DuckTales 2 is the tale of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews finding the chunks of a treasure map. This treasure map is the optional MacGuffin of the whole adventure, and, if you find the separate pieces scattered across every level (and shop) you will eventually uncover a magic mirror (?) in the basement of a castle. This is a disappointing reward for the effort involved, as participating in a proto-collectathon on a NES cartridge with no saves and a railroaded finale means missing even one piece will reset all your progress. And that secret treasure? It is in a sewer level. A sewer level is never a reward!
But could there be more treasure buried in DuckTales 2? Did Capcom hide an even more valuable treasure in plain sight?
Let’s look at the world map of DuckTales 2.
An important part of DuckTales 2 is that it includes real-world locations. The first (highlighted) stage is Niagara Falls, the famous tourist destination for weddings and barrels (so an ideal location to marry Donkey Kong).
The Niagara Falls stage is right there in the top right. The… northeast?
Which… Yeah, that cannot be right. Placing Niagara Falls in the “top right” all but obliterates the American continent, and sticks a number of known landmarks to the west. We need to reorient a bit…
Those pyramids are Egypt. The top of that spot on the DuckTales 2 map vaguely appears to be Africa, so that must mean…
Alright, now we are getting somewhere. You just have to rotate this duckworld around a bit, and Niagara Falls is properly a rough diagonal away from Egypt. You might have to squint, but Capcom was working with 8-bit technology, so we will grant them an artistic allowance.
Here is where it gets a little tricky. Even after apparently transforming Niagara Falls into some kind of island, Capcom did have to acknowledge that Scotland must be north of Egypt. No way scotch could come from anywhere but the Frozen North! So Scotland is right up there… which unfortunately does not line up with our previous rotation.
But! If we vertically flip the right/East side of the map, we are back in business. That Scottish castle is (roughly) where it must be. Which only leaves…
You would be forgiven for assuming that ship is just an excuse for some ghosts and/or pirate action, but Launchpad relays that this shipwreck is in the Bermuda Triangle. For those of you unaware, The Bermuda Triangle is not “just Bermuda”, as Bermuda is simply the northern tip of the triangle. Miami is the western tip, and the eastern tip is Puerto Rico. It’s a big area!
So it has to be another north/south flip. Niagara stays up near New York, and Glomgold’s last stand is now closer to Florida. That ship could be anywhere in the Bermuda Triangle, but we do have that unidentified landmass to its south, so we are going to assume that is some general Venezuela action.
So now it is time for the big reveal. Mu is the only DuckTales 2 stage not based on a real location. But many have claimed there is a Mu somewhere in the world. It is basically an Atlantis-deal: there was a grand continent of ancient people that sank beneath the waves, and their advanced technology and culture now rests at the bottom of the sea. Atlantis traces back to Plato, but Mu only has a couple of centuries of bumping around the myth sphere. Does this mean it is more likely to be real? Well, DuckTales 2 included it over Atlantis, and if we see where it wound up on our modified map…
Zoom in! Enhance!
Looks like Mu is… Santa Clara, Cuba. Uh…
Um…
Capcom, did you just construct an entire adventure for Scrooge McDuck to discover that the real treasure all along was… Communism?
Er…
Happy Fourth of July, everybody!
FGC #737 DuckTales 2
System: Originally only found on the Nintendo Entertainment System (and even then, only found rarely), it reappeared as part of the Disney Afternoon Collection, which was on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.- Number of players: They could have featured a playable Red and Blue Scrooge McDuck, but they opted for just one player.
- Maybe actually talk about the game for a second: DuckTales 2 was initially released in April of 1993. Mega Man X was released in December of 1993. You cannot tell me DuckTales 2, with lead artist Keiji Inafune, did not share some design philosophies with Mega Man’s 16-bit premiere. Scrooge has acquired a few skill improvements since his last adventure, and there are even more upgrades on top of that through three (generally) hidden scientists that will offer abilities you can use to return to previous stages and unlock even further secrets. Yes, the upgrades are mostly “how do you deal with heavy blocks”, but it is not like Mega Man X never got an odd helmet upgrade or alike. Other than that, this is more hot, pogo-based action, and we would not see something like that again for a few decades.
- Other Mega Man connections: This Disney Afternoon Capcom title has more Mega Man 6 art style energy than you could ever imagine.
- Physics Platformer: Somebody was evidently proud of Scrooge being able to pull objects with his cane, because that is a common task in roughly every stage. Pulling is fine an’ all, but give me more of the weird stuff, like Scrooge smacking walls to generate enough inertia to propel a raft in the opposite direction. That is what makes him smarter than the smarties.
- First Steps: Niagara Falls is recommended as the opening stage, as it is first selected on the map, and contains the easiest traps and boss. That said, its secret map room is undoubtedly the most difficult to find, and requires the weird “press against the wall while jumping” trick that you might learn in other levels (if you realize it is something that is possible at all). I cannot tell if this is brilliant or terrible game design.
- A personal failing: I keep buying safes. They are supposed to save my money? I do not want to lose my money. Please sell me more safes.
Favorite Boss: Firequacker and D-1000 are clearly leftover Darkwing Duck bosses. Sorcerer Duck, who appears on the game’s cover and is the only boss that is repeated for the secret stage, should have been Magica De Spell. Pharaoh Duck and Captain Duckbeard are nothing. So, by process of elimination, Golem Duck of Mu wins by default. At least he has a rocket punch!- An end: Webby, who did not appear in this game at any previous point, has been kidnapped! Scrooge rushes to rescue her, and, if he has not discovered all the treasure map pieces… uh… Nothing much is different. One of the nephews says “hey, we probably missed something,” and everything else is about the same. This was apparently too early for Capcom to learn that an incomplete collectathon is supposed to make you feel terrible.
- Did you know? There is once again a hidden ending for completing the game with zero dollars. This time, the newspaper conceit is dropped for a television broadcast that announces Glomgold has found the lost (by Scrooge) treasures. This causes Scrooge to go full Donald. Please look forward to DuckTales 3, where Scrooge learns of Glomgold’s treachery on the Information Superhighway.
- Would I play again: DuckTales (1) is my preferred tale of ducks, but every time I replay DuckTales 2, I am reminded it is a great game. It might not have that moon theme, but it is a good time I will likely experience again.
What’s next? Random ROB has chosen… Awesome Possum… Kicks Dr. Machino’s Butt. Oh no. That poor doctor. But I guess it is inevitable that his butt will be kicked. Please look forward to it?
