Toss a ninja into just about anything and it’s bound to get instantly cooler… or at the very least look cooler. That’s how I got sucked into the world of Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow (1996), in which Maui Mallard is a detective who just so happens to take a vacation on the wrong tropical island and finds himself on the case of a missing idol (Shabuhm Shabuhm) whom the natives believe to be their guardian spirit. Without the idol, the island will explode and Maui with it (apparently there were no boats around anywhere).
Although the US version doesn’t mention it, Maui is actually portrayed by Donald Duck as indicated by the PAL (European) version which was given the title Donald in Maui Mallard. Why the change was made is uncertain, but I suspect it was to make the game look more awesome to button mashing American fans like me who’d much rather play as a bad*ss ninja duck than as Donald. It worked.
I can remember snatching this puppy up thinking that the feathered foul was something out of a long lost episode of TMNT. Unfortunately, it’s more like a bad episode of Darkwing Duck as you end up playing most of the game as Donald the Duck more than you do Maui the Ninja. In fact you, can only play as Donald in the first level, armed with nothing more than a “beetle gun” for which you need to explore the Castlevania-like environment collecting special “beetle bullets” for in order to defend yourself against giant spiders, creepy butlers, piranha, evil floating heads and more.
The one credit I’ll give the game is that its soundtrack was pretty catchty, a mix of stereotypical martial arts film scores and tropical beats I could listen to even while not playing the game it managed to keep me playing long after the novelty of being a ninja duck wore off. The platforming controls for Donald were simple enough, the level itself was horrendously frustrating with hidden passageways and secret chambers scattered all throughout- especially to a 13 year old strange kid. Things do get a bit more fun after you’re granted the ability to transform into a ninja, but even then you’re still forced to switch between Maui and his ninja persona throughout the rest of the game. For a kid who simply wanted to play as a ninja duck, this was unimaginably disappointing and also explains why I never finished the game.
