Firstly, Duck Life Adventure is a cartoon-based adventure game with RPG elements. You design your duck by choosing body colour, hairstyles,Firstly, Duck Life Adventure is a cartoon-based adventure game with RPG elements. You design your duck by choosing body colour, hairstyles, eye shapes and eye colour, then you name it and off we go. Time to follow our dreams, much, it seems, to the annoyance of our mother who had other plans for our future…
Straightaway I am impressed with the fact that there feels like so much more personality shining through in the game which no doubt comes from the confidence gained from the game’s predecessor. There is a vast new world to explore with a whole map to discover and quests to complete. With skills to learn such as flying, swimming, and jumping, along with numerous trainers to visit to level them up, there is so much to do! Not to mention competing in all the races, battling other ducks, and becoming the ultimate champion. On your way to becoming the champion, you will need to train and level up your skills which is done via multiple different mini games. These mini games range from balancing items above your head to jumping up logs without hitting obstacles.
There is no real difficulty setting to this game because you can gain levels in your skills which make each battle/race more likely to end in victory. Green icons above ducks’ heads signify an easier challenge as opposed to red icons which naturally mean you are probably going to fail. There is nothing stopping you though from having a go, and if you are smart with consumables then there is always a possibility of success.
Eventually, after the fiftieth time that a duck one flops you or you're left splashing haplessly in the water and all the other ducks have passed you by, you will need to face up to the face that it is time to get some training done. Each basic trainer will get you to level 50 and then it is time to pay a visit to the master trainer who can train you to 100 in everything. Some of the mini games are harder than others, but all are equally as fun and add a welcome challenge.
Yes, it is a lot of levels and to be honest, repeating mini games did ultimately become a little tiresome but every 10 levels something new is added which helped a little. In all honesty, spikes (in all forms) are quite possibly the bane of my life at this point. Aside from pressing “A” at the right times and choosing consumables when necessary, there is not much else to say about the controls as they are very simplistic. I would have liked it more if the menu controls were more responsive as they do feel quite disjointed when trying to look in your inventory.
As you go around training and competing against other ducks, you will earn coins which you will need to buy all the weapons and costumes which are on sale in the shops. Using armour and weapons will eventually lead to mastering said item which in turn rewards you with a boost to protection or damage. Some armours have resistances to certain attacks (water, fire, etc.) so it is a good idea to have a wide array of choices to change into. Possibly one of my favourite things in the game though are the jelly coins! They speak to the slot machine addict in me on a deep level. You can use the special coins in the hope to win more money, levels or if you are lucky, items from the jelly-coin-specific machines around the map.
The animation and graphics are simplistic without impacting the quality. I love the music and how it adapts depending on what you are doing at any given moment. My only gripe is that when travelling between areas named on the map there can be a slight pause as you cross over. There are also a LOT of loading screens which is not so bad but just something I had noticed. Thankfully, the loading screen does feature a little phone with some helpful hints and tips and even has the correct time which I thought was a nice touch plus it serves as an autosave function.
Unfortunately, I did encounter a couple of issues with the game which forced me to quit to the menu to fix it. On one occasion during a race, my duck was nowhere to be found and the race would not end so who knows where the little guy went! Another occasion I was checking a treasure map and when I tried to put it away it got stuck on the screen and would not go away. I am hoping that because they are such small bugs in the grand scheme of things that they will get patched promptly, especially considering you can report bugs found directly in-game!
Overall, the game plays well, there are lots of quests to do and skills to learn and any issues I have encountered are likely to be fixed in due course, but I have not come across anything that detracted from my enjoyment of the game. With all of the training I have now done, I feel like I can now become a duck.… Expand
