| “ | Back in 1987, when Duck Hunt came out, these two might not have had the best relationship. That all seems to have changed now, and this unlikely pair are here to fight together. After throwing a can or a clay pigeon, press the button again to have a little helper fire the NES Zapper for extra damage! | „ |
| ~ Duck Hunt's trophy description in Smash 4, referring to the relationship between the dog and the duck. |
Duck Hunt is a duo made of the laughing hound and the duck, and are the titular main protagonists of Nintendo's shoot 'em up video game series of the same name for the Nintendo Entertainment System created from 1984.
Duck Hunt consists of an anthropomorphic dog-and-duck duo, along with the offscreen hunter that accompanies the dog and the duck, and the dog typically attempts his best efforts to catch the ducks that were shot by the hunters, but failure to do so will cause the dog to laugh at the hunters to mock them.
Biography
Duck Hunt make their first official appearance in the shoot 'em up video game series of the same name created by Nintendo, Duck Hunt. The dog will perform his best to catch the shot ducks for the hunter, but if the hunter fails to shoot ducks in time, the dog will laugh at the hunter to mock them.
Throughout Duck Hunt, the goal is to shoot all of the ducks with a limited amount of bullets and under a certain amount of time. By plugging a controller into the player-2 slot in the NES, a duck can be controlled to a limited extent by another player for a competitive gameplay. Although the home console edition of Duck Hunt prevents players from shooting the dog itself, the arcade edition, Vs. Duck Hunt, allows players to do so in the bonus rounds. However, successfully shooting the dog immediately ends the bonus round without yielding points.
Other Media
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
A pair of ducks from the Duck Hunt universe appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a trophy.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
The Duck appears in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as a sticker that give a boost of "launch resistance" on Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch, Pit, and R.O.B. by 20, which references that all four of the aforementioned characters and their video game series, including Duck Hunt themselves, have all been first illustrated and debuted by Nintendo on 1980.
Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
The duo debuted as playable duo in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Super Smash Bros. for Wii U as an unlockable character in both variations. Unlike the other team-oriented fighters in the series (such as the Ice Climbers, Rosalina & Luma and Banjo & Kazooie), Duck Hunt are a trio, consisting of the dog, a duck and the offscreen hunter who wields the NES Zapper. After initially being leaked on August 19th, 2014 as part of the ESRB leak before getting their inadvertent revelation through an unofficial livestream on September 11, 2014, Duck Hunt's first official acknowledgement occurred through a post from the Director's Room Miiverse on October 22nd, 2014, before being ultimately followed by their official reveal trailer during a Nintendo Direct on November 5th, 2014.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Duck Hunt returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as unlockable characters. In their route of Classic Mode, titled "Dog, Duck, Zapper," the duo fights against characters who are characterized as animals. Duck Hunt were also were represented by a fighter spirit that can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode using them.
In World of Light, Duck Hunt are one of the several fighters that are vaporized by Galeem's beams. The duo can be found inside a forest covered in fog.
WarioWare
Duck Hunt appears in the WarioWare series as minigames.
Gallery
Trivia
- The Duck Hunt Dog is famous for his obnoxious laugh if the player fails to shoot the ducks. This is his entrance animation and one of his victory animations
- Despite being video game characters, their game started out as a toy, back when Nintendo was associated with making toys before being motivated to video games.
- In Europe, the character(s) are referred to as "Duck Hunt Duo." This distinction is carried over from their home game of the same name, Duck Hunt, having the ironic difference to have a different name alone between different localizations, such as Europe, to be aliased as "Duck Hunt Duo." This also changes Palutena's Guidance for the character between regions.
- Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Super Smash Bros. series, has said there is revealed to be a third character in the duo. The third character is the hunter that stands behind the screen. This is also revealed if Palutena's Guidance discusses the respective fighters.
- The Dog references Nintendo's variation of Muttley from the Hanna Barbera universe.
- The Dog is the only character in the Super Smash Bros. series where all of his alternate costumes are based on real-life dog breeds.
- The Dog is one of the two characters in the Super Smash Bros. series where their alternate costumes are based on non-video gaming characters, the other being R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy).
- Contrary to popular belief, Duck Hunt is not considered a replacement of the Ice Climbers. This was confirmed during an interview with Masahiro Sakurai, on which he said that the Ice Climbers would cause considerable lag to Smash 4 with their unique tag-team mechanic, leading to the community assuming that Sakurai did not desire to miss the representative for a Nintendo installment from the 1980s, thus adding Duck Hunt to fill the gap. This was once a case for the Balloon Fighter, because he was originally slated to be a new fighter in Melee, but was eventually rejected due to the Ice Climbers taking the favor during development.
- Duck Hunt and Toon Link are the only playable characters in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS/Wii U to also appear as background characters.
- The Dog is the second character in the Super Smash Bros. series that is only quadrupedal, the first and other being Ivysaur.
External Links
- Duck Hunt on the Super Smash Bros. Wiki
