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"Not ponytails, or cottontails..."

I have played many licensed games in my time, and very, very few have been good. One of the exceptions to that rule is Duck Tales: The Quest for Gold, based on what is arguably Disney's best cartoon series ever.

The story is pretty simple. You're Scrooge McDuck, richest duck in the world. Your arch enemy Flintheart Glomgold has challenged you to the Duck of the Year contest, and whoever raises more money in a month will win.

Gameplay-7/10
There are a number of ways to go about getting the money you need. You can dive into Scrooge's famous money bin to search for rare coins, you can invest in the stock market, or you can do what you're SUPPOSED to do and go treasure hunting.

You do this from Scrooge's map computer (you'll have to return to the office to use it again once you go somewhere else), which tells you which treasure is at each location and how much it's worth. After you decide where to go, you have to get this, and this involves a flying mini game where you'll be bedeviled by elastic power lines, clouds that spin you around and mountains to crash into. You make a little extra money by doing some barnstorming on the way, though. This is unless you find the Bombastium treasure, which allows Gyro to build a teleporter to take you where you want to go. It's not 100% reliable, though, and might sometimes break and send you somewhere else, but at least there's no risk of crashing and losing several days while the plane is fixed.

Once you've gotten where you want to go, you play one of four mini-games to get the treasure you're after. In one Huey, Dewey, and Louie go mountain-climbing, but have to watch out for falling off ledges or rolling boulders, either of which will land them in the Duckburg Memorial Hospital. Another is a trek through a swamp where you can catch a ride on a hippo but have to watch out for shaky branches, runaway toucans and coconut-throwing monkeys. Then there's spelunking, where pits and an angry mummy try to stop you from finding the treasure chest, and lastly, the photo safari. In that, you have 12 shots to get pictures of animals. Regular animals are worth a little money, but rare ones (like pink elephants, zodiac bears and dolly llamas) are worth ten times as much.

All while you're doing this, though, Flintheart is doing it too, and might steal a treasure you had your sights on while you're doing something else or if he wins the plane race to that location. And to prevent your money from being lost in a plane crash, you might want to safely drop it off at the Isle of Macaroon, where the contest will eventually be decided.

Graphics-8/10
Considering that this game is about fifteen years old, the graphics are amazingly crisp and recognizable. There are a ton of characters from the show to spot from Scrooge to Fenton to Launchpad to the Beagle Boys.

Sound-6/10
The only music in the game is the bleepy version of the Duck Tales theme song that plays at the beginning and at the end when the winner is declared. It's not bad. The sound effects are okay, considering they're coming from an internal PC speaker. They sound like what they're supposed to, and nothing more.

Replayability-7/10
There are plenty of different places to go treasure hunting, and there's just no way to cover them all in one game.

This is a simple game, but it's a fun one. It's not too hard; I was being proclaimed Duck of the Year when I was nine years old. And all the different ways of getting your wealth are fun to explore and master. But tracking down a copy, much less one that will work on a modern computer, can be a hassle.


Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 01/23/04, Updated 05/25/04