Game:

Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (1995)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 2:06:42

563 views

9

Maui Mallard is totally not Donald Duck! He is a private investigator on vacation on a tropical island when the idol of Shabuhm Shabuhm was stolen. He is the guardian spirit of the island and unless the idol is recovered, the island is going to explode. Your adventures lead you through eight levels with multiple stages each and several boss fights where you will also be able to transform into a ninja! The later stages are designed in a way that requires you to switch between both personas to progress.

The game was released on the Sega Genesis and PC as well as the Super Nintendo. The first two versions are very similar with the PC version being upgraded to CD audio music. You can find these versions on GOG and Steam, but I can't tell how good these versions are. The SNES port was significantly reworked. The graphics are less gritty and more cartoony, but overall more detailed. The audio is changed too. I did not play the Genesis versions I can't tell which is the ultimate version. I believe there exists a Game Boy port too.

Why is this obvious Donald Duck not actually Donald Duck? Apparently, Disney did not want to associate their intellectual property with a duck that wields a gun and the generally dark tone of the game (for a kids game anyway). I think the game lost a lot of name recognition and therefore sales and who is Maui Mallard anyway. It's a dumb name.

But how does the game play? I think it is very well done. The graphics are great especially if you have the ability to show scanlines. I know some people hate them for some reason, but that's how it used to be and was supposed to be played because that's what CRT displays and TVs showed. Scanlines add so much depth and extra detail to the pixelart, it's astonishing! The stages are well designed and fun too. The music is great as well. Generally, it's an easy game to complete, but pretty difficult to 100% because some loot is very well hidden and in the autoscrolling stages you need to avoid the checkpoints and re-play sections until you got all loot before you continue.

The game has some big problems in my opinion: The jerky left and right scrolling if you turn your character around. The screen sometimes snaps back and forth so quickly that it becomes disorienting. The Genesis version does not have that. Also, the duck plays like a duck. The controls are sometimes not precise. A bit floaty and it sometimes also has too much inertia. I think it has to do with the smooth animations that need to play out before other input is accepted, but maybe it has a different reason. The collision detection is also often really bad, but it's never game breaking.

I think it is still a good game and recommended to play. Not top tier at all, but solid. I just wish it was actual Donald Duck.

00:00 - Start
00:43 - Level 1 (Mojo Mansion)
18:46 - Level 2 (The Ninja Training Grounds)
38:24 - Level 3 (Muddrake Mayhem)
51:20 - Level 4 (Sacrifice of Maui)
1:05:32 - Level 5 (The Test of Duckhood)
1:25:06 - Level 6 (The Flying Duckman)
1:44:09 - Level 7 (The Realm of the Dead)
2:02:06 - Level 8 (The Mojo Stronghold)

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