Lucky Dime Caper, The

Uncle Scrooge gave Huey, Dewey and Louie one Dime each on their birthday. But why? "When I was young he made a fortune with just one dime!" he said. Suddenly Magica De Spell with three crows appeared and the crows took away the three little ducks and Magica took Scrooge (lucky) Dime too! Magica thought that having this lucky little coin will become the richest person in the world.
Donald is having a quest then; rescue his three nephews and bring back the lucky Dime for Uncle Scrooge.
The game is a typical 8-way side-scrolling arcade platform, divided into several stages. Gameplay follows the same pattern of Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse game. Donald can attack enemies by hitting them with a wooden hammer when pressing Button 1 or by jumping onto them when hitting Button 2. Nasties vary from spiders, snails, bees to turtles, fishes etc according to the level. Note that not all of the enemies can be taken down by simply jumping once onto them, i.e. spiders are taken down by a single hammer hit, whilst you need to jump twice onto them in order to be killed. A single jump on a spider causes the spider to be used as a platform (i.e. to step into higher platforms). Most of the enemies will left a diamond (a huge one!) when killed and others will drop you a star which will increase your health bar. Note that a single enemy hit will reduce your bar by one or otherwise an instant death occurs when fall into a bottomless pit. Some levels involve swimming too. Donald must go deep into the waters to go through the level.
Strangely enough, there are a few difference between the Master System and Game Gear versions. A major difference with the Master System version is, the bonus items here are pre-placed in the level, whereas in the Master System version they are only obtainable by killing enemies. Also by collecting five stars in the Master System version gives you limited invulnerability, whilst the Game Gear version gives additional points.

The graphics are colorful. The game is offering some nice cartoonish backgrounds and sprites, much like the favorite animated films with Donald. Sprites move pretty smooth and scrolling is fast too. Donald offers some nice funny moves (i.e. scratching his back when idle!) whilst the enemy sprites are beautifully animated. Donald can move in all 8 directions on screen, jumping from one platform to another etc. Sprites move fast but it's quite difficult to control Donald especially when jumping on platforms or avoiding nasties when running. It is easy to crash on enemies or falling into deadly pits.
Sound is ok, offering a few nice SFX along with some cartoonish tunes during gameplay.