Perhaps the HVGN would have placed this higher, but "fourth best licensed game of all-time" is no slouch. On one hand, it's surprising to think that a game nearly twenty years old and based on a children's cartoon could be so awesome. But a closer examination will show that this game had all its ducks in a row: it was developed by Capcom for the NES in the late 1980s / early 1990s. This was a golden era for Capcom and gaming as a whole. In this period, the publisher consistently released top-notch NES classics such as Darkwing Duck, Little Nemo: The Dream Master, Bionic Commando, Gargoyle's Quest 2, and the Mega Man series. Perhaps Ducktales was just at the right place at the right time.
The gameplay is impressively unique, as the pogo-stick bouncing mechanic is surprisingly unique. It manages to incorporate Scrooge McDuck's most recognizable attributes into a brilliant gameplay mechanic. Topping it all off is the unignorable soundtrack, whose crown jewel is the underwhelmingly-titled "Moon Stage Theme." I'll echo the HVGN when he speculates that this song is perhaps more recognizable the game from which it originates. Hopefully, anyone who finds themselves Pied Piper'd by its intoxicating tune will be led to this pillar of retro exquisiteness.
