This is the third video game based on the 1953 Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century short film, with the previous two omitting the “Duck Dodgers” name, and just being called “Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions” on SNES and “Daffy Duck” on Game Boy. On a similar note, in Europe, the title was swapped around to the awkward sounding “Daffy Duck Starring As Duck Dodgers”.

The film is a sci-fi with Looney Tunes characters playing the various parts, which again is true here, with Donald Duck playing Duck Dodgers, Porky Pig as his assistant, and Marvin being the bad guy. Duck Dodgers would later get his own cartoon series.

Duck Dodgers is a pretty decent 3D platformer. The biggest problem is the jump, which has very strange momentum for its height, meaning sometimes you need to hop on the spot a bit to jump high enough, but this is only an issue a couple of times through the game. The rest of the time, it feels precise and has a decent camera (when you swap to “free” in the options). You’ll need to collect Atoms to unlock new parts of the level to get to the final boss. In some levels, you only need to collect some, while in others you need all of them, although you can’t go back to collect the rest.

One thing that Duck Dodgers does really well is capture the style of Looney Tunes. The graphics are vibrant and capture the 2D cartoon style well in 3D, with characters and animations done really well. There’s also a lot of obscure references throughout the entire game, from minor enemies to various NPCs, some of which appeared in one specific cartoon. It brings the world to life really well, and the voice acting from the cast at the time (although repetitive) helps (although there’s also text-only dialogue). Some of the powerups, like the single-use jetpack, also move in a distinctly slapstick way, while also managing to remain controllable.

While its not up there with the likes of Mario and Banjo, Duck Dodgers is a surprisingly enjoyable platformer, with a good amount of charm and use of the license. It does everything that Taz Express squandered, so it’s a shame it’s not a bit longer.

Fun

There’s the niggling feeling throughout Duck Dodgers that, with mote time, it could have been something truly great. But any game that sucessfully washes away the bitter taste left by last month’s Blues Brothers 2000 is absolutely fine by us.

Mark Green, N64 Magazine #47. Review Score: 75%

Remake or remaster?

If there were a collection of Looney Tunes games, this would be a welcome addition, especially if they improve the jump.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Duck Dodgers.