.

Levels feel kind of bland towards the middle of the game, with Maharajah and the South Pole being the best examples of this, and that's what's stopping me from giving it a higher ranking, as well as the fact that some bosses have very finicky hit boxes and can be a pain. You just feel like the game is trying to give you a hard time for no reason other than to annoy you.

The ending is silly, and I loved it, and the music is fantastic—not the best in the vast Genesis catalog, but still up there.

But yeah, other than those two complaints, I loved it, and I already see myself playing it many, many more times in the future.

QuackShot, a classic platformer game from the 90s, offers a thrilling adventure that will make you feel like you're in an Indiana Jones movie. As a fan of Tomb Raider and Ducktales, I was immediately drawn to this game, and I'm pleased to say that it still holds up even after all these years. Playing as Donald, who takes on the role of Indiana Jones, you embark on a quest to find a treasure that you've discovered through a map. The game allows for non-linearity through multiple location options, creating an exciting and globetrotting experience. From Indian temples to the bustling city and Transylvania, there's never a dull moment. The weapons offered in the game add another layer of excitement. With various options to choose from, including a plunger gun, the gameplay is diverse and immersive. While the overall mechanics are relatively simple, the game keeps you engaged with different ways to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. The sound design is also noteworthy. The Sega Genesis sound chip offers a range of dynamic and memorable songs that add to the game's ambience. Overall, QuackShot offers a charming and thrilling experience that any gamer, whether they're a fan of classic or modern games, will appreciate.

Marcou minha infância pra cacete, inclusive um dos meus primeiros traumas foi nesse jogo. A penúltima fase é um saco, eu lembro da vez quando finalmente passei ela pela primeira vez, fiquei feliz pra caramba, pena que assim que comecei o último nível a minha TV queimou, e né, não tinha como salvar. Só lembro que chorei muito, triste.

Graças a essa infelicidade acabei nunca zerando na infância, então por pura saudade estou revisitando o jogo agora, e ele continua bom pra cacete, é simplesmente lindo, a movimentação do Donald é super divertida e as mecânicas do desentupidor são bem legais, mas pena que o sistema de temperamento do Donald é bem deixado de lado e raramente aparece alguma oportunidade de usá-lo, parece que inseriram perto do fim do desenvolvimento só pra ter algo a mais.

A vibe de aventura é muito bacana ala Indiana Jones, tem uns puzzles bacaninhas e até vira Castlevania em uma fase, o que mais preciso dizer?

sega's genesis output mainly reflected the company's arcade-first approach: high difficulty and constant action that rewarded bombastic setpieces over longer runtimes. industry tides were changing however, and some developers took notice. while this game's predecessor - castle of illusion - hewed close to an linear level-by-level structure, quackshot opts to open up the map by incorporating some light adventure game elements. each stage has a checkpoint where donald can call his biplane and warp back to the map, with the option to return to that checkpoint at any time once it has been placed. generally some special inventory item or power-up is needed to progress past the checkpoint in each level, and so exploring all of the available levels is necessary to suss out the correct chain of events required to progress. it doesn't approach full-on metroidvania design, as each level is still just a straight-ish path towards the end, and areas are segmented via the world map, but it attempts to incorporate those ideas in a way that remains congruent with sega's house style, and imo succeeds at doing so. no needless backtracking or confusion exists here: the adventure game elements work to create a regular platforming adventure piecemeal from segments of each level.

donald is lovingly rendered with a bold and large sprite, and this excellent graphical fidenlity extends to some highly-layered parallax backgrounds and cartoonish enemy designs, all bursting with color even with the genesis's limited palette. donald's moveset revolves around a family-friendly gun that mainly shoots plungers, which immobilize enemies and make them intangible for a period. these plungers are quickly upgraded to stick to walls and act as temporary platforms as well as providing a way to hang on ceilings over certain obstacles. as area layouts get more complex, this method of traversal adds plenty of interesting wrinkles to obstacle avoidance, especially when combined with donald's slide that quickly gives him quite a bit of speed. donald also has access to a corn-pop-powered spread shot with limited ammo, as well as an exploding bubble upgrade that allows certain blocks and barrels to be blown open. donald has a pseudo-run that does not seem to speed him up normally but allows him to surmount slopes in a rather odd and probably unnecessary move, and when given enough chili peppers he can zoom off in an invincible rage. this latter mechanic is rather underutilized, since the peppers appear so sparingly. while donald has more than enough tools to get around easily, his sprite's size and his overall slipperiness can make him cumbersome, especially when it comes to avoiding enemies that do not go down quickly with the plunger. simply jumping over foes is a lot easier said than done given that they are also generally as large if not larger than donald, making damage boosting generally the best strategy in many cases, especially since health pickups are plentiful.

overall level design is breezy and snappy, with little to impede your overall flow beyond the occasional cycle-based platforms. infinite continues make this one of the more playable old-school sega titles, though late in the game the sparse checkpoints and low life count will likely make you reach for an infinite lives cheat or save states, like I ended up doing. these later areas attempt a number of different interesting concepts, but tend to fumble the execution in one way or another. blind jumps into damage or instant-death become more common, and are generally placed in such a way that you're intended to fall afoul of them at least once, much to my chagrin. there are also a few areas that explore other methods of movement, such as riding underneath a bird or in a mine cart. these are rather janky and feature no lenience: one mistake will always mean a death, which is especially annoying in the mine cart areas where donald does not retain momentum from the cart when he jumps and thus feels postively leaden in the air transferring from cart to cart. some of the other experiments bear little fruit as well, such as a plodding underwater section, an interesting haunted castle section with secret paths from area to area bogged down by near undodgeable swarms of ghosts, and a superfluous labryinth. the final section has some particularly annoying platforming sections, including one with platforms that move out at diagonals from a single point, which donald struggles to stay on when they all come out at once, and an exceedingly cruel final section involving unevenly-spaced invisible platforms that only appear after you've already jumped. still, I can appreciate the variety in setpieces across the game, with only a select few being reused in later levels. the bosses are all uniformly good as well, with an appreciable level of nuance to approaching each for a game of this era.

while I admire a lot about this game, the level design could benefit from being significantly less punitive and callous towards the player at points. given the relatively lax difficulty for the majority of the experience, it's obvious that certain areas were intended solely to suck up player time with trial-and-error segments that will send them back to checkpoints repeatedly. regardless, the focus on an adventure-lite take on a character action platformer does a lot to make the game feel less boxed-in, and it's hard to argue that this isn't one of the prettiest titles around the midpoint of the genesis's life. it's short enough to warrant a try, especially if you're a fan of this team's work on castle of illusion.

I loved this game for the longest time but after my 4th or so run its cracks started becoming a lot more noticable.

It captures a fun sense of adventure and has great presentation and art direction but the level design has a lot of despicable spots. There's some fun movement to be had with Donald's slides and wall plungers but it feels like every level falls into the MM9 trap of being generally easy but having 1 or 2 parts that are complete bullshit and just tedious to engage with. Even after beating the game thrice in the past, I still got a lot of game overs just from me wanting to play at a faster pace and getting screwed over by gotcha moments. If anything, these moments would be more tolerable if the game just gave you more lives. With how big levels can be, it sucks to have to repeat 5 minutes worth of content just to re-attempt the spot that gave me trouble.

My nostalgia for this game's positive elements keeps me from considered it 'poorly-designed' but it's something I can only recommend if you go in with a gamegenie code for infinite lives or savestates. Fun but insanely flawed.

It was oooooookay!

I like that I’m playing a game about Donald going on a world traveling adventure, it looks and sounds nice… but man, it takes lots of cheap shots. Lots of annoying enemy patterns, and that Palace maze level!

So it was frustrating, but it was alright, I guess. I love Donald Duck, so I was hoping I’d like it more, but ah well. Not terrible!

Esse é um daqueles games que consigo entender o motivo de ser considerado um dos classicos e um dos melhores do mega drive e quem sabe dos 16 bits, bonito graficamente, boas músicas e efeitos, uma boa ideia de conseguir itens para ir desbloquenado as fases, mas, a gameplay em si não me divertiu tanto, o level design das fases não envelheceu tão bem, ainda utilizam muita memorização do jogador para avançar, existem diversos momentos de "pulo de fé" onde pulamos ou avançamos no desconhecido, além de, em diversas vezes ficar preso no jogo por não entender o que fazer, mas enfim, é um bom jogo, pessoalmente não achei tudo aquilo que falam mas jogue para conhecer este game, não é tempo perdido.

"Are you a hero?"
"I'm trying to be a hero."

There are once-beloved games from my youth I now dismiss. Radical Rex, Virtual Bart, The Ren & Stimpy Show presents: Stimpy's Invention... rubbish for the landfill. Somehow, QuackShot endures.

Younger folk may not know this, but cartoon licences used to be a bit of a ruse. Butter up some big American studio with your best spritework, and you could go wild with a (relative to independent projects of the time) huge budget. Don't forget, Donkey Kong was originally proposed as a Popeye game. This doesn't mean you're getting quality if you buy any pre-96 Disney game, but if it's from a studio like Capcom, Konami or Sega, you've probably got something to look forward to.

I think the thing in QuackShot that makes it special for me is that it's the first game I played that felt like a real adventure. I was a Mega Drive kid. I didn't have Metroid or Zelda back then. Sonic could reach the end of the level, James Pond could save Santa Claus, and the men in World Cup Italia '90 could score a goal (theoretically), but they didn't explore the world. Donald Duck visits diverse, exotic locations, from MEXICO to EGYPT to TRANSYLVANIA to VIKING SHIP. Each new environment is distinct, richly atmospheric and full of their own one-off ideas.

QuackShot is something of a light Metroidvania, really. Each level is separated by a world map, and you can visit each destination on it in whatever order you choose. Some levels are fairly flat action stages, full of obstacles and enemies to traverse, while others are huge dungeons, scrolling upwards, downwards, left and right as you try and figure out their traps and puzzles. Sometimes you'll come to a dead end where an NPC will tell you about the item they're looking for, and you'll go back to the map to figure out where you might find it. Coming back with a new weapon or piece of equipment can feel as exciting and liberating as any Varia Suit upgrade. QuackShot has far more going on than just about any other cartoon game.

Turning on QuackShot is a commitment. There's no saving, no passwords. Just Donald Duck and the Planet Earth. There's limited health, a very irritating continue system and unreliable power-up distribution. It takes nerves, skill and patience to make it across these hallowed grounds.

The game looks great, following up on the standards set by Castle of Illusion. They've drawn distinct backgrounds for each area in a level, and they're fun, evocative and lovely. The Disney style guide has been thoroughly consulted for character designs, with snakes and killer whales clearly inspired by Kaa and Monstro. It's all through multiple layers of specific offshot weirdness, though. This is largely based on old Donald Duck adventure comics (that I'm only kind-of aware of), reimagined as an Indiana Jones parody, and explored by early 90s Sega developers. There's deadly speakerphones that shoot out the word "BOOM" in balloon letters, and a "Viking Plunger" you can shoot to grab onto birds flying overhead. When I speak of my fondness for QuackShot, it's not through affection for any of the media that surrounds it. It's very specifically targetted at this one, stupid Mega Drive game.

Donald Duck has a gun. He can shoot to kill. That's only if he has the right ammo, though. Your default plunger shot only stuns most enemies. The popcorn ammo spreads out like a shotgun blast, decimating any buzzards or Petes in its wake. He also has a Temper Meter that's always on the screen. It rarely gets much use, though. When he swallows an entire chilli pepper (he is a duck), one of the Calm Donald Heads on the meter turns into a red ANGRY DONALD HEAD. Get five ANGRY DONALD HEADS and he goes ballistic, rampaging through all in his path with furious punches, and weirdly floating up to the top of any walls that block him. Such is the nature of his blind fury. This heavily foreshadowed mechanic is only utilised twice in the entire game, but I like that. QuackShot doesn't do any one idea too much.

Well, perhaps the Maharajah's Palace is too much.

That's the "Water Temple" of QuackShot. The part of the game you feel like you could only reasonably force your way through once in your life, but is always a mandatory part of the otherwise beloved game. Throughout the palace are multiple numbered doors. The numbers don't tell you which room is on the other side, but which room you're in, so they're more of a confusing abstraction than a helpful place marker. Do so much as clip one, and Donald will insist on walking through it, entering another room. Through trial and error, you must figure out which sequence of doors will lead you to the boss, all while your precious popcorn ammo depletes, taking on the many enemies you'll face countless times as you're spawned back at the start of your trail. Get lucky, or devote a special part of your brain to memorising the sequence from a previous playthrough, and you can get through the palace in a couple minutes. I have spent hours in the Maharajah's Palace before. The fully Calm Temper Meter constantly at the bottom of the screen, only to mock me. If you can overcome all this, you'll reach the firebreathing tiger boss. Better hope you saved some popcorn shots, because he is a right fucking bastard to kill with the plunger. I wish you the very best of luck if you attempt this challenge.

The game does have its fair share of aggravating nonsense beyond that (top tip: if you reach a dead end puzzle with no clear solution, remember to LOOK at your inventory), but we're in 1991 Mega Drive territory here. Have you actually tried getting through one of those old Shinobi games recently? This is relatively kind, and it's worth it for the consistently great art, music, setpieces and amusing leaps in logic. Zip lining on the electricity cables at the end of Duckburg remains thrilling for me. It holds a unique significance in my personal history with games, but I'd cautiously suggest it holds up for new players with a taste for this era of Sega. Maybe give it a go? Just make sure you've reset your Temper Meter before you come looking for me afterwards.

I know there's some that find the game meh but idk I'm a sucker for early Disney platformers and this one is pretty charming, like its related counterpart Castle of Illusion. It's short too so it doesn't overstay its welcome. I'd say the levels, music and bosses are a bit more bland compared to the ones in Castle of Illusion but the items and mechanics are far better in this game. Also it has a bit of a story which is nice. Definitely worth a try if you love platformers. Plus I love Donald Duck a ton so I'm biased