Special Agent CyberDuck Review: An Action-Quacked Platformer

Who do you call when an evil artificial intelligence escapes containment, unites all the crime syndicates and launches a menacing wave of wanton destruction across the city? Howard the Duck? Darkwing Duck? You'd be misled if you think these mallards are up to the task, for there is only one duck who can answer the call. His name is Special Agent CyberDuck!

Developed by lukasinspace, Special Agent CyberDuck is a puzzle-based action platformer whose titular character is a gun-wielding special agent of the Cyber Punk Crime Division. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to rescue the hostages, unlock new weapon upgrades, and save the city by putting a hole through the nefarious Godbot.

The first thing worth mentioning is the incredible retro-styled pixelated artwork of the game. The graphics took me back to the eight-bit Nintendo era. I immediately had that nostalgic sense from childhood. The chiptune music is  also pretty cool and adds to the game's retro feel. My only issue with Special  Agent CyberDuck’s presentation was the font choice: Some of the text is hard to read, with letters like "M" and "H" or "D" and "O" blending together.

Just look at the picture above. What does it say? Main? Hain? To make matters worse, there aren't any subtitles underneath the title images. I needed to select each image to understand all my options and even got linked to the game’s wiki page at one point. But once I made it through the menus, it was on to saving the city!

Special Agent CyberDuck has four main areas: Downtown, Hive Slums, Industrial Wasteland, and Launch Facility. Each area has its own unique set of enemies and obstacles, including boss battles. The gameplay itself is straightforward, and gamers of all levels should have no problem getting a handle on it.

Special Agent CyberDuck starts with a fun two-minute tutorial. The goal is simple: Get through the stage without losing your health, save the hostages, and destroy as many enemies as you can to collect coins and bonuses. You can  even interact with items in the level to unlock secret passageways and find unique rewards and power-ups.

But don't be fooled. Although the game's premise is simple enough, you'll find getting through stages isn't as easy as it seems. I died so many times on level five alone that I built up a huge enough collection of coins to go to the game shop and purchase a Pump Shottie. Upon my next attempt, I proceeded to use said Shottie to liquidate my enemies.

Weapons are the source of a lot of the fun in Special Agent CyberDuck. Different weapons have different combat elements. My shotgun inflicted greater damage but had limited range. Other favorites included the Grenade Launcher and the Flame Blaster, which even caused special effects like burn damage. Each weapon also has a unique sound and feel, and it was incredibly satisfying testing them out while blasting my way through missions.

Part of the brilliance of Special Agent CyberDuck’s arsenal is that the game makes saving up to purchase new weapons easy. There aren't any penalties for dying other than starting the level over. All the coins you've collected stay with you. Whenever I felt stuck, I was able to keep grinding until I was rich enough to purchase upgraded gear. And, of course, there's always the option of buying more coins if you want to skip doing all that hard work.

Special Agent CyberDuck also puts a lot of emphasis on replay value. The game has eight playable characters that can be purchased with a large price tag. Each of those characters has unique attributes that change the gameplay, ranging from coin multipliers to status changes on weapons. During my time with the game, I was able to save up enough coins to purchase Lootie the Pig, who comes equipped with a loot magnet that makes collecting items easier! A great character if you like pigs and grinding for gear.

The cast of characters provides an incentive to replay levels. There are also the various expected features, such as multiple difficulties and a speedrun mode, and the hostages sprinkled throughout each level are treated as a sort of collectible for completionists and true masters of the game to chase after. The player decides how thorough they want to be. If you just want to do a speedrun, skipping the secret rooms is always an option. Players can compete for the fastest times on community leaderboards, and there are also game codes to unlock additional content. I’ll avoid spoilers, but there’s even a blood code if you want to increase the carnage.

I consider myself a decent gamer, but I died quite a bit while playing Special Agent CyberDuck. One criticism that I’d levy toward the game is its lack of checkpoints. I was forced to start a level over from the start every time I died. It was a bit mind-numbing repeating a level from the beginning when I had just been literally one enemy away from the end of the stage.

Ultimately, Special Agent CyberDuck isn't reinventing the wheel on action platformers, but it offers a lot in a small package. Between the smooth gameplay, the wacky characters, and the variety of features, I had a lot of fun playing it.

Game Rating 4 out of 5 stars

What's Good:

● Controls

I mastered the game’s controls within minutes of playing for the first time. Great for new gamers or people new to platforming.

● Replay Value

With the number of weapons, characters, game modes, and stages, looking for new ways to experience the game isn't a problem.

● Retro Feel

Travel back to the golden era of gaming with music and art that's a blast from the past!

What's Bad:

● Monotony

As the difficulty increased, I found myself replaying levels over and over again. With no checkpoints, I memorized the exact layout of levels, whether I wanted to or not.

● Text

This retro gaming font will be off-putting for some people and might take time to get used to.