Duck Shoot (C64/VIC-20) (2023)

Look, I like it and it was worth the $4 AUD I paid for it on the sale, but I mean you have to have a REAL fondness for the arcade game Carnival like I do. It's not a patch on Coleco's version of Carnival, so I will state that now, and the Vic 20 game is superior to the C64 game, as the C64 version is BRUTAL and I thought I was doing something wrong - I watched a bunch of videos on it since I kept dying on Level 1 and thinking it was just a one level high score challenge, and I could not find a single video of higher levels. Well, no, it's just really, really hard as you have a very strict time limit and basically have to shoot everything in that time limit, so forget about missing targets. There is ZERO curve, zero grace to the C64 game. The Vic20 one on the other hand, whilst looking way worse, actually plays like the Coleco Carnival and is more forgiving. Much more. I still play both on my Ally when I want a few minutes to kill and am in the waiting room at docs or whatever, and on sale I recommend it. And yes I can get up to all of level 4 on the C64 one now LOL.

All I can say is, the C64 version requires you to shoot down the 8 plates located on the top of the stage to progress. I was able to get to level 3 and figured, "okay, this was fun." Then I realized the title screen hints the player to attempt to beat the author's score of 49,000+ points and reach level 25. So I decided to save-scum until I got to level 25... and it was not worth it! Just embrace the difficulty and play it legit. Just don't expect to surpass level 5 or anything without save-scumming. As for the Vic-20 version, I never really gave it a shot. It was probably I was in too deep with the C64 version. If you highly love old video games, I would recommend it... if it's on sale.