Darkwing Duck (Game Boy) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
290A playthrough of Capcom's 1993 license-based action-platformer for the Nintendo Game Boy, Darkwing Duck.
Darkwing Duck for the Game Boy is a US-exclusive handheld conversion of the excellent 1992 NES game starring the purple terror that flaps in the night. It's a run-and-gun platformer that is often (quite rightly) compared to Mega Man.
The terrorist group F.O.W.L. is once again making life miserable for the residents of Cape Canard, this time by committing a series of high profile robberies. It's up to Darkwing Duck to recover the loot and take down Steelbeak and his henchman in order to restore peace.
Darkwing wields a gas gun that can be equipped with the adapters you'll find strewn throughout the stages. The heavy gas sets off an explosion that sends zappy stuff across the floor (think Bubble Lead that flies in both directions), the thunder gas sends bolts of lightning flying diagonally up and down, and the arrow gas creates platforms on sheer vertical surfaces. You can choose the order that you tackle the stages in, so these power ups lend the game's structure a Mega Man vibe.
So does the moment-to-moment gameplay. Darkwing Duck has a smaller but better focused arsenal than Mega Man does, but most of the time you're running along, trading fire with enemies and leaping over bottomless pits. The ability to grab on to and hang from various fixtures in the background, as well as to lift your cape to deflect damage from enemy fire do, however, give Darkwing Duck its own unique feel.
The Game Boy conversion is pretty faithful to the NES original. There have been a few tweaks made to the level designs and enemy placements to ensure a smooth experience on the smaller screen and Darkwing feels a bit heavier here than in the console version, but otherwise the two feel about the same.
The same goes for the graphics and sound. The jazzy soundtrack is just as sweet here as it was on the console, and the graphics look pretty much the same, just in monochrome, and they're surprisingly clear on the Game Boy's screen for how dark the game tends to be.
Darkwing Duck isn't celebrated as much as some of Capcom's other Disney games, but its quality absolutely earns it a place alongside the company's better known classics.
*Recorded using a Retroarch shader to mimic the look of the original hardware.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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