2D hardcore precision platformers need to have a personality, a style, or a unique gameplay gimmick to stand out from the crowd. With The Duck Amikaze Strikes Back, we get personality in spades. You are a duck with a bomb, ready to die and take out a farmer with you. The game plan is to traverse each of the 16 levels in the game to reach the end, and blow up the farmer, sending them to their doom. It never gets old watching a farmer fly to their doom off the screen, and that’s just as well, as this game is hard!
Levels borrow from the school of ’90s platforming spiciness. Jumps require precision, but they sometimes require momentum, too. As the game progresses, you’ll notice your duck can jump further when running at speed, or bouncing off a mushroom, and from world 2 of 4 onwards, this momentum mechanic is critical to your success. Whilst jumping, crawling, wall jumping, and aftertouch stopping are all consistent. I found the momentum-based sections were not. Having seen a message from the developer on my review video, they pointed to stick drift on my controller as the issue. Implementing a deadzone option would help solve this for other gamers, but I’ve since gone back to this game with a new controller, and I’m still running into similar problems. There is a level in world 2 which requires multiple mushroom bounces and platform jumps to traverse large gaps, and it is by luck, not judgment or skill, that I’ve been able to clear it. The level takes place inside a giant tree trunk, so you might clear one section, then fail the next, and drop down to the bottom. Do I have a skill issue? Absolutely, but when I feel like I’m doing the same thing and getting different results, I wonder if the window of success is perhaps a little too narrow for the level design and the tools the player has available.
Get beyond these blockers and you’ll find that The Duck Amikaze Strikes Back is a well-made game. Each level has an online leaderboard, a decent chiptune soundtrack, and some clever gotcha moments in the level design. There are four collectables per level, if you are brave enough, and medals for completing a level within a certain time. Whether it’s avoiding spike traps, flying eagles, sneaky foxes, falling ceilings, or razor cutters attempting to turn you into KFC, the levels run on for several minutes.
As you’ll only have a double jump and three lives per checkpoint restart, you’ll need to be careful. Yes, the game is timed, but your bomb won’t explode. The time trial aspect is more for the speedrunners among us, rather than locking players out of what is an already difficult challenge. If you find the game too hard, you can turn on infinite lives and/or infinite jumps. Both have their benefits for either retrying difficult sections quickly, or simply using jump to flap and fly over obstacles that you’ve just had enough of. Combine them and you get an odd Flappy Birds version of the game, but if you hit a wall, like I did with that evil tree trunk, it allows you to progress without wanting to scream into a pillow. Thankfully, the developer has ciphoned easy mode off into its own leaderboard, so if you play the game in its purest form, you’ll compete only against other brave platforming warriors, too.
I flip back and forth on my personal experience with The Duck Amikaze Strikes Back. I love the theme, and the level designs are at times fiendish. Sometimes, they resemble a rhythm platformer, and I get into a groove where everything just clicks and feels great to play. Then I come across a momentum-based area that grinds me immediately to a halt, or a new screen that has a cheap death immediately upon entry. It is a game that requires memory and skill, which I like in principle, but it needs to give the player consistent tools to deal with that challenge to be fair. This is one of those games where playing on a keyboard might give a better experience. That’s not how I like to play 2D precision platformers, and this marks my score down half a point. If you don’t mind, this is a good 7/10. Not for me personally, though.
A review copy of the game was provided by the developer. The Duck Amikaze Strikes Back is out on PC.
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