Review: Duckstroma
Meet Aura, the delivery duck. You have to gather 8 disks from your typically hazard strewn warehouse, so that they can be delivered. The main hook is the unusual, and possibly original exploding egg jump mechanic. It builds on an idea from UltraNarwhal's earlier game "Octukitty", in which you lay a sprite that you can jump on. Duckstroma's take on this is to give you an enhanced leap of two-thirds of the screen. It's pretty much a requirement to have a decent AY soundtrack these days, and the music here doesn't disappoint. In general the graphics are superb, though if I was to quibble, I'm not keen on the reuse of some of the graphics from Octukitty.
Duckstroma makes excellent use of MPAGD, and so this game is also available on rubbish systems like the MSX & NES. There is also an Amiga version in development.
There are people out there that claim they don't like cutesy games...
...but if you can look on this dancing duck and still feel nothing, you are dead inside.
The end sequence sets us up nicely for a sequel, which Ultranarwhal has already announced he is working on. It will be called Cursageddon, and it sees Aura the duck in a Knight's armour in what appears to be a medieval castle. This sounds very exciting, though it does break the well-tested dictum that you should save time travel shenanigans for part three...
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