Pete Jr Plays: Ducktales (NES, 1989)

Hello Pete Jr. or may I call you Pete?

Friends call me PJ.

Ok PJ, so I’d lik-

You may call me Pete Junior.

Ah I see.
You’re quite headstrong for someone so young.

I’m 39.

…
The Junior in your name made me think of the other Pete in the Pixel Pirate story, is he your father?

Thats me too.

Okay. So you’re here to talk about Ducktales, a game released on the NES in 1989. It’s a platformer that stars Scrooge McDuck, on a quest to become the richest duck in the world! The game was a commercial hit, made by the team behind Mega Man.

Well, I don’t know about all that stuff.

Kindly elaborate.

I found this game cartridge in box of old junk, from some fancy ship that we, uh, “acquired”. Polly showed me how to get it running and I’ve been playing it ever since.

[Polly has joined the chat]

You’ve been playing this for 28 years?

What are you talking about, what year is this?

We’re in 2018.

I found this game 15 minutes ago.

Hang on, so you’ve never played a game before?

I can play games…

So for you, as a young pirate, what did you find interesting about Ducktales?

Drinking games.

The game, PJ.
I mean Peter.
I mean Pete Jr.

There was a lot of Loot. So much of it. Diamonds everywhere. Jump up *poof* diamond. I tell thee it were proper riches from the heavens. You don’t see that very often anymore, theres a drive to have things make sense.

So you’re saying Ducktales is interesting because it’s nonsensical?

It’s fun. One other thing I like were the big bold characters, that was refreshing, some of the other games I saw looked proper grim.

I think the biggest sprite we have seen on the NES was in Dragons Lair.

Dragons!

Hmm it’s probably best if we keep to Ducktales for now. So were there any other aspects that you enjoyed?

Particularly liked that there were secret rooms, in secret rooms! Now thats my kind of adventuring!
The game was short but very well thought out and pretty.

A bit like me.

Not very bashful are we?

I’ll bash you.

I see. Well thank you for your time Pete Jr. Good luck in your own quest for loot.

Get stuffed

Well many thanks to Peter there for joining us, I think you’ll agree he seems like a nice chap. And if you haven’t already, go check out Ducktales, it’s a classic from the gaming archive that still holds up, thanks to it’s tight controls and non-linear gameplay it makes the cut.

I’ll cut you.

Please stop texting me.

[Narrator has left the chat]