Donald Duck Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow Super Nintendo SNES level 1 demo gameplay
4Donald Duck - Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow Super Nintendo (SNES) level 1 demonstration gameplay
Donald in Maui Mallard, known as Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow in North America, is a platforming video game developed and published by Disney Interactive. The game was released in Brazil in 1995 and in Europe on December 8, 1995, for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. It was also ported by Eurocom Entertainment Software to the SNES and released in North America in November 1996, in Europe on November 28, 1996, and in Japan on December 20, 1996. A Microsoft Windows port followed two years later and was released in North America on September 30, 1996. It was ported one last time to the Game Boy in North America in August 1998.
Besides typical platform game gameplay (running around, jumping from platform to platform), one of the game's most distinctive gameplay features is allowing to switch the player character's form to suit one's needs. The player begins the game as Maui, whose only mean of self-defence is an insect-launching pistol that can launch several forms of bugs, some of them combined for greater effect. However, once the player reaches the second level, Maui transforms into Cold Shadow, his ninja alter ego, who defends himself with short-range attacks using a bo staff. Cold Shadow's staff is also primarily used to explore the level further, such as climbing a narrow tunnel. After the second level, the player can switch back and forth between Maui and Cold Shadow at will, provided he has enough ninja tokens for the transformation. The amount of ninja tokens Maui or Cold Shadow holds determines Cold Shadow's strength – who can then chain more and more attacks as his skill improves – when played as him in the SNES version. On Genesis, however, Maui needs to collect red ninja tokens instead, the amount of white tokens being useful for metamorphosis alone. Some levels of the game, however, prevent Maui from transforming at all, as Cold Shadow cannot bungee jump on vines, for example, which forces the player to use Maui throughout the level.