Dreamcast Game #27: Donald Duck: Goin’ Quackers

Just around two years before Kingdom Hearts, we’ll be reviewing another Dreamcast game called Donald Duck: Goin’ Quackers (Donald Duck: Quack Attack in Europe)! It was released in late 2000 by French video game giant Ubisoft (written as “Ubi Soft” at the time) along with its subsidiaries. This game also has a PlayStation port, a PlayStation 2 port, a Nintendo 64 port, a Game Boy Color port, a Windows PC port (released in late summer 2001), a Game Boy Advance port, and a GameCube port (released in spring 2002).

The game was conceptualized by Ubi Soft Montreal in a collaboration with Disney Interactive as an homage to Disney comic book artist Carl Barks, who died in 2000. Different Ubisoft studios developed different versions for multiple consoles. These versions differ with their own levels and music. This game (which uses the Rayman 2 engine for the N64, Dreamcast, PS1, and the PC) was never released in Japan, despite Japan having Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea (the latter opened in spring 1983, while the former opened in September 2001) theme parks. The score for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and GameCube versions was composed by Shawn K. Clement, while the music for the PC, Dreamcast, and Nintendo 64 versions was composed by Daniel Masson. The Game Boy Color version contains a modified, downgraded version of Daniel Masson’s composition.

In this game, the player takes the role of Donald Duck (“Pato Donald” in European/Latin American Spanish and European/Brazilian Portuguese, “Paolino Paperino” in Italian, “Aku Ankka” in Finnish, among other languages depending on the country you live in), who later makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts. Goin’ Quackers’s gameplay is very similar to that of Crash Bandicoot and requires the player to move through various settings in 24 levels in four warp rooms. The four-level themes are Duckie Mountain, Duckburg, Magica De Spell’s Manor, and Merlock’s Temple. Donald Duck has to dodge various enemies and obstacles throughout the levels and defeat bosses at the end of each warp room. There are also bonus levels where Donald Duck has to outrun a bear, a truck with an evil face, a ghost hand, and a statue head, respectively. The viewpoint of the levels can change between a 2D side-scrolling perspective and a 3D perspective. Re-doing the levels to defeat Gladstone’s time in same, gives the player advantages in the game.

The player has four lives that can increase by finding special items. Each life gives Donald two opportunities to be touched by the enemy, the first time is touched, he becomes angry and throws berserk at the enemies, and the second time (in the case of some levels, falls into a bottomless chasm, or in the case of the levels in Merlock’s Temple, falls into the lava pit), he loses a life. Donald can also unlock new outfits, which alter cutscenes and idle animations (such as Donald taking photos of the place if he is dressed like a tourist).

Goin’ Quackers begins with Donald Duck, Gladstone Gander, and Gyro Gearloose watching television reporter Daisy Duck discovering the mysterious temple of the evil magician Merlock. As she tells the story, she is kidnapped by Merlock. His arch-rival Gladstone sets out to find her before Donald, who decides to use Gyro’s new invention, the “Tubal Teleport System”, to track down Merlock and Daisy. However, the machine doesn’t have enough power to get there and for it to reach Merlock’s lair, Donald must go on a journey to plant an antenna at certain locations to boost the machine’s power. Along the way, he must compete with Gladstone, reverse the spells that Merlock put on Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s toys, and defeat several bosses, including the Beagle Boys and Magica De Spell. In the end, Donald is able to locate Merlock, he defeats him and rescues Daisy. The temple collapses, but Gyro is able to teleport them back to his lab, where Donald receives a good kiss from Daisy for rescuing her.

This game features the returning voice talents of Tony Anselmo, Tress MacNeille, June Foray (deceased 2017/07/26), and Russi Taylor (deceased 2019/07/26). I also had that video game on the Dreamcast, and this video game has received mixed to positive reviews.

And that’s the Dreamcast game. I hope you enjoy the…

… Okay, what’s so funny? Come on already!

That’s the Dreamcast game, and see you next weekend, once again.

Samurai Cory out.