Judging by the title, Deadly Duck is either incredibly forgettable or pretty freaking awesome.
Which one? You guessed it.
In this typical fixed shooter, you, the Deadly Duck, must blast down crabs who attempt to drop bricks on you. The crabs are jittery and sometimes hard to hit. You fire bullets straight from your mouth. Cool . . . ? You can blast the bricks as they fall for you. The most unique aspect of this game is that the crabs can trap you between bricks for a short period. I feel like something original could have come out of dropping and stacking bricks, but the inspiration ends there.
Beyond the first stage, a line of bomb-happy dragonflies zips between you and the crabs. I couldn't figure out when the bugs dropped bombs, so I spent a lot of time avoiding them. It's possible to get trapped between bricks, which gives the bugs a solid chance at bombing you.
You gain an extra life by defeating all the crabs, which means you gain an extra life at the end of each stage, so in theory you could keep playing this forever. Perhaps someone is. They haven't stopped since 1982, and they've gone too far to stop now. Keep it up, Deadly!
In my experience, the Fox games usually have decent production values, if nothing else. I'm not sure how Deadly Duck slipped in there. I have a feeling it has to do with the "Sirius Software" bit on the label. Even the extra lives are strange. . . the game can only display 3 lives at a time, but you can rack up many more. I feel like this game was the programmer's showcase title to get the job, and the developer decided to publish this piece of his portfolio.
Part of me feels like, if this were a classroom assignment, I'd give the kid an A. There's nothing terribly wrong with it. But here in the Atari World, surrounded by fixed shooters good and great (Demon Attack, Galaxian, Spider Fighter, ad infinitum), Deadly Duck just can't compete, even with a wonky premise.
And does it matter, anyway? There are worse games on the Atari 2600. If you enjoy fixed shooters, you may enjoy this well enough. Otherwise . . .
I recommend Deadly Duck to collectors only.
Beyond the game . . .
It's weird, but I feel cruel insulting a game that someone took pride in creating a long time ago. It's almost like I'm insulting him. I couldn't code an equation into a calculator. Who am I to judge?
I'm the one absorbing the art. I'm the one who has to play it, and maybe even enjoy it. This qualifies me as a critic. I think.
But wouldn't it be more productive, for instance, to hunt the programmer down and do a little interview? How did this game come about? Why the duck? Would you do anything different if you coded it today? And, the fans want to know, when will we see Deadly Duck 2: Fowl Play?
Hey, don't give ducks bread. No one ever told me that. But it's true. Bread really messes them up.
I bought some gluten-free bread recently. I thought I would step away from gluten for a moment and see if my "sensitivities" went away--the bloating, the fatigue, the moodiness. I'll try anything to feel better. Well, after a big spinach and hummus sandwich on gluten-free bread, I got the worst stomach ache I've had in years. I was in such pain I almost left work. Apparently gluten-free stuff can do that. Isn't that ironic. I'll stick with the toxic bread for now.
Seeya.
Comments