Duck Hunt

Duck Hunt
North American NES box art of Duck Hunt.
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Composer(s)	Kōji Kondō Hirokazu Tanaka
Platform(s)	Famicom, NES, Arcade
Release date(s)	JP April 21, 1984 NA October 18, 1985 EU August 15, 1987
Genre(s)	Light gun shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, Two-Player
Media	192-kilobit cartridge
Input methods	NES Zapper/Light gun

Duck Hunt (ダックハント^?) is a video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) game console system in which players use the NES Zapper to shoot ducks on screen for points. The game was developed and published by Nintendo, and was released in 1984 in Japan. The ducks appear one or two at a time, and the player is given three shots to shoot them down.

Duck Hunt was one of the two original pack-in titles for the first release of the game system.^[1] The game was not initially reviewed often, but given mediocre critical praise and positive gamer reaction.^[2][3] Prior to the NES version, Nintendo also made a Duck Hunt game based on Laser Clay Shooting System released in 1976.^[4]

Gameplay

Players are allowed to shoot up to three bullets at ducks. (Screenshot of NES version.)

The dog being shot in Vs. Duck Hunt.

In Duck Hunt, players utilize the Nintendo Zapper Light Gun that must be plugged into their NES consoles, and attempt to shoot down either ducks or clay pigeons in mid-flight. Duck Hunt was also released as an arcade game in 1984,^[5] and is included in the PlayChoice-10 arcade console.^[6]

The game has three modes: one and two-duck variations on the above formula, and a third mode called "clay pigeon shooting". The clay pigeons are much smaller sprites than the ducks, and, in later rounds, require faster reaction time to shoot down than in comparably numbered duck modes. In Vs. Duck Hunt, Clay Shooting mode appears as the second round with the first round being the two duck variation (the arcade version never had one duck).

Throughout the game, the player is accompanied by a nameless dog. Before every level, the dog sniffs around a grassy area, then jumps into it barking excitedly when he smells ducks. After that, he either does one of two things for a player: retrieves the ducks a player shoots and congratulates them, or laughs at them for missing (as well as for failing to advance to a higher level). Since then, the nameless dog has passed into video gaming folklore. The dog has become so infamous for his laugh that ScrewAttack rated him first in their "Top 10 Douchebags" list.^[7]

According to urban legend, the dog can be shot. This is technically correct, despite it not being possible in the NES version of Duck Hunt. The only time the dog can be shot is in a bonus round in Vs. Duck Hunt, the arcade version of the game.^[8] During said bonus round the object is to shoot as many ducks as a player can. The dog occasionally jumps out to distract the player. If the dog is shot, however, his face turns black with powder and his expression changes from carefree and happy to angry and glaring. The bonus round ends at this point, with the dog hobbling back onto the screen on a broken leg with crutches. He glares at the player and barks angrily, saying "Ouch! Shoot the ducks, not me!" (No bonus points are awarded for hitting the dog.)

Several unofficial remakes of Duck Hunt have been released which enable the player to shoot the dog.^[9] The nameless dog makes a cameo appearance in the NES game Barker Bill's Trick Shooting (another Zapper game) and he can be shot.^[10]

While Duck Hunt does not have a traditional multiplayer mode, the manual states that a second player may plug in a standard NES controller in the other controller port and control the duck that appears. This option was only possible in the one duck mode, and could not be done with the clay pigeons.^[11]

Development

Nintendo Research & Development 1 created the game. They also developed the Light Gun used in Duck Hunt. The game was supervised by Takehiro Izushi,^[12] and was produced by Gunpei Yokoi.

Packaging and music

Packaging

Duck Hunt has been placed in several combination cartridges. In the original Action Set configuration of the NES in the late 1980s, Duck Hunt was included with Super Mario Bros..^[13] This particular cartridge is found quite often in the United States, due to it being included with the purchase of a NES.^[13] If one had purchased the NES system in a bundle with the Power Pad, then Duck Hunt was included on a 3-in-1 cartridge that also included World Class Track Meet and Super Mario Bros.^[14]

Audio

Clay Shooting releases two clay pigeons at once.

The original music was composed by Kōji Kondō and Hirokazu Tanaka, both of which did music for several other Nintendo games at the time.^[15] The game's music was represented in the classic games medley on the Video Games Live concert tour.^[16]

Reception

Because of its release in the mid-80s, Duck Hunt received few reviews. Even today, most critics have not reviewed Duck Hunt.^[17] However, Allgame called the game an "attractive but repetitive target shooter" and "utterly mindless ... the game is fun for a short time, but gets old after a few rounds of play."^[2] Despite the lack of formal reviews, several user groups have rated the game positively. 1UP.com users gave it an 8.7 out of 10,^[17] and the GameSpot community gave the Mario-Duck Hunt package a 9.1 out of 10.^[3] It was rated the 150th best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.^[18] IGN also placed the game at number 77 on its "Top 100 NES Games of All Time" feature.^[19]

Nintendocore duo, I Shot the Duck Hunt Dog named themselves in reference to the game.^[20]

References

External links

• Duck Hunt at MobyGames
• Duck Hunt at NinDB