The Top Five Donald Duck games
This month, one of Disney’s most iconic characters is celebrating his 90th birthday! The one, the only, Donald Duck! Nearly as big as Mickey Mouse and certainly a favorite for some over Disney’s biggest mascot, Donald Duck has been in tons of series, movies, and his own share of videogames as well. Not nearly as many as Mickey mind you, and more often part of an ensemble than the star of the show, but the duck who gets stuck with all the bad luck has been the star of enough games where we can rank a top five in honor of his 90th birthday!
#5. Donald Duck’s Playground
I debated this game making the list because yeah it’s a somewhat educational and simple PC game from 1984, how well is it really going to hold up especially against the game I ultimately didn’t end up including, Donald Duck Goin’ Quackers (which is an ok but not particularly memorable mascot platforming game) which I’m sure some people who played as kids have fond memories of. But honestly, there’s a lot of charm in the simplicity of Donald Duck’s Playground. The mini-games are pretty entertaining and it’s not a particularly long game so you can both get quick sessions in and play it over again while still being pretty entertained.
I honestly think you could release Donald Duck’s Playground today on mobile platforms and/or the Nintendo Switch with refreshed graphics but still the basic bones of the game that are already there and it would be pretty popular, it still holds up that well.
#4. Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow
He’s a duck detective, but also a duck ninja! How can you go wrong? While not Donald’s best 2D adventure, Maui Mallard is a very solid adventure that might have done way better had it not been a Super Nintendo game in 1996 (the Sony PlayStation had already been out for two years at this point)! But the ability to switch between Detective and Ninja with differing abilities in non-linear enemies was a pretty nifty gimmick that was well-implemented, and it’s kind of sad that there was a PlayStation follow-up planned that was ultimately canceled and repurposed into a mediocre game based on the animated Hercules movie. You can still play this on PC today, but it doesn’t recognize a controller so you’re honestly better off tracking down a way to play one of the 16-bit versions. Re-releases and classic remasters have been a thing for awhile now including many Disney titles so hopefully someone like Limited Run or Digital Eclipse will do something with Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow in the near future.
#3. Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck
Following the trend of Donald being in excellent games that are late to the party, Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck is a follow-up to a really great platformer we’ll get to in a bit, but the problem was it released on the Sega Master System and The Game Gear in 1993!
The Game Gear was never super popular to begin with (because it’s a godawful system, I had one) and the Sega Genesis had been out for several years at this point, it’s a wonder any games were released for these systems at all in 1993 (one theory of why Sega failed at the console business was they were simply trying to keep too many platforms afloat at once, this might be an example of that). But still, if you have the means, Deep Duck Trouble Starring Donald Duck is a very good 2D platformer, just not quite as good as its predecessor…
#2. The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck
If you think of The Lucky Dime Caper Starring Donald Duck as sort of swan song for the Sega Master system, then I guess it makes sense that it was released in 1991. But maybe it would’ve had a better fate as either something designed exclusively for the Sega Game Gear when it was still new, or gotten the polish to be a 16-bit game for the Sega Genesis at the time, it could’ve actually been a nice addition to the library along 16-bit classics like Castle of Illusion.
Still, this is Donald’s first solo outing and easily one of his best. You could argue it’s his best game, so it’s a shame it was released on a platform well past its prime and a portable that never really got off the ground. It still holds up incredibly well over 30 years later and would be another prime candidate for a rerelease or remaster on modern platforms, so hopefully someday.
#1. Quackshot Starring Donald Duck
This might be the easy answer, but it’s also the right one. Quackshot Starring Donald Duck is probably the most popular and fondly remembered game starring Disney’s short-tempered fowl and it remains a great 2D side-scroller to this day. Quackshot really is just a spiritual successor to the NES classic Ducktales, but it adds quite a bit to that formula and easily stands with some of the best platformers of the 16-bit era and I’d certainly still play it over many platformers on more modern systems. It’d be a great way to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Donald Duck’s best game by making it available in some way on more modern platforms whether it’s announced during the next week of many game fests or later this year during the D23 Expo. It just seems like something that needs to happen sooner or later…
That’s all for today, Summer Games Fest and many other associated showcases are nearly upon us so once that is all said and done I will likely write up something related to all that once the dust has settled a little. So see ya real soon!
