Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers

Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers
256px North American box art
Developer(s)	Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Milan
Publisher(s)	Ubi Soft Entertainment
Distributor(s)	Disney Interactive
Composer(s)	Shawn K. Clement
Platforms	Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance Windows PlayStation Nintendo 64 Dreamcast PlayStation 2 GameCube
Release date(s)	October 19, 2000 Game Boy Color Microsoft Windows PlayStation Nintendo 64 Dreamcast PlayStation 2 Gamecube
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player

Donald Duck: Goin' Qu@ckers*, known as Donald Duck: Qu@ck Att@ck in Europe, is a platform game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Disney Interactive for various consoles and Windows-based personal computers. A completely different game with the same title was released for the Game Boy Color, as well as on Game Boy Advance, the latter being given the title Donald Duck Advance.

The game's reception was mixed, with reviewers praising the music, backgrounds, and animations, but criticizing the short length and the fact that it is mostly for the younger audience.

Gameplay

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 Ducky Mountain, Duckburg, Magica DeSpell'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 car, a dismembered hand, and a Moai statue, respectively. The viewpoint of the levels change from a 2D side-scrolling perspective to a 3D perspective. Re-doing the levels in order 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 live gives Donald two opportunities to be touched by the enemy, the first time is touched he became angry and throws berserk to the enemies, the second time, he loses a life. Donald also can get suits to move around the scenes and also some animations can be done if the player stops moving Donald (such as Donald taking photos of the place if he is dressed like a tourist).

Plot

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 to make the machine working again, Donald must go on a journey to restore power to the machine. 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 kiss from Daisy for saving her.

Development

The PS2 version of the game was developed in 2000 by Ubisoft Montreal in a collaboration with Disney Interactive as a homage to Carl Barks, who died the same year. The Nintendo 64, Dreamcast, PC and PS1 versions of the game are built on an optimized Rayman 2 engine. The score for Goin' Quackers was composed by Shawn K. Clement. The Nintendo 64 version is completely original from the PS2 version, those consoles being too different ; the N64 version was developed in Casablanca (Morocco) and is known as the first console video game made on the African continent.

Donald Duck Advance

Donald Duck Advance is a re-release of the original game for Game Boy Advance. The game was also developed and published by Disney Interactive and Ubisoft, respectively. It was released December 15, 2001 in North America; November 16, 2001 in the PAL region; and December 21, 2001 in Japan. The game received an ESRB rating of E for Everyone and an ELSPA rating of ages 3 and up.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PS) 70.89% (N64) 70.29% (DC) 70.20% (GBA) 68.33% (PS2) 65.48% (PC) 62% (GC) 55.58% Metacritic (PS2) 73 out of 100 (DC) 71 out of 100 (PS) 65 out of 100 (N64) 65 out of 100 (GC) 61 out of 100 Review scores Publication Score AllGame (PS2) (GBA) EGM (GBC) 8 out of 10 6.5 out of 10 (DC) 5.5 out of 10 Famitsu 30 out of 40 Game Informer 7.5 out of 10 (PS & GC) 7 out of 10 GameSpot (GC) 6.2 out of 10 (PS2) 6 out of 10 5.9 out of 10 (DC) 5.5 out of 10 GameSpy 68% GameZone (PC) 9 out of 10 (GC) 6.2 out of 10 IGN (GBC) 8 out of 10 (DC) 7.2 out of 10 7 out of 10 (GBA) 6.5 out of 10 (N64) 6.4 out of 10 (GC) 5.2 out of 10 Nintendo Power (N64) 7.7 out of 10 (GBA) (GC) 2.9 out of 5 OPM (US) (PS2) (PS)

Goin' Quackers has received mixed reviews. Jon Thompson of Allgame reviewed the PlayStation 2 version and commented that although "it's an easy, competent game, it won't bother you while you're playing it because everything is so darned fun."

Gerald Villoria of GameSpot praised the Nintendo GameCube version's music, saying it was of solid quality with "uplifting" and "upbeat" melodies, but he criticized the game's short length.

IGN's Craig Harris lauded the Game Boy Color version's graphics, citing "stunning" character motions and "beautiful" backgrounds, although he also was dissatisfied with the length of the game.

Villoria also reviewed the Dreamcast version; he felt the CG sequences were "great", and that the character animations were "fluid" and "seamless". He also commented that the level designs were much more interesting than in the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo 64 versions. Although Villoria thought the Dreamcast and PlayStation versions were very similar, he felt the Dreamcast version suffered in terms of gameplay since it did not feature special moves.

Cory D. Lewis of IGN reviewed the Nintendo 64 version, commenting that the game is better suited for younger players and will bore older gamers. He also stated that despite the Nintendo 64 version reusing the optimized Rayman 2 engine, the visuals in Goin' Quackers could not compare to the same level of quality the engine provided a year ago. Moreover, he praised the "bright-colored" cartoon objects and animations.

The PlayStation version was reviewed by Adam Cleveland on IGN, who found the game to be "a lot of fun". He commented that the bosses were creative and fun, but that they were extremely simple and provided little challenge. He summed up the review by stating "Although it may be on the quick and easy side, it's got all the right stuff."

See also

• List of Disney video games

External links

• Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers at MobyGames