There’s something about ducks and treasure that just go together. Maybe it’s all the PR Scrooge McDuck has done for waterfowl that makes the connection feel so natural. In Joey the Duck, you play the titular duck and join his quest for the hidden treasure of the Forbidden Lands.
But it turns out the Forbidden Lands aren’t actually that forbidden — they’re just difficult to traverse. It’ll take good timing, bravery, and reflexes to navigate your way and fulfill Joey’s dream of being rich.
Overview
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Developer: Sikor
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Publisher: Sikor
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Platforms: Windows (Reviewed)
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Release Date: June 2, 2026
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Price: $5.99
A Seamless Adventure — Almost
Joey the Duck calls itself a “seamless platformer.” What that means is it’s kind of like a linear Metroidvania — there are zones, regions, and checkpoints, but no loading screens or rooms. Instead, one level immediately segues into the next. Functionally, it’s no different from setting arbitrary stage ends and starting points, but it’s an elegant stylistic choice. The entire adventure can be summed up as one seamless journey from one end of the game world to the next — no interruptions, no barriers.
Visuals and Audio
The graphics are cute and colorful. It doesn’t pretend to be a retro game, but it takes inspiration from the style. Joey the Duck feels like an intentionally crafted game — there’s no nostalgia-baiting or allusions to other platforming franchises. I don’t have a problem with that; it’s nice to see a game that allows itself to be itself.
The music is also cute — my favourite is the duck sounds in the mushroom area. While the music itself is good, there’s an issue with looping. Songs end and restart abruptly, with no seamless mixing of the background tracks. Unfortunately, that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the game’s lack of polish.
Gameplay and Controls – Janky but Endearing
Momentum feels weird, hitboxes are unreliable, and perhaps most egregiously, you can get out of bounds easily. I don’t know if it’s a translation error or a programming oversight, but Joey’s wall jump doesn’t require two walls to bounce between. Instead, you can just hold one direction and scale the wall like in Mega Man X. Using this trick, I was able to completely bypass at least two cave sections.
These seem like small things that should have been fixed. What Joey the Duck does well, however, is its level design. Jumping puzzles and obstacles never really feel unfair. The game provides shortcuts after taking detours to search for secrets. Enemies — especially the robot boss — have some weird hitboxes, but I can forgive that.
Secrets and Progression
The thing I have difficulty with is how there’s no real way to differentiate the intended path forward from the path that holds secrets. Every vertical fork in the road is basically a coin toss of whether I’ll find a secret or end up at the next checkpoint, requiring me to backtrack to explore the untaken path. I know secrets are meant to be, well, secret. However, with alternate paths so cleanly laid out, I think it’d help to know which path is the extra or more “difficult” path with the reward.
On the topic of rewards, the game has a limited amount of blue and red coins. These represent secrets explored and challenges conquered in order to collect them. In addition, there are gold coins, which are merely “points” — you can also collect them by defeating enemies. You lose 50 points on death, which, without a leaderboard or anything like that, seems kind of superfluous. Not only that, even if it weren’t superfluous, there are some segments which award more than 50 points via coins and enemies, and when those respawn on death, it means it’s possible to farm an infinite number of coins and points with enough time.
Dialogue – Unintentionally Hilarious
The dialogue is silly, and I’m sure some of it has to do with the translation. But the stiff translation is actually kind of funny unto itself. It feels like playing a janky bootleg game that’s unintentionally hilarious because of the translation rather than in spite of it.
Verdict
Ultimately, Joey the Duck is a short little adventure with a cute style that lacks polish. Despite janky hitboxes, seemingly unintended skips, and stage themes that jarringly translate into one another, I still had a great time playing it. While it doesn’t innovate the genre at all, it has a solid foundation for a potentially amazing casual platformer. With some extra elbow grease, I hope Sikor’s next game will be even better.
