November 8, 2011
Pap the Disney Gamer's
Highlights: Donald Duck
Developed by: Kemco
System: Famicom/Nintendo
Entertainment System
Licensing in the video game
world can be kind of tricky. Sometimes, the
owner of the license will give the developer
enough freedom to create a game based on it. But
in other occasions, the owner will be very
strict and supervise the creation of the game so
it meets expectations. In the worst case
scenario, the game developer loses the rights to
the license, forcing them to re-think the
original game concept. Such is the case with
today's game: Donald Duck.

Developed by Kemco and released
for the Nintendo Family Computer in Japan,
Donald Duck is a mini-game collection title
based on various Olympic/Field Day events.
Playing as Donald and competing with Daisy Duck,
players take on events such as the sack race, a
pizza stacking game, and a wall jumping
competition. Huey, Louie, and Dewey also join in
the fun as helpers during the events.

Donald Duck is a very simple
game: perhaps a little too simple. With no real
storyline besides the 'Donald goes to Italy and
plays on different sporting events' concept and
a limited amount of mini-games, it comes as no
surprise that the game has remained so obscure
for so many years. I didn't even hear of the
game until I was looking up info on classic
Disney games.

But it turns out that I HAD
played the game before, just under a different
title and franchise. This is where the tricky
concepts of licensing come into play. Kemco was
hoping to bring Donald Duck to North America as
a Nintendo Entertainment System title.
Apparently, in the process of renewing the
game's license, Kemco lost the rights to Donald
Duck.

Another explanation as to why
the game was changed during the localization is
that at the time, Capcom had the exclusive
rights to the Disney name, and they were in the
process of releasing many Disney games for the
Nintendo Entertainment System. So in order to
release the game here, they had two options:
either re-invent the game as a new franchise, or
acquire a new license to headline the game.
Kemco chose the latter.

Instead of playing as Disney's
Donald Duck and friends, North American players
saw the Peanuts gang grace the cover of the
game. Donald Duck was now known as Snoopy's
Silly Sports Spectacular. Donald was replaced
with Snoopy, Daisy was now Snoopy's brother, and
Woodstock was the friendly helping hand. The
mini-games and the overall game's concept
remained the same as in the original Japanese
release. It just had a change in franchise.

As you can see, a game's journey
of localization and licensing is one filled with
many hurdles to overcome. Kemco's Donald Duck
started out as a bonafide Disney game, but many
circumstances prevented it from being seen by
the entire world as a Disney game. Now, it is a
game many remember for being a quirky
Peanuts/Snoopy effort.