Duckmageddon - A Duck Shooter

In a clear spin-off of ancient NES games of yore, Duckmageddon takes everything that you love about Duck Hunt, polishes the graphics a bit for the modern age, and... well, does little to nothing else with it. While gamers have come to expect shallow mechanics from lightgun style point-and-click shooters, Duckmageddon is underwhelming even by the standards of this arcade-popularized genre.


The gameplay formula of Duckmageddon is simple: there are two breeds of ducks, both of which must be killed in specific amounts to pass the level. Fail to shoot enough flying targets, and you'll start all over from the beginning. Succeed, and you'll move on to the next round, which merely ups the required head count for your avian victims.

Even when compared to its eight-bit predecessors, Duckmageddon's presentation has some serious problems. But first, the good. Its art style is pleasantly colorful, and the background is slightly blurred to let the outlined ducks stand out to the eye. The playing field and the ammo counter (which you'll need to click on to reload) also are clearly designated.

Unfortunately, this visual feedback doesn't extend to the actual gunplay. One would think that the author would be able to get the hunting rifle right in a game all about shooting a hunting rifle, but there is zero visual indication of your shot on screen, other than the aftermath of a duck falling to the ground with a score popup. Along with the questionable hitboxes for the ducks, this creates a minimal feedback situation that causes wholly unnecessary uncertainty about where your mouse cursor needs to be to pull the shoot off. Shooting ducks is a binary proposition: either you get the kill or you miss, when the game would have benefited from some form of basic damage modelling, or at least a clear indicator of the shot's radius. While unrealistic, Duckmageddon clearly is not aiming for realism, regardless.

In terms of AI, the ducks of Duckmageddon also are lacking. You'll find yourself shooting at the same basic flight patterns over and over, with only an increasing counter to let you know that you're not still playing on the first level. There's no change of environment and no upgrades - only more ducks spawning in slow trickles.

Duckmageddon is not a terrible game. But it is an unambitious one, and in a genre with plenty of alternatives, Duckmageddon has no hook. If you like to hunt virtual ducks, you'll likely want to do it elsewhere.

Enjoy!