Digital Shorts: ‘Quest for the Golden Duck’ Review (Nintendo Switch)
In DIGITAL SHORTS we review some of the latest video games that are only available digitally (at least in the UK), in a short-form review format. In this edition we take a look at Quest for the Golden Duck, a Pac-Man clone with challenging single player, co-op campaign and fun multiplayer versus mode, now available on the Nintendo Switch.
A game heavily based on Pac-Man, Quest for the Golden Duck is a pretty basic title which gives you the option of five adventurers (who all play the same) and supports both single player and multiplayer modes. The single player quest mode feels like more of an afterthought as you make your way through various coin-collecting based puzzles, split over five stages and pitting you against the timer. Whilst these are nice distractions, the main draw here is the ability to essentially play Pac-Man with up to four players. You can either all compete against bot enemies (guard dogs, zombies and skeletons) or split into teams with the monster team trying their darndest to stop the heroes from collecting all the coins and thus finishing the level.
In all game modes there are a couple of items such as a red jewel which replaces the power pill in the original Pac-Man and a blue bomb which freezes the enemies for a few seconds. Visually, Quest for the Golden Duck is quite neat and clean with generic sounds making up the audio palette. If you are a fan of Pac-Man, the multiplayer aspect is a nice enough twist along with the cartoonish medieval-Fantasy l setting to make this worth a look. It may not have an original bone in its body but it’s a solid version of a classic game that’ll keep fans entertained for a while, probably not worth it if you intend to play alone, however.
I will say that this could be a neat little game to play with children or more casual players as a way of introducing them to the basic aspects of video gaming as it is colourful, simplistic and extremely accessible and hey, the whole family can get involved.
Quest for the Golden Duck is available on the Nintendo eShop now.
