Overview: What the Duck?! It's "Donald Duck"! Donald Duck is a fictional character created by Walt Disney in 1934. He was voiced by Clarance "Ducky" Nash, and Donald became well-known for his squeaky, high pitched voice and short temper. His popularity grew abnormally in several years' time, and he was showing up everywhere. Eventually, he made his way to the Famicom (NES in America), in a strange, event based game. Let's see how this holds up.

Gameplay: The controls vary based on the event you're currently in. There are six events for Donald to do. The first of these is the "Sack Race". You must wait for the first shot to be fired, otherwise you're held back. Once the race starts, press "A" to hop. Tapping the button fast will allow you to move quickly, while holding it down will make you jump long distances. Manholes exist, and can be avoided through pressing up and/or down when jumping near them. The second event is "Boot Throw". Move the D-pad counter clockwise (or Down and right to angle it right), then press "A" quickly to throw it far. The third event is called "Pogo". It involves pressing right on your d-pad to move forward. Moving left is not an option, and pressing "A" allows one to ascend to great heights. Eventually, there will be some walls to gracefully jump over. It depends on how long you pressed "A". To win, jump over four walls the fastest. Even if you can't, you still can continue. The fourth event is called "Overboard". You use right (or left if P2) to confront your opponent. Then, you press up or down to tip the scale of the boat, and A to push the opponent into the water. The penultimate event is "Pizza Pile". You press right to balance your given pizzas. The player with the most wins at the end. The final event, and ultimate challenge, is "River Jump". You must press "A" while running to build up speed, and "B" when the tip of the pole is just adjacent to the water. Move too quickly or too late, and your pole goes into the water. After the pole becomes upright, press "B" to jump to the other side. Being the ultimate challenge, failing to master any of the vital steps can lead to your doom. Just remember to hold down "B" when the pole is exactly vertical, and you can win. The gameplay is easily this game's biggest strength. 10/10

Graphics: The graphics are excellent for an NES game and in general for 1988 and beyond. The characters are well-designed, and so are the given events. The event illustrations are a nice touch. 10/10

Sound: This game's music and sounds are completely average. Nothing exactly of note, but it's feasible enough. 6/10 

Addictiveness: Another strength (at least for me). This game is fun to come back to, to master it's arts and all. I'm always ready to test my skills and get better. A wise game designer by the name of Nolan Bushnell once said that the mark of a good game was "It's easy to learn, and difficult to master". This game is all about that. The game becomes better for you once you can grasp what you're doing. 8/10

Story: It doesn't have much. Donald's in a competition to win the gold  and impress his family and friends. 2/10

Depth: This game isn't too particularly deep. The events are simplistic and don't exactly change. 4/10


Difficulty: This game is actually quite easy. Only the controls might pose a challenge (at first). 4/10

Overall: Donald Duck is a fun game, filled with wacky challenges to your gaming pleasure. You'll enjoy this game especially if you love Disney, like fast-paced sports games, or frantic games that give a challenge. Give it a whirl! 8.2/10

Ultrajeff : I think the only duck game I have played was DuckTales really so I didn't really play the game to see what it was about. I doubt I ever would....maybe one day I would it depends though. Maybe if I play the game I would like it. Thanks on doing a review on the game. ^^

Ultrajeff : Hey man, Great review! One quick tip I could give moving forward is when writing these reviews, you may want to remove your layout because it makes reading your review rather difficult.

I don't have much experience playing this game as it wasn't released in the US I don't believe and I wasn't hugely into these "olympic" type games. Although it does look solid.

There are though, some great Disney games on the NES. (All released by Capcom), as well as several great titles on SNES and Genesis respectively.

The creators really should have been more creative with the game's name

Good review for a simplistic game. I haven't played it but it sounds simple and easy once you know what you're doing. One thing I suggest working on is giving examples of why you rated each category what you did. The gameplay section was very long and gave a detailed description of the gameplay, but the rest of the sections felt empty.

It's great to see a review from you, make some more!