I realize people have some concern over the impact Quackshot had on gaming history, but is indeed important. Quackshot is not only a product of both the gaming and pop cultural zeitgeist, but also had a large influencing and shaping said zeitgeits. It was a melding of solid game development with a surprising display of franchise upward mobility. It is not only a beautiful send-off of pulp fiction that manages to no only capture the thriling sense of adventure, but also weaves a rich and developed world-building in a way only matched in the works of sequential art by Carl Barks that were brave enough to venture beyond the confines of Duckberg.
I could probably write an entire essay on the seemingly non-linear, yet tiered paths of adventure that gave the player a much greater sense of scale. Scale illustrated with the use of an overworld map connecting areas instead of sparse corridors like those previously seen in Metroid and Castlevania. The geographical nomenclature and illustrated map also serve to differentiate the game from the likes of Mega Man, which has a similar non-linear stage choice, but Mega Man only offered a boss portrait to serves a guide.
While typing this up I went to look up some dates and found this great article that says what I'm illustrating here and more:
http://hardcoregaming101.net/donaldduck/donaldduck3.htm
Even if some people claim it lacks influence in the gaming community, I know it affected myself and many other lovers of games. Nearly every time I mention the game in a group I can see some older gamers' eyes light up with fond memories. I'm sure many in the field of creating games feel the same way, and even if they don't consumers crave quality games based on existing licensed intellectual properties. In the quest for great licensed games there have been many dark times, but there are also great triumphs like Quackshot, Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Knights of the Old Republic, and Spider-Man 2.
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