Well, basically it is a standard shooting game with a static player character that can buy upgrades and with enemies that are getting stronger each level to raise the challenge. But that static player character is a heart, and it is your task to keep it going, to blow the blues away. And also the mean reds, as in “Hold Off Red“.

The first reaction by many was: This guy can’t draw, and he can’t spell. Ergo, this must be an attempt to waste my time. The more perceptive people decided that although he can neither draw or spell, he is a kid from Norway who loves to draw Disney characters, and even though it all went terribly wrong, you should not blame the fella for chasing that star and following his dream.

And then there were some who felt that this game, these two adventure games, were something very big and important, and although they could not really grasp what it was, they knew that they were probably about to witness their Disney socialization being decomposed and put back together, and they saw it was right.

Bjørnar B’s broken Duckburg has its own set of rules, and they all seem like little twists of the formalized Disney original. Fat uncle Jubalon enjoys his carbonated beverages by the dozen and thinks little of healthy porridge (which helped D. Duck win the Duckburg marathon, after all!). The nephews, going by names as varied as Ooie, Huie, Loouie or Dewi, listen to their degenerated modern C64 music. D. Duck’s arch nemesis is a crocodile called “Charls”.

In any case, it is up to the player in which way he wants to understand Bjørnar’s games and his whole universe. It could be criticism of the commercialisation and sell-out of “family values” by Disney. It could also be food for thought for those of us who have grown up with mainstream comic books and remember all the valuable lessons about education, friendship, love and money. But Life of D. Duck could also just be a set of characters thrown into a blender with marvellous doodle graphics, lovingly hand-crafted animations, brilliant and consistent storytelling and puzzles that can definitely compete with the genre classics. For those of you who don’t want it to be anything else.