Reply to Re: Crazy Old Tim Plays all the DMODs of 2001
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104: Revenge of the Ducks 3: Enter the Smallwood Author: Jan Willem Veenhof Release Date: September 16, 2001
Ducks, ducks, ducks. You could say that their very inclusion in the original game was enough to guarantee they'd be the focus of many DMODs, but there's more to it than that. A 2002 experiment found that, worldwide, ducks were considered to be the funniest animal. What is it about ducks? Is it the way they waddle? Is it that quacking sound? In Dink's world, it's probably the fact that you can punch their head clean off.
In the conclusion of the oddly named "Revenge of the Ducks" trilogy (oddly named because it looks like the revenge of just one duck to me), Ronan the Duck and Billy the Bonca finally meet Dink Smallwood, something I'd been anticipating since the original (heck, I thought the "revenge" was going to be for Dink's duck-killing ways back in Windermere). Not much really happens, though.
I have to be blunt here - this DMOD is seriously overrated. RotD 2 was much better, and it isn't like I loved that one. I don't think it's terrible, but it just comes off as mediocre and lazy. You walk through maps so sparse that it feels fair even for me to say so (which is saying a lot), killing pillbugs. That is all you do. It took me about twenty minutes, but that's because I chose to hang around beating up pillbugs for some reason. You could easily do it in under five. Treelines are ended poorly with standard tree sprites that you can burn down, thus going where you aren't supposed to. I found at least one screen that locks and then won't unlock. There's a goblin who seems like he's supposed to be a boss, but since the screen doesn't lock, there's no need to fight him, which doesn't make any sense in the context of the story.
There's still the annoying thing where you pause when you shoot a fireball, but I got a bit of a new perspective on that. You could argue that magic in Dink is broken in the first place. When you're having trouble with a fight, the best thing to do is always to abandon the hit and run tactic and hang back and shoot fireballs. If you're patient, you'll win, unless you're unlucky enough to be fighting an enemy that casts, shoots, or is extremely fast. With this little handicap, shooting fireballs becomes kind of dangerous, and getting a shot off without getting hit requires more precision. Maybe JVeenhof was actually balancing out the game.
While Dink is not the subject of their revenge (some guy named Xanatos is the big bad in this series), Ronan and Billy are still massive jerks to him, which is kind of funny, I guess. They end up working together to destroy a common foe, which is nice, although it's kind of lame you don't get to fight an actual end boss.
Playing as a Duck riding a bonca was still a tremendous idea, but RotD 2 did it better. This one had less structure, less of a plot, and is easily skippable.
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Next up: Secret of Parizaya, one of only two DMODs on the site that is labelled an "Epic" and rated less than 8.
Ducks, ducks, ducks. You could say that their very inclusion in the original game was enough to guarantee they'd be the focus of many DMODs, but there's more to it than that. A 2002 experiment found that, worldwide, ducks were considered to be the funniest animal. What is it about ducks? Is it the way they waddle? Is it that quacking sound? In Dink's world, it's probably the fact that you can punch their head clean off.
In the conclusion of the oddly named "Revenge of the Ducks" trilogy (oddly named because it looks like the revenge of just one duck to me), Ronan the Duck and Billy the Bonca finally meet Dink Smallwood, something I'd been anticipating since the original (heck, I thought the "revenge" was going to be for Dink's duck-killing ways back in Windermere). Not much really happens, though.
I have to be blunt here - this DMOD is seriously overrated. RotD 2 was much better, and it isn't like I loved that one. I don't think it's terrible, but it just comes off as mediocre and lazy. You walk through maps so sparse that it feels fair even for me to say so (which is saying a lot), killing pillbugs. That is all you do. It took me about twenty minutes, but that's because I chose to hang around beating up pillbugs for some reason. You could easily do it in under five. Treelines are ended poorly with standard tree sprites that you can burn down, thus going where you aren't supposed to. I found at least one screen that locks and then won't unlock. There's a goblin who seems like he's supposed to be a boss, but since the screen doesn't lock, there's no need to fight him, which doesn't make any sense in the context of the story.
There's still the annoying thing where you pause when you shoot a fireball, but I got a bit of a new perspective on that. You could argue that magic in Dink is broken in the first place. When you're having trouble with a fight, the best thing to do is always to abandon the hit and run tactic and hang back and shoot fireballs. If you're patient, you'll win, unless you're unlucky enough to be fighting an enemy that casts, shoots, or is extremely fast. With this little handicap, shooting fireballs becomes kind of dangerous, and getting a shot off without getting hit requires more precision. Maybe JVeenhof was actually balancing out the game.
While Dink is not the subject of their revenge (some guy named Xanatos is the big bad in this series), Ronan and Billy are still massive jerks to him, which is kind of funny, I guess. They end up working together to destroy a common foe, which is nice, although it's kind of lame you don't get to fight an actual end boss.
Playing as a Duck riding a bonca was still a tremendous idea, but RotD 2 did it better. This one had less structure, less of a plot, and is easily skippable.
---
Next up: Secret of Parizaya, one of only two DMODs on the site that is labelled an "Epic" and rated less than 8.
