Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows (PS2)

While Donald Duck is certainly popular all around the world, Disney’s fiery-tempered waterfowl has achieved particular success in European comics. However, while he and his supporting cast continue to thrive there to this day, there was a country in Europe that wanted to retool the popular duck into something more appealing to their audience base. Italy was hoping to have a more action-oriented Donald Duck story with more mature themes such as taking the time to explore moral issues. To this end, Disney allowed them to make the comic series PKNA – Paperinik New Adventures, and while it wouldn’t achieve the same renown as other duck spinoffs like Ducktales or Darkwing Duck, its action focus made it a natural fit for a video game adaptation.

 

While working a security guard job, Donald Duck wishes for the more exciting life of a superhero, and that desire was immediately picked up by the floating green orb with a duck head in it named One. This unusual artificial intelligence is able to retool Donald into a caped hero, giving him the name Paperinik that he immediately shortens to the easier to remember PK. Donald is given an arm-mounted weapon called the X-transformer that can perform all kinds of crime-fighting and navigation functions, but perhaps the strangest gift One gave Donald was a voice that causes him to lose his iconic lisp and instead not only speak with an almost dorky new tone, but he loses his trademark anger and instead replaces it with the boasts of amateurish heroism. Essentially Donald’s famous attitude has been replaced by the PK persona, but there aren’t many story moments to explore that shift in attitude, most of the adventure focusing on the battle against the Evronian aliens who are invading Earth.

Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows is an action platformer that isn’t really going for anything particularly new or interesting. Levels are linear paths that are broken up by small platforming challenges and the occasional enemies you need to shoot down, the X-Transformer being the tool you’ll use for all your level interaction. Working mostly as a gun that shoots laser blasts, when an enemy appears, you target them and open fire, most fights not demanding much more than shuffling back and forth as you fire to survive. There are two enemy types that make up almost every bit of combat in the game, these being the tinier gun-wielding birds who are pushovers and the larger armored alien ducks who fire in a predictable pattern before leaving themselves open to your attacks. These basic baddies get a few upgrades as the game progresses but only really in terms of strength or durability, and while stages will have turret cameras and the late game adds in Evronians on flying boards to the mix, these fights never feel like much more than action filler.

 

You can get a few new weapons for brief periods, things like an upgraded laser or what seems like energy bolos lasting as long as you have ammo for them and dealing additional damage, but while their stronger killing power is appreciated, they don’t really change how you fight enemies except in regards to the time it takes. The rocket launcher at least feels distinct, although the game likes to give it to you when you’re fighting the flying foes whose boards will eat the rockets without damage or shielded enemies who won’t be hurt by it, so even this heavy ordnance doesn’t get to feel satisfying. Shielded enemies become a frequent feature late in the game, energy shields making your foes invulnerable to your shots until you’ve built up a charge shot to briefly disable it. This makes battles longer but not more strategic in the slightest, and they come with a very odd exploit built into them. To use the charge shot you need a certain amount of health, and while there are health pick-ups around the levels, if you find yourself facing a foe with an energy shield without enough life left, it is possible you would have been screwed if not for one feature. Shooting the energy shields with your regular blaster will make health pop out of them, meaning that the enemies who should be harder and more challenging despite truly being just as easy but slower to kill are now readily handing out free health refills. The two bosses you face at least come out decent since they ask for a lot of movement and some timing rather than constant shooting and mild dodging, but the action PK participates in is definitely unexceptional.

The platforming doesn’t really hold up its end of the experience either. The battle against the Evronian empire will nominally take you to new locations such as a desert or snow area, but while you do get a few moments outside to appreciate these new locations, soon you’ll be funneled into either a generic sci-fi building interior or a cave augmented with similar sci-fi props. Most of PK’s time is spent navigating oddly colored metal hallways or tunnels, and while there are larger and more open platforming challenges in between these, they slip into the same unexciting aesthetic as most of the game. Your X-Transformer has a few tools to help with the jumping challenges, the earliest and most helpful upgrade being a hover option that increases your jumping capabilities, but most of its upgrades don’t contribute anything that shakes up the gameplay. The ability to smash through damaged ground is mostly just a way of getting to the next area, and the grappling beam isn’t much of a challenge since it doesn’t feel too different from regular jumps. Both of these can have rare moments where they are slightly more interesting like the ground breaking move used to get extra goodies rarely or the grappling beam having to be timed to avoid electrical hazards, but they’re such mild additions that mostly Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows relies on fairly plain but serviceable jumping challenges that get interrupted by bland combat.

 

However, there are a few complications that could have been interesting if they were pushed further. All around levels you’ll find Activation Stars, which is a weird name for the green coins you can collect. PK must use these to buy checkpoints, and while death isn’t often too much of a worry, some of the platforming moments do have death as the punishment for failure. However, even without going out of your way to collect these, you can pretty much purchase every checkpoint you come across. This mechanic clearly had the room to make players either explore more to afford these checkpoints or could have asked them to balance when they’d spend the Activation Stars to avoid being set back too far on death, but instead it’s practically a non-factor. There are brief gameplay changes when you launch the X-Transformer as a drone that needs to fly through small vents to activate switches, and while it’s mostly just serviceable, it breaks up the monotony and is thus appreciated despite some awkward turning controls. Something that comes out a little better are the scientists. Beating the game requires you to save a certain amount of scientists to help build the rocket that will take you to the Evronian Emperor. When you are near to a captured scientist in a level, a timer will begin ticking down, the player needing to save the hostages before they are teleported away. It’s mostly easy enough, the game giving you proper clues on their location and there are more scientists than you need to beat the game, but the extra pressure allows tepid platforming and dull combat to suddenly become something with a bit of bite to it. You need to get through those pesky enemies or have to move quickly between hazards to save the scientists in time, and more moments of consequence like these could have helped Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows put up enough of a fight to be a bit more interesting during its short duration.

THE VERDICT: Despite his desire to be a hero, Donald Duck’s turn as PK on the PS2 certainly isn’t super. Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows is built out of bland world design and tedious gun battles, and while the platforming isn’t awful, its inability to excite means the problems with the mostly boring upgrades and samey level structure end up standing out more. Saving the scientists is decent despite its wasted potential and the rare boss fight at least feels like a fight instead of yet another generic duck-and-weave duel, but this short title sadly wastes a somewhat obscure property that had the potential to capture the little known comic book’s action and themes.

 

And so, I give Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows for PlayStation 2…

A BAD rating. While its very likely the unambitious combat design and underutilized upgrades stem from a need to keep the difficulty low for young players, this short Disney game lacks the sort of energy and creativity that make Disney brands appealing to kids. The same ugly sci-fi industrial aesthetic is common throughout and the action isn’t trying to be interesting either. Gunfights are far too straightforward, and while the linear platforming isn’t much either, it at least can throw in new hazards or platform layouts to feel different while the same alien birds keep appearing for the same style of combat. Proper variety is where PK’s adventures should be improved first and foremost to move things away from blending together into one unexceptional blur of similar experiences, but changes like an improved version of the scientists challenges or a more challenging checkpointing system could have added in more excitement and risk as well to ensure there is some danger in this superhero story.

 

Disney’s PK: Out of the Shadows is the kind of action platformer you could easily get through despite its unoriginal and unengaging design, the short length and low challenge meaning it can be stomached and pushed through without much irritation. However, its repetitive design makes such a commitment rather boring, and because its better ideas don’t get enough play, it ends up overshadowed by plenty of superior entertainment options both in its genre and in the realm of child-friendly Disney games.