Disney's Donald Duck Advance

Review

by Jason White

Disney's Donald Duck Advance is a typical Disney game, although the focus is on the querulous "quacker" and not the famous mouse. The side-scrolling action-adventure contains nothing innovative, but has enough features to make it worthwhile and fun to play.

As background, Daisy Duck, a fantastic reporter who some say is the best in Duckburg, has infiltrated the secret temple of Merlock, the evil sorcerer. While giving a live report to millions of viewers, she's detected and the screens in Duckburg go black -- Daisy's been unplugged and kidnapped! Her hero and main squeeze, Donald, realizes what has happened and sets off to rescue her. With the help of his friend Gyro, who teleports him to various locations, you, as the duck, must clear 18 levels in your quest.

The main objective in each stage is to gather three energy spheres, which activate the teleporter. Traveling in all directions, you face several enemies on each level, all cute Disney-like characters. You'll even encounter a few of the original Disney gang, including one of the bears from Donald's park ranger days. Collecting a sphere isn't as basic as it sounds, though, as you usually find a magic book which activates it, then have to solve a mini-puzzle within a very generous specified time limit to get it.

From the beginning, Donald is fun to watch as he runs around the levels with his trademark expressions. You collect other items as well, such as milkshakes that restore health, and stars, which Ubi Soft uses to steer you in the right direction since a few of the stages twist up and back. Collecting 100 stars also rewards you with an extra life.

Acquiring all the stars on every level results in a small surprise at the end of the game -- a photo in the special photo gallery. While not much, it's a nice touch, but the downside is the extreme difficulty in collecting all the stars, which can be very frustrating. When you pound an enemy, they produce stars that float away, and getting them without being hit is tougher than it should be. At times, enemies streak away, causing stars to float in the center of a tree where you can't reach them. Some gamers may feel the photo payoff isn't worth the overall effort.

Enemies are fairly easy to defeat when you can see them, which is a problem at times. By pressing the L Button, you can look around the screen, an aspect that was implemented since you can't see what's above you, or, in some areas, what's ahead of you, forcing you to jump and hope for the best. Even so, on more than one occasion you'll fall off the board or jump directly into an enemy, which doesn't seem overly fair since you die after only two hits.

Despite the requirement to stop and look around the screen, the controls are easy to use and gameplay offers plenty of fun. Not many Disney-brand characters make an appearance, which may disappoint some fans, but the challenge is good enough to appeal to older gamers. The chase stage, the last stage of each level, is a blast, as you jump over and go under all sorts of objects. Pause and you die, but each stage has a few checkpoints, which prevent you from having to restart at the beginning of the level. A password feature also allows continuation of games at a later time.

While not innovative, Disney's Donald Duck Advance offers fun challenges, is fast paced, and looks great. The main game is fairly short in comparison to other platform games, but the star search extends play considerably, though it may seem to some as an artificial way to do so. At any rate, Donald Duck fans will enjoy the vacation from Mickey and the regular gang.