Video Game / DuckTales

Where to, Uncle Scrooge?

^note Cover of the NES DuckTales game as taken from The Disney Afternoon Collection (2017), which edited the image to remove extraneous elements and Nintendo-related copyrights.

Look to the stars
My darling baby boys
Life is strange and vast
Filled with wonders and joys
Face each new sun
With eyes clear and true
Unafraid of the unknown
Because I'll face it all with you

—The game's famous "Moon Theme" as performed with lyrics by Della Duck (Paget Brewster) in DuckTales (2017–2021)

The NES game based on DuckTales (1987) was released in 1989 and developed by Capcom (with the team behind this game largely composed of the same folks responsible for the Mega Man (Classic) series) as a product of its licensing deal with Disney. DuckTales shares many of the defining features of the Mega Man games: unique gameplay mechanics, non-linear level selection, and a boatload of catchy music.

The game's Excuse Plot has Scrooge seeking out five Lost Treasures to further solidify his status as the Richest Duck in the World. Scrooge's adventures lead him to the Amazon rainforest, a haunted Transylvanian castle, the Himalayan mountains, a winding maze of African mines, and even the freaking Moon. Along the way, Scrooge encounters several of his old foes (including Magica De Spell and the Beagle Boys) and receives help from his usual entourage.

A sequel, DuckTales 2, followed in 1993. Scrooge has launched another treasure hunt, this time to find the pieces of a map that will lead to an even bigger treasure. The game made significant improvements to the previous game's formula (such as upgrade skills hidden in certain levels and several clever optional puzzles). Both games ended up ported to the Game Boy as well.

Capcom released a HD Video Game Remake of the first game with developers WayForward Technologies working with Disney to bring the game to life (and musician Jake "virt" Kaufman rescoring the music) on August 13th, 2013 digitally for the PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Windows (via Steam), while Xbox 360 received that game on September 11th^note it was temporarily delisted from digital storefronts from August 8-10, 2019 to March 3, 2020; a disc-based version of the game came to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U on November 12th. The remake — DuckTales: Remastered — has a new graphical style (one which aims to mimic the original cartoon), difficulty settings to make things easier or harder for gamers of all skill levels, an expanded storyline, expanded levels, a brand-new final level (Mount Vesuvius), the ability to swim in the Money Bin, unlockable bonus content (including a full-length version of the show's theme song), and voice work from the show's original vocal cast (well, those who were still alive at the time). Here's the reveal trailer in all its earworm-y nostalgic glory. It will get stuck in your head. You have been warned...

On April 18, 2017, Capcom did another re-release set in the form of The Disney Afternoon Collection, consisting of both DuckTales games, almost completely untouched, as well as both Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers games, TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck, ported via Emulation by Digital Eclipse for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows (through Steam).

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The DuckTales (woo-oo!) video games contain examples of the following tropes:

The series overall

• 1-Up: Duck items are spawned in often hidden areas that grant the player an extra life.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Scrooge doesn't wear any sort of spacesuit in the Moon level. Handwaved in Remastered, where the ability to breathe is made possible with the Oxy-chew taffy made by Gyro. No explanation is given for how he survives the extreme low temperature and lack of air pressure - or how Glomgold and the Beagle Boys are able to breathe up there, either. ^Note Then again, Glomgold was working with Magica the whole time, so she was probably involved in helping them breathe.
• Bottomless Pits: Falling offscreen is an instant death. Bottomless pits appear from time to time.
• Cane Fu: Mostly you attack others by jumping with it and it also doubles as a pogo stick. Sometimes, it can be used to hit and pull objects.
• Canon Immigrant: The Moon level, its music, and the Oxy-chew were referenced in the 2017 reboot. Scrooge's cane was also upgraded by Ludwig von Drake to include a handful of gadgets and functions including pogo.
• Death Throws: When Scrooge loses a life, he'll be flung off the screen. Enemies too will be flung off the screen when they're defeated.
• Difficulty Levels:
  • The original two games use Easy, Normal, and Difficult/Hard. Easy doubles your health by giving two hits per point on Scrooge's life bar and Normal tones it down by providing only a single hit per point. The hardest difficulty provides different effects depending on the game: The first game's Difficult option removes both the Magic Coin and the Cake items while the sequel's Hard option has the same effect but also removes ice cream cones- depriving the player of any chance of healing mid-level besides using the Cake item bought from the end-level shop.
  • Remastered uses Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extreme.
• Everything Fades: Diamonds and other items blink out of existence when not collected fast enough.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Giant crabs, bees, monkeys animated armor, dragonflies, birds and the bees, etc.
• Excuse Plot: The instruction manual for the first game fails to provide an impetus behind Scrooge's quest. Meanwhile, the story found in the second game's manual just copies the text found in the game's opening cutscene, except "We're off on a treasure hunt!" somehow became "It looks like we're off on another treasure hunt, lads. Let's get crackin'!" DuckTales: Remastered does flesh out the story of the first game, at least.
• Fake Platform: In the first game, there are fake floors in Transylvania that Scrooge will fall in. The second game has them in Egypt levels, where they may sometimes lead to more treasure.
• Floating Platforms: Often, many platforms are suspended mid-air. For an example at the end of Himalayas level.
• Game-Breaking Bug: Crashing has been documented for the Wii U and PlayStation 3 versions of Remastered, often but not always involving the leaderboards. This was addressed with a patch.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: The Amazon level boss in the first game has red glowing eyes. Hopping statues in the Egypt level of the second game also have glowing eyes.
• Goomba Stomp: Zigzagged. Scrooge cannot jump on enemies normally. He has to use his pogo cane to attack enemies by jumping on them.
• Goomba Springboard: Scrooge's pogo attack lets him bounce off of enemies, though he doesn't bounce any higher than if he had bounced off of a platform.
• Heart Container: Two per game. In the first game, you'll find them within stages. In the second game's Nintendo Entertainment System version, you'll have to buy them, while the Game Boy version has them scattered around the levels a la the original. Remastered has one in each of the 5 normal levels for a maximum of eight on Easy and Medium difficulty (Hard and Extreme retain the original maximum of five).
• Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: You're seeking out treasure and fighting enemies along the way.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Ice creams and cakes heal instantly. Strangely, cakes are missing in the levels of the second game and can only be bought at hefty price (at least for a cake).
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: They're everywhere and no one has opened them for some strange reason. Often they are even hanging in the air.
• Inexplicably Preserved Dungeon Meat: Scrooge can find cakes and cones of ice cream hidden throughout Transylvania, Amazon Ruins, and the moon.
• Invincibility Power-Up: The "Magic Coin" grants this, according to the instruction manual. In Remastered, it also lets Scrooge run faster.
• Malevolent Architecture: Many locations would be very difficult to navigate for common people, requiring to clear gaps, hang on hooks and avoid spikes.
• Man-Eating Plant: They're located in the Amazon in the first game and Niagara in the second game.
• Mercy Invincibility: Whenever Scrooge takes damage, he has about five seconds of transparency during which he cannot be injured. It's notable in that the bosses get this also.
• Misplaced Wildlife: The Amazon level has gorillas, which are native to Africa, and the Himalayas level has mountain goats, which are native to North America.
• Money Spider: Enemies will often drop diamonds or ice creams when defeated.
• Multiple Endings: Both games change their respective endings depending on how much money the player collected and whether or not they found the secret treasures.
  • The first game in particular has unique endings depending on whether the player finished with over $10,000,000, no money at all, or anywhere in between. Getting the worst ending is actually more difficult than you'd think, as there's a way to reduce your total money by exactly 3,000,000 and can only be done if you have more or equal to that amount.
  • Remastered does not do this. Instead, the amount of money you collect increases the amount of money inside Scrooge's money bin; diving in after completing each stage shows his treasure pile increasing.
• Reflective Teleportation: In the Transylvania level of both version of the first game, pairs of mirrors are used to reach different parts of the mansion that makes up the level.
• Rewarding Vandalism: You don't open treasure chests, you destroy them.
• Sidetrack Bonus: Secret treasures can be found that way. Alcoves are also prone to contain treasure. Subverted in Remastered, where most of the MacGuffins are located in most of them.
• Spikes of Doom: They often take the form of a natural hazard. Scrooge's pogo-cane jump provides protection against upwards-facing spikes, but not downwards.
• The Spiny: Flytraps in both games cannot be hit by a normal pogo jump, as Scrooge will be bitten if he tries.
• Super Drowning Skills: Despite being a duck, Scrooge McDuck will sink in water if he falls in.
• Treasure Is Bigger in Fiction: There are diamonds everywhere in these games, and frequently they're almost as big as Scrooge himself. One of his random lines of dialogue in Remastered involves comparing the size of one to Mrs. Beakley.
• Yellow Lightning, Blue Lightning: Lightning is colored yellow in these games.
• World Tour: Scrooge goes through the Amazon, the Himalayas, Transylvania, a mine in Africa, and the moon in the course of this game.

DuckTales (1989)

The first NES and Game Boy game provides examples of:

• 1-Up: One of the items you can find, in the form of an adorable Scrooge doll! The sequel calls these dolls "Good Mojo Dolls".
• Bandit Mook: Getting hit by a Beagle Boy makes you lose money!
• Bee Afraid: In the Amazon, there are large bees...or wasps.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Transylvania has ghosts floating around.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The Final Boss of the Himalayas stage is one of these.
• Cash Gate: Late into the Amazon level, you approach a large duck statue that makes you pay $300,000 to make a platform appear so you can grab onto the vine to the floor above and progress to the level's boss. However, the level only has enough money (roughly $500,000 in total) to pay the statue once, so if you die to anything afterwards or, worse, despawn the platform, you have to do one of two methods to bypass its offer (Goomba Stomp one of the native enemies to reach the vine or take a hidden teleporter in the temple to skip directly to the boss) or use Launchpad to leave the level prematurely.
• Cast from Money: An undocumented ability allows the player to fully heal Scrooge on command, at the cost of three million dollars. This ability is key to getting the bad ending, since it's the only realistic way to get rid of all your money at the last minute.
• Cheesy Moon: The priceless artifact on the Moon is a chunk of green Cartoon Cheese.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: The Himalayas boss (a yeti) punches the walls and makes large snowballs fall around the arena.
• Dem Bones: Skeletal ducks in Transylvania will chase after Scrooge if he's in their line of sight. They can also destroy bricks in the process.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: There are three endings depending on how much treasure you collect (with ten million being required for the good ending), but it is possible to get a bad ending by ending the final level with exactly zero dollars, which can only be done by carefully collecting just enough treasure to spend every last cent on an undocumented ability to fully heal Scrooge on command at the cost of $3 million. Since Scrooge doesn't have any money now, he will be looking sad with no treasure during the ending and the newspaper will say he'll use the special items to rebuild his fortune. The ending cutscene is the same however, raising questions of just how complete this ending really is.
• Frictionless Ice: The floor in the Himalayas level even speeds you up when walking on it.
• Giant Spider: They are enemies that only appear in the Amazon and Himalayas stages. They descend downward trying to hit Scrooge, then ascend back to the top to the screen.
• Ground Pound: The boss of the Amazon stage will cause the screen to shake when it pounces onto the ground.
• Indy Escape: A few sequences will have you outrun or outbounce a giant boulder.
• Invincible Minor Minion: The ghosts in Transylvania and the Spiders, if you don't have invulnerability or a rock to hit it.
• Jungle Japes: The Amazon stage takes place in a ruin full of thorns, giant spiders, bees, and other assorted wildlife.
• Killer Gorilla: The Amazon level has gorillas as enemies.
• Killer Rabbit: Snow rabbits are an enemy creature in the Himalayas.
• Minecart Madness: Minecarts are found in the African Mines and Transylvania.
• Mummy: Another enemy in Transylvania. Killing them makes them spin around and lose their bandages.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: The Bedsheet Ghosts in Transylvania can only be defeated if you use the pogo stick to swing a block at them.
• Non-Standard Game Over: It doesn't end the game outright (unless you're on your last life) but if Glomgold beats you to the treasure at the end, Scrooge says, "Curse me kilts! Glomgold's got the treasure! Now I have to go back and beat Dracula Duck again." Then the death music plays.
• Rodents of Unusual Size: The Moon boss, a giant moon rat, guards the Moon's treasure. He runs around wildly, attacking Scrooge if he gets nearby.
• Rolling Attack: The African Mines boss, the Terra Firmie King, will use this as his primary attack after hopping. He rolls around the boss arena, trying to hit Scrooge.
• Secret Level: Talk to Launchpad and let him bring you back when the fifth digit of your score is 7, i.e. 70k points and you will access a secret level.
• Shout-Out: According to some gaming magazines of the time, the Amazon boss's name is Zarduck. Unsure if that's direct from Capcom or if it's something the magazines came up with themselves.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Himalayas takes place in a mountain, with a cave full of ice and Bottomless Pits underneath the mountain peak.
• Snakes Are Sinister: Several snakes appear in the Amazon level as enemies.
• Space Zone: The Moon, naturally.
• Stalactite Spite: Certain icicles in the Himalayas will fall down if Scrooge walks underneath them, damaging him.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: Dracula Duck. If he didn't send his bats to attack you, you wouldn't be able to bounce off them and onto his head.
• Timed Mission: Levels have a time limit although usually with plenty of time as long as the player is not exploring every nook and cranny.

DuckTales 2 (1993)

The second NES and Game Boy game provides examples of:

^note Cover of the NES DuckTales 2 game as taken from The Disney Afternoon Collection (2017), which edited the image to remove extraneous elements and Nintendo-related copyrights.

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The bonus level, the Underground, takes place in the sewers of Scotland. Scrooge must traverse on ziplines, jump onto Temporary Platforms, and rematch the Dark Sorcerer to find the hidden treasure.
• All That Glitters: In the end, all your treasures sink to the bottom of the sea and Scrooge says that it's good to still have friends. However, the treasure was saved in time.
• Amphibian Assault: Hopping Frogs appear as enemies in Niagara Falls, hopping after Scrooge.
• Animated Armor: One of the enemies in Scotland, an armor who tries to attack Scrooge if he walks too close to a statue in the background.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The golem at the end of the Mu stage needs to be defeated by this method.
• Boss-Only Level: The final stage, with the battle against Glomgold's D-1000.
• Build Like an Egyptian: The Egypt stage, unsurprisingly. It houses two puzzles, a floor puzzle and a mirror puzzle, fake floors and King Khufu's knife.
• Collapsing Ceiling Boss: Golem of Mu attacks by causing blocks to fall from the ceiling.
• Commonplace Rare: Cakes can be bought with a hefty price and are much more expensive than safes (which are also slightly more expensive than ones in real life).
• Crate Expectations: Destructible wooden crates show up as a common object in Nicarague Falls.
• Dismantled MacGuffin: The treasure map. Scrooge starts off with one piece, can find others in the game's stages, and in the NES game, can buy one in the shop.
• Dreadful Dragonfly: Large Dragonflies appear in the Egypt stage, hovering just out of reach of your pogo-jump. They appear with a very distinct buzzing sound.
• Earn Your Bad Ending: Like the first game, this is accomplished by having no money at the end of the game. It's not nearly as convoluted, but still requires you to spend every last cent. Flintheart Glomgold finds the secret treasure of McDuck that Scrooge and company were looking for.
• Forced Transformation: The Dark Sorcerer at the end of the Underground level will transform Scrooge into a frog.
• Gangplank Galleon: The Bermuda stage takes place on a ship. It is also where the game's final level takes place.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The map pieces must be obtained to get the game's best ending.
• Haunted Castle: This is where the setting of the Scotland stage takes place. Ghosts holding lanterns, a couple rail carts that must be traversed, and at the end, Scrooge faces a sorcerer who guards the Lamp of Eternity. It's also where the treasure of McDuck is located.
• Helping Hands: In Scotland, Scrooge encounters disembodied hands holding lanterns, though unless you're using them as Goomba Springboards, they're anything but helpful.
• Mineral MacGuffin: The secret treasure. Strangely, it's worth the same amount as the other end of the level and secret treasures.
• Point of No Return: Once you've gotten all five treasures, Flintheart kidnaps Webby and beckons Scrooge to his ship with the treasures in tow in order to rescue her, forcing you to head to the Final Boss fight with no more opportunities to revisit any of the stages.
• Quicksand Sucks: A hazard in the Egypt stage, Scrooge will sink in if he stays in it for a few seconds.
• Remixed Level: Bermuda is re-used for the final stage, the Pirate Ship, by changing the route from going down at the start to a now-accessible rope further on, leading to the final boss.
• Shout-Out: The D-1000 is an obvious reference to the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• Tactical Suicide Boss: The Golem in Mu is only vulnerable if its core is exposed. And the only way to expose it is to knock a rock into it. If it didn't stomp the ground to try and drop rocks on you, you'd have no way to damage it.
• Teleport Spam: The Scotland boss loves doing this. He also has a tendency to call down lightning to strike Scrooge.
• Temporary Platform: A common theme in this game are platforms that temporarily appear when a down arrow is pressed.
• Tempting Fate: "We'll never get by the mast. Look at it!"...and a lightning strike destroys the block.
• Underwater Ruins: Mu. You can raise the whole place though, and you're required to do so in order to reach the map piece as well as a hidden treasure.
• The Unfought: You never get to fight Flintheart in this game because he sics the D-1000 on you.

DuckTales: Remastered (2013)

DuckTales: Remastered, the remake of the first NES game, provides examples of:

• 2½D: Hand-drawn animation meets polygonal backgrounds.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Two new stages are added to the game in addition to the five existing stages from the original NES game. Not only that, but the levels themselves have a bit more to them than just "searching for the treasure" goal in every stage of the original game. For example, the Himalayas level has Scrooge initially searching for a missing fuel component that Launchpad has lost that they need to get the bi-plane working again.
  • On the Moon, rather than just showing up and opening the way to the boss fight, Gizmoduck will actually follow you along the surface and blow up enemies with homing missiles until you get there.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: The final section of the new Vesuvius level involves Scrooge escaping up a shaft with volcanic lava rising below him.
• Animation Bump: This game takes the series from simple 2D sprites to beautiful hand-drawn art. The backgrounds, however, are more polygonal.
• Anvil on Head: Big Time Beagle's Army helmet protects him from Scrooge's Goomba Stomp but not from a falling safe, which both stuns Big Time and knocks the helmet off because the chinstraps aren't secured. Big Time might dizzily lampshade it:
  Big Time Beagle: Who keeps a safe hanging from the ceiling?!
• Arc Welding: The game connects the five treasures via Scrooge finding out a painting he bought is a map to all of them, along with revealing they're crucial to a ritual that can resurrect Count Dracula Duck. Magica De Spell and Flintheart Glomgold are also given greatly expanded roles, with the former orchestrating the whole thing, and the latter working with her.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • According to an interview, DuckTales: Remastered features: A brand new super-easy mode, a remastered theme song, and the ability to swim in Scrooge McDuck's money vault.
  • In the Moon level, Gizmoduck blows up the wall obstructing Scrooge's way to the Green Cheese by firing rockets, a missile, and a pair of dirty boxer shorts at it.
  • The things you have to deal with in Extreme Mode are this. There's no saving and you have to finish the entire game in one sitting without losing all your lives, there's a limited amount of heart containers, so you have lowered health, plus the viewable stage map was removed like in Hard mode... and you have to use the classic Pogo Jump controls.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: The remake's version of the boss theme has rock guitars accompanying the bass.
• Award-Bait Song: The credits version of the Moon theme is an instrumental example.
• Bait-and-Switch: The start of the reveal trailer looks like one for a different video game complete with quotes about how deep it is (except for "Please stop emailing me for a quote"). Then, WayForward Technologies' logo appears, then Disney Game's logo as a familiar theme starts and then we see a black screen accompanied by the words: "Ready!? Sing along!" as the reveal trailer for this game officially starts.
• Bag of Holding: The game handwaves Scrooge's use of Hammerspace by saying Gyro rigged him up a "Hyperspace Pocket."
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Invoked by Gyro's Oxy-Chew chewing gum.
• Big Bad: Scrooge's treasure hunt turns out to have been orchestrated by Magica De Spell, in a Big Bad Duumvirate with Flintheart Glomgold.
• Bootstrapped Theme: While the classic DuckTales theme is still the main theme, pieces of the The Moon theme^note which has since become Memetic Mutation can be heard within the level select screen and the Himalayas stage BGM, and also the second half of the ending credits plays a remix of The Moon.
• Boss Remix: Dracula Duck's new boss theme is essentially a tenser remix of Transylvania's stage theme.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Scrooge will say "Yoohoo!" if the player idles long enough.
• The Cameo: This time around, the enemies are modeled after other Disney characters. For example, the rabbits in the Himalayas resemble Thumper, the hockey players now wear The Mighty Ducks film poster's masks, the bees in the Amazon resemble Buzz-Buzz from various Donald Duck cartoons, and the snakes resemble Kaa.
• Cartoon Bomb:
  • The Beagle Boys use them to break into the Money Bin in the tutorial level.
  • Glomgold throws them at Scrooge's plane in his Himalayas mini-boss fight. You have to cane-swing them back to him.
• Childhood Brain Damage: In the Amazon level, Scrooge asks Launchpad if he suffered head trauma when he was younger.
  Scrooge: Launchpad, were you dropped on your head much as a child?
  Launchpad: All the time! Why?
• Chiptune: An option to replace the music with the original NES songs can be unlocked by beating the game or using a Cheat Code. Justified that they are the original songs and are not remixed, but most of the new music have chiptunes that simulate the original's music.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Discussed during some of Scrooge and the triplets' dialogue. When Scrooge tells Webby she needs to stay behind to watch the boys, Huey, Dewey, and Louie protest. Scrooge tells them to give him this one as he will already be having enough trouble watching over Launchpad and he doesn't need watching Webby on top of it.
• Credits Gag: The end credits list a "Tyrannical Overlord" and "Consigliere" among the staff.
• Damsel in Distress: Inverted; while Huey, Dewey and Louie are captured/kidnapped three times over the course of the game, Webby is never kidnapped even once, and in the Himalayan stage it could be argued that she's more useful than the boys are in the entire game.
• Dark Reprise: The amazingly epic theme used for the finale? It contains parts of the DuckTales theme song.
• Deadpan Snarker: Scrooge very often does this when Launchpad or Fenton goofs off.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: In the Easy difficulty setting, Scrooge has an infinite number of lives.
• Dem Bones: The skeleton ducks in the Transylvania and Mount Vesuvius levels.
• Difficulty Levels: There's four available in this remake which not only affects how much money you can earn, but also changes some parts of the game as well.
  • Easy: You take half damage from enemies/obstacles, infinite lives, and you have access to a viewable map from the pause screen that points out where the required MacGuffins are.
  • Normal: The standard experience. Players take normal amount of damage instead of half, finite lives, and the map no longer shows the MacGuffins.
  • Hard: There are less heart containers available, but in their place are treasures that are worth a substantial amount of money. The map feature is also removed entirely.
  • Extreme: The greatest challenge of DuckTales: Remastered. Unlocked after clearing Hard mode. See Harder Than Hard below for details.
• Enemy Mine: Scrooge and Glomgold join forces to rescue the nephews and recover the five treasures from Magica. Scrooge agrees to let Glomgold have the treasures as long as he helps get the boys back safely. Subverted after it turns out Glomgold was working with her the whole time to make sure that Scrooge delivered his dime to her.
• Epic Rocking: Most of the stage themes from the original game have been extended to nearly two or three times their original length, often with snippets of the chorus from "The Moon" thrown in as a Leitmotif, and given much more complex instrumentation.
• Escort Mission: Gloriously inverted with Bubba Duck in the Himalayas, as well as Gizmoduck on the Moon. They basically escort you.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: In the Money Bin level, Bouncer Beagle mentions that he intends to use Scrooge's money to buy a new hat for Ma Beagle, and Baggy Beagle gloats that his mother will be proud of him for capturing Scrooge.
• Follow the Bouncing Ball: The trailer does this with Scrooge's head bouncing across the lyrics of the DuckTales theme.
• Game-Breaking Bug: The PC version unfortunately has a bug, which happens often for Nvidia graphics card users, where the game can either freeze just before the cutscene where Magica summons Count Dracula Duck at Mount Vesuvius and another where the game crashes after defeating said boss, which can render playing the game under Extreme mode Unwinnable, and this issue was never officially rectified. Some players however discovered possible workarounds by using Task Manager to set the affinity to CPU 1 only and skipping the problematic cutscenes before they can play out.
• The Ghost: Ma Beagle and M'Ma Crackshell are mentioned/alluded to by their respective sons Baggy Beagle, Bouncer Beagle, and Fenton Crackshell, but neither of them are present in the game.
• Great Big Book of Everything: Much like in the cartoon, the boys and Webby make several references to information in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Magica's plot boiled down to summoning Dracula Duck.
• Hammerspace: In the Moon level, Scrooge says he has one, courtesy of Gyro.
• Hard Mode Perks: The Hard and Extreme difficulty levels award players with greater money rewards than what is available on the lesser difficulties.
• Harder Than Hard: In the remake, there's an Extreme difficulty, which is mostly the same as Hard but with less opportunities to obtain 1-Ups but offset with more money and there's fewer checkpoints as well. But there is something that makes Extreme worth being Nintendo Hard: you must finish the entire game in one sitting without the ability to save your game. Lose all of your lives at any point in the game on Extreme and you'll be greeted with the Game Over screen while kissing all that moolah you made goodbye.
• Heart Container: On the lower difficulty levels, you can find one in each stage to increase your health. There's an achievement for finding them all.
• Hostage for MacGuffin: After the five treasures have been recovered, Glomgold and the Beagle Boys show up to steal them... only for Magica to show up and steal all five treasures and the nephews, holding the boys hostage in exchange for the Number One Dime.
• Humiliation Conga: Flintheart Glomgold and the Beagle Boys end up being arrested, and Magica DeSpell's home is presumably destroyed by Mount Vesuvius's eruption.
• Hypocritical Humor: Magica may angrily call Scrooge an "interfering old bat" during the battle against Dracula Duck, who uses bats as his main form of attack.
• I Heard That: Launchpad hears Scrooge calling him an "airhead" in the Amazon.
• Idle Animation: Scrooge now has these. Oddly, one of them (where Scrooge plays with his hat) makes the controller rumble when using anything but a keyboard.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: Referenced during the boss battle on the Moon. During the boss's continuous invincible rush attack, Scrooge may quip, "The beast just keeps coming! It's like running from the IRS!"
• Jungle Japes: Just like in the original, the Amazon stage takes place in a ruin full of thorns, giant spiders, bees, and other assorted wildlife.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • In order to damage Big Time Beagle during the Money Bin level, Scrooge has to drop a safe on him to knock off his army helmet. One of Big Time's lines is wondering why there are safes hanging from the ceiling in the first place.
  • When Scrooge retrieves the wheel of the Gizmoduck suit, he wonders why Gyro built it that way. "Who fights crime on a unicycle?"
• Load-Bearing Boss:
  • The temple containing the treasure in the Amazon collapses once the boss is defeated.
  • Magica's Mt. Vesuvius lair starts collapsing and erupting after you defeat Dracula Duck.
• MacGuffin:
  • This time, the five treasures serve a bigger purpose: To resurrect the evil Dracula Duck (an existing boss from the original NES version).
  • Also, in each stage, you must locate certain items to advance. They are...
    • 8 coins in the Amazon
    • 3 pieces of a paper containing a rune in Transylvania
    • A key to operate the lift in African Mines. In the NES game, you had to go back to Transylvania to fetch the key. This time, you only need to go forward just to find it.
    • The 3 pieces of the Fuel Regulator that some mischievous bunnies decided to swipe in the Himalayas.
    • All 3 pieces of the Gizmoduck suit on the Moon. It's no longer the Remote Control.
• MacGuffin Delivery Service:
  • On the Moon, Glomgold shows up once Scrooge has cleared away most of the obstacles and sends the Beagle Boys in to grab the treasure before Scrooge.
  • As soon as Scrooge has found all five treasures, Glomgold and the Beagle Boys swipe them — and then Magica swipes them from Glomgold. When Scrooge goes to get them back, Magica reveals she planted the clues that led Scrooge to the treasure in the first place, so that he'd do all the hard work for her.
• Minecart Madness: Portions of the Transylvania, African Mines, and Mount Vesuvius levels. Subtly lampshaded by two of Scrooge's lines while in a cart; he can be heard to say "When will this madness end?" and "There's no end to this madness!"
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Himalayas level is full of ones for the TV series episode "The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan," which is appropriate since that's the treasure for both. Not only is the Yeti Boss now a female, but Launchpad's "usually the ladies fall for me" line is a likely nod to the fact that in the episode, the yeti did wind up falling for him. Possibly also to the amorous harpy from "The Golden Fleecing." Additionally, Scrooge is dogged by an archrival, though in this case it's Glomgold instead of a rival member from his explorers club.
  • In the Money Bin tutorial level, one of Scrooby's boobytraps that's set off is a series of gigantic mallets which were originally from the episode "Dime Enough for Luck." The lasers you also see may be based off the ones from the film.
  • The Amazon level mentions the fabled emperor Manco Capquack, a fictionalized version of real-life emperor Manco Capac, who was also prominent in The Son Of The Sun, Don Rosa's first Scrooge story.
  • The African Mines level has nods to the TV episode "Earthquack," as it starts with Scrooge's miners being scared out after believing it to be "haunted" forcing him and the nephews to venture in, and him butting heads with the Terra-Firmies due to their "great games" (ie, causing Earthquakes). The king even has the voice he had in the show, although his appearance is based on his (admittedly more distinctive) sprite from the original NES game rather than how he looked in the episode.
  • The spaceship Scrooge, Fenton, and Gyro use to get to the Moon is the Starship Phoenix, which Gyro built in "Where No Duck Has Gone Before."
  • Some of the trophies/achievements have the same names as episode titles, such as "Where No Duck Has Gone Before" and "The Duck Who Would Be King."
  • The first level in the remake features Scrooge fighting off a full-scale invasion of his Money Bin by the Beagle Boys and all their identical cousins, one that's secretly being financed by Flintheart Glomgold, as in the episode "A Drain on the Economy."
  • On the title screen, a helicopter is briefly seen flying above Duckburg, just like in the show’s opening credits. It even shows up at the exact same part, and moves the exact same way!
  • As one for the original game rather than the show, in the Amazon level when the player first enters the caves after moving all the way to the right they should notice a statue up against a wall. In the original version, this statue charged $300,000 of the player's wealth in order to continue on, though it was possible to continue without doing so (via jumping on a respawning enemy in the NES version or finding a secret passageway). In Remastered, the player can have Scrooge pogo on and destroy the statue and in turn it yields $400,000 to him instead! There's even a trophy/achievement for doing so.
    Settle The Score: Scrooge doesn't take kindly to being swindled by statues.
  • Another one for the original game. In the ending of the prototype version of the first game, Scrooge tells his nephews that the one thing more important than the treasures he found is "Dream and Friends". This remake ends with the same aesop, as Scrooge loses the treasures but is happy to have shared such an adventure with his family. Furthermore, if you end the game on Extreme mode, the "Thanks for playing!" message is replaced by "Dream and Friends".
  • Yet another one from the original game: at the beginning of the African Mines level, a padlock can be seen in the background. In the original game, this is where a locked door was, forcing the player to head to Transylvania to find the key. Later, you walk past a destroyed catapult, which was used in the original game to hurl Scrooge forward.
  • Two of the secret treasures could be found in the original game. The third, the one found in the Amazon, is based on the medal that appears in the newspaper in the original game's ending.
  • When you rescue Huey in Transylvania, he tells you that a Beagle Boy mentioned an "illusion wall", which Scrooge notes means a secret passage. This is a reference to Huey's line in the same spot in the original.
  • In the original, there was an unused bomb item. The Beagle Boys use a very similar looking bomb in the opening.
  • At one point, Magica mentions that she still gets carried away. This is a reference to a running gag in Magica's first appearance in the show, "Send In The Clones," where pretty much every other character mentioned that she "gets so carried away."
  • Magica turns the Beagle Boys into pigs, similar to Circe of the Greek legend. A Don Rosa story suggests that she is the reincarnation of the witch of old, though this may also be a throwback to "Home Sweet Homer".
  • After her boss battle, Magica will curse her "inferior beam and mirror spells" and say that it's the last time she'll buy "discount spells". This is presumably a nod to the aforementioned spells being new additions to her movepool in the remake.
• Never Say "Die": Averted; one of Magica's taunts in the final battle is, "Stop meddling, and die like lamb!"
• New Game Plus: If you beat the game on any difficulty less than Extreme, you can restart the game again with access to the Money Bin and Mount Vesuvius.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the original game, it's implied that Glomgold and Magica are working together in the final climbing sequence. In the remake, Glomgold is actually slowing Magica down by latching onto her, giving Scrooge a chance to beat Magica to the Number One Dime. Granted, Glomgold is blindly attacking Magicka in frustration rather than actually trying to help Scrooge.
• Non-Indicative Difficulty: Hard mode raises the challenge of each level and offers less Heart Containers, but the full health cakes are replaced with 1-ups, giving you far more tries until you have to restart the level.
• Non-Standard Character Design: All the other bosses are in hand-drawn animation like the other characters and the regular enemies, but the boss of the Amazon is completely CGI.
• Not His Sled:
  • In this version, though Glomgold is still part of the Big Bad Duumvirate, it's actually Magica who serves as the real mastermind, with her sending Scrooge out on his treasure hunt as a massive Batman Gambit to get his No. 1 Dime. Not only that, but the Treasures were used to resurrect Dracula Duck instead of stealing them directly from Scrooge. Because of this, the treasures are lost rather than Scrooge recovering them from Dracula Duck after his defeat, and subsequently the race against Glomgold and Magica at the very end is to now recover the No. 1 Dime.
  • The final level is also Magica's lair rather than a repeat of Transylvania, and unlike in the original game, the player can still collect gems to increase their total money.
• Not Now, Kiddo: Scrooge does a variant of this with Webby in the Himalayas stage, but ends up being grateful for her Tagalong Kid tendencies when she intervenes in his fight with the Yeti and helps them reach a peaceful resolution.
• Pooled Funds: You can now go swimming in Scrooge's money bin. There's even an achievement for doing so.
• Quote Mine: The trailer starts with this. The last one being "Stop e-mailing me for a quote".
• Rampage from a Nail: The Yeti attacks Scrooge in a rage because of the thorn in its foot- the Lost Crown of Genghis Khan.
• Retraux: In addition to containing the original NES versions of the game's music, 8-bit versions of most of the new music is also available, complete with fake screenshots of the two original stages in 8-bit. They can be listened to in the sound test, or when playing with the original music enabled. There is no 8-bit version of Count Dracula Duck's new theme, however.
• Rise to the Challenge: The part where Scrooge has to race Glomgold and Magica to the Number One Dime. It's not over after you grab it, however. You now have to get to high ground before the lava kills you!
• Samus Is a Girl: The yeti boss is a female, which is revealed by Webby after you defeat her.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Count Dracula Duck.
• Secret Level: You can unlock one, but it's tricky. The fifth digit in the total amount of money has to be a 7. (This can be made easier by buying stuff in the gallery.) After that, the cutscene where Launchpad is carrying Scrooge to the level will have Scrooge hanging on to a rope. Jumping off the rope of the plane will take Scrooge to the bonus level. Doing this for the first time gives the player an achievement titled "A Few Gears Loose."
• Servile Snarker: Duckworth brings a few good lines during his appearances.
• Shockwave Stomp: Both the Statue and the Yeti use this on you.
• Snipe Hunt: After retrieving all of Gizmoduck's pieces during the Moon level, Scrooge sends Gyro back into the spaceship to look for a two-dollar bill within the seat cushions so that he doesn't see Fenton become Gizmoduck. Gyro only manages to find a two-million dollar bill by the times Scrooge and Gizmoduck leave, which he goes to put back in the seat because it's not the two-dollar bill.
• Sound Test: One of the things you can unlock in the gallery is the music. However, the music menu is 6th in the menu, meaning a lot of Fictional Currency will have to be spent in order to listen to it.
• Squishy Wizard: Averted; Magica takes at least as many hits as any boss in the game (and more than some), and depending on how you play, she has the possibility of being the most durable boss in the game.
• Stealth Insult: Scrooge also indulges in this, most notably on the Moon level.
  Fenton: Gee boss, why'd you send Gyro back onto the ship?
  Scrooge: So he doesn't find out you're Gizmoduck when you put on that suit, you dunderhead.
  Fenton: But there are only three of us here, sir. Won't he figure it out anyway when Gizmoduck appears and I've mysteriously vanished?
  Scrooge: I wouldnae worry about that. Gyro may be a brilliant inventor, but his deductive reasoning skills are about as good as yours.
  Fenton: Oh... Hey!
• Tennis Boss: Flintheart Glomgold in the Himalayas. You have to wait for him to launch a bomb onto your plane, then hit it back to blow up his plane.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • The E3 Trailers for the Amazon level spoil the ending of said level.
  • Also, two of the Capcom employees have done let's plays of three of the levels. They're basically playing the most of game for you (unless of course you've played the original and know what to expect story-wise).
• Took a Level in Badass: All of the bosses from the original game have all new strategies, providing all new challenges for veteran players.
  • The Statue boss of the Amazon now makes the walls of the room crush you in various patterns. It's also now the huge head of a giant statue instead of a regular-sized statue itself.
  • Magica DeSpell now uses flame laser spells and a mirror spell along with her spread of bolts and turning into a vulture.
  • Terra Firmie King now has the ability to make it rain rocks on the battlefield, as well as summoning a horde of smaller Terra-Firmians to rush Scrooge.
  • The Yeti is now larger than when it was fought in the original NES version, gains a Shockwave Stomp move, and the strategy for beating her is now different.
  • The Moon Rat gains the ability to teleport and perform an Invulnerable Attack.
  • Heck, even the Beagle Boys get an upgrade from regular Mook to Mini-Boss! Big Time is actually promoted to boss of the game's first stage.
  • Flintheart Glomgold goes from end of the game obstacle, to a miniboss in the middle of the Himalayas, where he attacks you with Beagle Boys and bombs while Launchpad is flying you to the boss arena!
  • Bubba Duck goes from giving you an extension to your life bar, to clearing a path blocking you in the Himalayas.
  • In the original game, Gizmoduck's sole purpose was to blow up a wall Scrooge needed to get through in order to continue. In this, he lives up to his title of being Mr. McDuck's bodyguard by firing missiles at all enemies in the way.
  • Dracula Duck uses new attacks courtesy of Magica DeSpell, such as turning large, turning into a fire-breathing dragon, or becoming a swarm of bats.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: Mt. Vesuvius. Yes, inside a volcano.
• Video Game Remake: The game is a remake of the original NES game.
• Villain Team-Up: The Beagle Boys are working with Flintheart Glomgold. Glomgold, in turn, is working with Magica.
• Vocal Evolution: The voices of Scrooge and Magica DeSpell do not sound as energetic as they did in the TV series due to their actors' respective ages^note Alan Young (Scrooge) was 94 and June Foray (Magica) was 95. at the time they recorded their lines for the game. Tropes Are Not Bad, however; considering they're not only the original voices from there, but you can tell they're still giving their all even then, which makes it both awesome and heartwarming to hear them again.
• The Walls Are Closing In: The Amazon boss uses this on you.
• Warmup Boss: Big Time Beagle in the new introductory stage.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: Clearing the African Mine involves Scrooge's employees becoming garbage collectors for the Terra Firmians' "garbage rocks" - rocks that are "hard and sharp, and you can't roll on them at all." (We call them diamonds.)
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In a non-fatal example, Magica transforms the Beagle Boys into "pig-gle boys" (i.e. pigs) after she no longer requires their services. While Glomgold is the one who hired them, it turns out that he and Magica are working together, so technically, the Boys were following her orders the whole time.

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Dream and Friends