The daring Duck Knight on daylight duty.
Darkwing Duck: The Last Action Duck is a 2014 free Windows-only fan-made game based on Darkwing Duck, created by German freelance game designer Alexander Max Auernhammer. The game was made using Game Maker Studio, with reworked graphics from several NES games to include Darkwing Duck (Capcom), Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin (Capcom).
The plot of the game starts with SHUSH calling Darkwing Duck in to help recapture several criminals who've escaped from the local maximum-security supervillain prison after staging a break-out while the prison was being freshly painted. Now the criminals, including several members of Darkwing's Rogues Gallery, are causing mayhem across the length and breadth of St. Canard, and it falls to the Masked Mallard, with help from his allies and close friends, to round them all up and retrieve a number of treasures the crooks have stolen.
The game can be downloaded here
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This fan-made game provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Part of Jambalaya Jake's stage takes place in one of these.
- Anvil on Head: During the boss fight with Cementhead, a safe will periodically drop from the sky; if it hits you, you lose one feather from your health-gauge. You have to get it to drop on Cementhead himself to defeat him.
- Blob Monster: Sentient blobs of water are among the enemies you must fight. Fittingly, they are especially prevalent in Liquidator's stage.
- Butt-Monkey: Agent Grizzlikof is the target of Darkwing's training to master the various types of ammo he'll be using in the game.
- Cardboard Prison: The villains managed to break out of the maximum-security prison while their cells were being repainted. Apparently, nobody thought keeping the prisoners secured during the paint-job was important.
- Cats Are Mean: In Lilliput's stage, one mini-boss is a cat that chucks a ball of yarn at you. Since Darkwing has been shrunken down to the size of an ant at this point, the kitty and the yarn-ball are definitely dangerous.
- Chainsaw Good: Negaduck will throw lots of these at you (along with plenty of bombs) during his boss-battle. Appropriate, considering chainsaws are his most iconic weapons.
- Chase Fight: Negaduck's boss-battle has Darkwing on the Ratcatcher, chasing Negaduck on his motorcycle.
- Checkpoint: At different points in each stage, including instances where you defeat mini-bosses, a bouquet of flowers will appear that serves as this. Grabbing the bouquet will allow you to start back from that specific point if you lose a life in the stage thereafter.
- Collection Sidequest: Retrieving the stolen treasures in each stage is a secondary goal to defeating the villains.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: If you're using the keyboard to play the game and you're used to using the arrow keys to move a character, this game will throw you for a loop for a good while, even if you make use of the Justified Tutorial. This is because Darkwing can only move using the W, A, S and D keys (W to jump, S to duck, A and D to move left and right), plus the E key is used for shifting between normal ammo and specialized ammo, J is used for shooting, and K is used to activate Darkwing's cape-shield.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Cementhead can control concrete to rush at you along the ground.
- Dungeon Bypass: It's possible to defeat Lilliput very early on and avoid playing the rest of the villain's stage. Of course, that means you won't get any of the treasures in the bypassed section of the level (fortunately, you can play the stage again at your leisure).
- Elaborate Underground Base: Steelbeak's stage.
- Excuse Plot: Villains escape from prison, hero has to get them back. That's all the excuse you get for having Darkwing go up against the members of his Rogues Gallery.
- Final Boss: Negaduck, after you defeat him and the rest of the Fearsome Five in a Boss Rush battle.
- Gangplank Galleon: Liquidator's stage, the ruins of the ship owned by a legendary pirate named Blackbeak.
- Guide Dang It!: Locating all the missing treasures and the feathers to increase your health-gauge can be a serious challenge if you don't have any idea where to look. This playthrough video is helpful, at least for those who don't mind spoilers.
- Hood Hopping: The final level has Darkwing jumping from vehicle to vehicle along a highway. Falling off any of the cars and onto the road results in one life lost.
- It's All Upstairs From Here: Megavolt's stage has you climbing up a skyscraper (the elevator's broken down), evading danger along the way, and the boss battle takes place at the very top of the building.
- Justified Tutorial: When you start the game and go past the opening credits, SHUSH leader J. Gander Hooter will offer Darkwing an opportunity to train in preparation for recapturing the escaped criminals. The stage that follows provides an opportunity for you to familiarize yourself with the controls and how gameplay works. It's possible to skip the tutorial and head right into gameplay, but you'll definitely need to do the training due to how the controls are set up, especially if you're using a keyboard instead of a D-Pad.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Darkwing's cape can shield him against everything except flame attacks, by pressing K on your keyboard.
- Macro Zone: Lilliput's stage, the result of you being shrunken down by his Shrink Ray.
- Making a Splash: Liquidator, of course.
- Mercy Invincibility: Getting hit, while losing one feather from your health-bar, grants you this for a few seconds.
- No-Sell: Cementhead, being a mutant with a tough concrete body, shrugs off your gas-gun pellets with ease. Safes, on the other hand, not so much. Likewise, Moliarty's drill-tank in Bushroot's stage can be shot at, but it won't take any damage. You have to shoot the bomb-crates in its lair to blow it up.
- Rogues Gallery: You get to fight a lot of Darkwing's foes, both as major bosses and mini-bosses, including villains who were one-shot enemies in the TV series. Those you get to fight include Cementhead, Jambalaya Jake and his gator Gumbo, Lilliput, Steelbeak, Bugmaster, Wolfduck, Ammonia Pine, Moliarty, and all of the Fearsome Five (Negaduck, Megavolt, Liquidator, Bushroot and Quackerjack). These and other villains, from both the TV show and the comics, can be unlocked in Darkwing's art gallery.
- Rooftop Confrontation: You fight both Megavolt and Bugmaster on top of buildings. In the latter battle, falling off the edges of the roof will result in you losing a life and having to start back from the beginning of the level (defeating her will get you the level's first checkpoint).
- Sewer Gator: Jambalaya Jake's gator Gumbo, who acts as a mini-boss in Jake's stage and also fights alongside him in a Dual Boss battle.
- Shock and Awe: Megavolt, natch.
- This Is a Drill: Moliarty drives a drill-tank in one underground section of Bushroot's stage.
- Unlockable Content: Beating the various stages and collecting treasures allows you to unlock portraits of the franchise's various characters in Darkwing's art gallery.
- When Trees Attack: Obviously in Bushroot's stage, as trees, shrubs and flowers serve as enemies.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Mr. Banana Brain gets taken out in one shot.
