Developer: Ubisoft Casablanca, Disney Interactive Publisher: Ubisoft

Released: December 20, 2000 Rated: E 6/10

In spite of the smashing success of Crash Bandicoot, a series that further enabled Sony to compete against the stalwarts of Nintendo and Sega in the mid-‘90s, it’s surprising to see how few games attempted to really copy the style that developer Naughty Dog brought to the table. That being said, it tracks that one of the few games that eventually would try to recreate the unique mix of corridor-style and side-scrolling platforming, once referred to as the “Sonic’s ass game,” would be one featuring a character that doesn’t wear pants. 

Though Donald Duck doesn’t immediately come across as a classic gaming character in the days before Kingdom Hearts, it’s important to note his platforming prowess particularly on Sega platforms such as the 8-bit Lucky Dime Caper and Deep Duck Trouble, as well as his co-starring role alongside Mickey Mouse in World of Illusion on the Genesis. So it’s important to note when going into it that Donald does indeed have every bit the running and double jumping history that many of his friends and family do, not to mention the ability to, well, throw a bit of a wobbly, as he’s known to do, in an overall close, but more limited moveset to our established orange bandicoot mascot. And yes, while assessments of Goin’ Quackers may seem a bit too heavy on comparisons to the original Crash trilogy, it only takes a few minutes of seeing Donald in action to understand that that’s unquestionably what Ubisoft were aiming for here. 

Even the hub and formatting of your adventure mirrors the latter two Crash games, where you play Donald in a race to rescue girlfriend Daisy from the clutches of the evil wizard Merlock before rival Gladstone Gander can do so first. Using his friend Gyro Gearloose’s teleportation system, he travels to various locations from a warp room-like setting to search for more pieces of said warp system to further his reach, find his nephews’ toys, and make sure he can beat Gladstone’s times on each course for good measure. Levels are grouped by themes of forest, city, haunted house, and Mesoamerican temple, each with four regular levels, a boss fight, and a bonus chase stage that features Donald running toward the camera from some large threat like a bear or large stone. 

Even with the additional challenges of time trials or making sure you’ve collected each toy in a level for Huey, Dewey, or Louie, a mere 20 levels and four bosses, you can probably finish or even 100% Goin’ Quackers in less than a single afternoon. The short runtime also owes a lot to the fact that, as you might expect from a Disney game, particularly following prior efforts on the console like A Bug’s Life and Tarzan, it’s pretty easy and simple, aimed at a younger audience. And while it plays just fine for all that time, the fact that Goin’ Quackers isn’t doing anything special in its maybe four hour span is probably its biggest detriment. Unlike Crash, who both expands his moveset steadily throughout the course of his adventures and posits a major challenge level for completionists with intense bonus levels and cutthroat time trials, Donald’s adventure can mostly be handled on your first run, and revisited if you want to take on those pretty generous time trial challenges.

Thankfully, there aren’t a lot of complaints to be made in the control department, as Donald’s double jump is pretty effective and holds a wide margin for error. He also takes two hits to go down from enemies and enjoys pretty frequent checkpoints – the only need to replay levels is if you’re breezing through and forget to check every side route for the boss key, which can often be inconspicuous enough that they just slip your mind until you hop on the exit platform. The simplicity only makes things a bit drab because the easy design can often flirt with being boring, so the few mechanics at play can seem either pointless, like a milkshake that puts Donald on an invincible tear for the next five seconds or so, or his attack that turns him into a dust cloud of trademark Donald fury. It’s this latter moveset that I have a small complaint about, actually, as it doesn’t offer the same inherent sense of timing that Crash Bandicoot’s spin does, for example, but given that most enemies are just as susceptible to a Mario-esque head bounce, it doesn’t detract too much from the playability.

Your real mileage from Goin’ Quackers, of course, is ultimately going to come from its charm and license, which it does actually offer a good amount of if you’re familiar with the subset of characters. Using a lot of less obvious foes and acquaintances like Gearloose and Gladstone, alongside villains like the Beagle Boys and Magica de Spell for simple but classic-feeling boss fights, certainly delivers what Donald and Daisy can muster for fan service. The visual variety of the levels could have been a bit stronger, but by fitting each boss’s theme, it at least makes sense, and packs a good amount of visual charm where there’s room for it. The only real weak point in presentation is the music, which is passable, but is neither as jaunty as a classic Disney cartoon should allow, nor as melodic as a platformer can often deliver. It reminds me of a more full-bodied step up from the tunes of Blues Brothers 2000, where the MIDI instrumentation was in the right ballpark, but the composer practically psyched themselves out of going too hard in danger of taking away from the action.

Donald Duck: Goin’ Quackers is nothing too impressive. It wears its influence shamelessly and, unfortunately, is not the N64’s answer to DuckTales, no matter how many characters it shares. But it does have its fair share of charm and doesn’t make any big mistakes. A younger audience would certainly benefit from its gameplay, though the relative obscurity of the characters compared to other Disney properties limits its appeal for that audience all the same. When it comes down to it, you have a nice, breezy platformer that will remind you of better games on another platform, but you’ll finish it by the time the need to plug in your PlayStation overwhelms you all the same.

Continuing Legacy

Goin’ Quackers’ PS2 release was developed by Ubisoft’s Montreal team, and is noticeably different from the one for N64/PS1/Dreamcast. This version was later released for GameCube in 2002 alongside a new portable version for GameBoy Advance.

Though it’s unaffiliated with anybody who worked on this game, it’s an interesting coincidence that one of the only other games that uses the Crash Bandicoot style of corridor-based platforming is 2002’s Lilo and Stitch for the PS1. That same year, of course, would see the debut of Kingdom Hearts, the series that really saw Donald Duck become a memorable and beloved video game character as one of Sora’s main allies alongside Goofy.

Additional Information

Saves: Controller Pak

Compatible With: Expansion Pak

Players: 1

Print Guides: None

Aggregate Critical Reception (GameRankings): 70.29%, based on 7 reviews

Other Releases: EU, December 8, 2000 (as Disney’s Donald Duck: Quack Attack)

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