#m.duck

Name: Magic Duck

Debut: M.Duck

Can you guess what the M in "M.Duck" stands for? No, you can't, because you already know the answer! M.Duck is a mobile roguelike shooting gallery game about a duck venturing through a mysterious tower, fighting a huge cast of strange and wacky creatures, discovering new relics and friends along the way! It is one of my favorite mobile games of all time- one of those games that flourishes as a mobile game because of how it's designed, and even better, a one-time purchase with no ads or microtransactions- and it absolutely deserves more attention than it gets!

Most of this post will be about the enemies, but I would not want to leave Magic Duck himself out of the fun. Like every human in the universe, when I look at a duck, I smile. What a good animal "duck" is. This duck in particular is MAGIC, and not because he uses a wand! The magic is in the wand. The magic is that this duck can use the wand in the first place, because canonically the most magical thing about him is the ability to use his wings like hands. What does this imply about any latent magic dwelling within Moorhuhn...?

First on my list, and one of the earliest encounters, is Wormis! The plural is said to be "Wormie". Silly goose. I mean silly duck. I mean silly worm! There is not much to say about it, but it is a funny sluggy thing with a bobbly-bop, which it uses to shoot magic projectiles. Real slugs do this, but you have never seen it, because they like you!

This thing here is the Sea Shooter! Not to be confused with the monstrosity they recently added to Plants vs. Zombies 2. I like it because it reminds me of a cucumber. A sea cucumber! They use bows-and-arrows for their Shootering, pulling the bow with a little nub hand that appears. When defeated, their body disappears in a strange pattern, leaving just their face to blip away. I don't think it means anything, but it looks cool!

Now this here is not actually an enemy, but an item! This is the Mana Bug, which is obviously wonderful for being a cute bug, but it gets better. It is described as a PILLBUG! #conglobationnation This bug eats one of your ammo slots, but increases both reload speed and magic recharge rate, because it's a magic bug! They get to eat some magic, and the magician gets to use more spells. If a pill bug wanted to travel alongside me, though, I would not need any extra motivation! I love phoresy! Look up phoresy!

Portal Fish is one of my favorite creatures in the game, because it is so dang cool! A rectangular "fish" with eight eyes, or perhaps snake-like heat pits! It swims through the air, and uses its unique teleportation ability to enter a portal, emerge from one at the bottom of the screen, and try to take a bite out of a duck (an important duck). It's just such a cool way to contextualize a specific hitbox appearing!

Finally, my favorite creature in the game! This is Agern. The game enthusiastically informs us that its name is Acorn in another language, and it is! It is Danish, which I just learned by looking it up. Agerns appear as simple acorns that cannot be hurt, summoning little round Agern Pods as sentinels to attack. Once it thinks the coast is clear, Agern reveals its true freak body! I mean freak affectionately, as I always do, and it should not be ashamed of its body. I love looking at this! Such angles, and angular lumps, and even a round lump, and many lesser faces. It's so cool! And absolutely not something I would expect to see out of an acorn! I'd sooner expect a loungin' larva!