I was looking through the free NES selection they had at the video game rental site Console Classix and came across DuckTales. I played through it again tonight for the first time since I was a little girl.

The game follows Scrooge McDuck as he once again tries to beat Flintheart Glumgold to the world’s greatest treasures so that he can remain the richest duck in the world. The game has you scouring the Earth, from the Amazon to the Himalayas, in search of treasure, and one level even takes place on the moon. Unlike most platforming games of the time, the game isn’t completely linear. You can choose which level you want to play and in which order. Most of the supporting cast shows up in the game (Huey, Dewey and Louie, Launchpad, Gizmoduck, Bubba, Webbigail and Mrs. Beakly) with the exception of Gyro Gearloose and Duckworth. Throughout the game, fans of the show will notice some characters from different episodes showing up as enemies in certain levels.

True to the show, all Scrooge has to defend himself on his expeditions is his trusty cane. But here, it seems to have been fitted with a pogo stick attachment (which isn’t at all a stretch, considering all the inventions Gyro has made for Scrooge over the years), which will help Scrooge through areas that can’t be crossed by foot. You’ll find yourself using the pogo stick a lot, but in the Himalayas Capcom has made Pogo sticking a little harder by making Scrooge get stuck in the snow if he pogo sticks in it, which requires a little bit more strategy to the play.

The game is just as much fun as I remember from when I first completed it as a little girl, although it’s not nearly as hard for me now as it was back then. :)