I began the year with a review of DuckTales
Remastered. During the year, a game came out on Steam, cataloguing six 8-bit
Disney titles, including the original DuckTales. It’s called The Disney
Afternoon Collection, and it’s six beloved NES games in one, with some additional modes and
new stuff to try!
So many memories for so many kids of the 90s... |
The Disney Afternoon Collection was released on April
18th, 2017, developed by Capcom and Digital Eclipse, and published
by Capcom. It’s practically brand new! And a true blast to the past, for anyone
who grew up with either of the six titles, and who can now play them again!
Here’s how this review will work: I’ll first explain
the modes and options available, then I’ll try to spend only a little more than
1000 words discussing each game. I mean, it’s still going to take me four parts
for all this! Wow, I really ended the year with a lot of long reviews…
(By the way, since it's currently the Steam Winter sale, if you want it, it's got 60% off the regular price!)
(By the way, since it's currently the Steam Winter sale, if you want it, it's got 60% off the regular price!)
I like to have my options open. |
The Gallery shows a lot of images from the development
phase of every game. One of them shows the original drawn pictures and how they
were translated to 8-bit, pixel form. One shows the original artwork on the
game covers, minus text. The Museum part shows the old game cartridges’ boxes,
including the original Game Boy versions for the games that were re-edited for
Nintendo’s first portable console. The final section of the Gallery reveals
concept art and other oddities surrounding the history of these six titles,
including pictures of the set used in a TV advertisement for DuckTales, a
picture of a poster that has now become a collector’s item, or ads for these
games published in various magazines and comic books. Interesting!
Then there’s the Music section, which contains a
jukebox containing each game’s tracks. In total, about over 100 tracks, though
most of them are less than one minute long, as it includes the jingles for
stuff like invincibility, Game Overs, lives lost, bosses beaten or treasures
found – jingles which, obviously, are a few seconds long at most.
So each game is available in 3 different modes, that makes a whopping 18 options! |
“Play” just brings you to the game as it played back
on the classic console. Title screen, modes and options included (so if you
want to try and beat DuckTales on Hard, you still can). You get a Steam
achievement for each game beaten.
Speed up! The fastest player has already beaten the game! You gotta do better than that! |
Thanks to the Disney Afternoon Collection, we now know the names of every boss! Like that's helpful. |
Well, that covers everything – I suppose it’s time to
jump into the available games in this collection, one by one! Let’s start with…
You know the story: Scrooge found a treasure map
leading to five legendary treasures scattered across the world (and one on the
Moon, somehow), with the promise of an even greater treasure once he’s found
them all, so he embarks on this new adventure. Five locations available: The
Amazon, Transylvania, African Mines, the Himalayas and the Moon.
The original DuckTales? Nah, you don't have much of that for the most part, you’re
not forced into exploring as much as possible. Found a shortcut? Take it. You
want to gather diamonds and rubies, and take your time? You can! (Especially if
you want the happy ending at 10 Millions.) You just want to rush your way to
the end? Yep, that’s possible too. The greatness of the original DuckTales game
was that you could explore it at your leisure. Every level was a bit mazelike,
and you had to find your way around – and if you found a shortcut, that was
just a quicker way to the boss! The game rewarded exploring players, too, since
it was possible to find two additional treasures and two boosts to your health
meter. And once again, you can visit the levels in any desired order.
Of course, since the Disney Afternoon Collection uses
the original games, you can also see the original’s poor translation in all its
glory. As well as the actual lack of story or explanation as to what’s going on. I
mean, we get the basics: Five treasures, where to get them… then the five items
are thrown away from Scrooge at the end and we have to go back to fight Dracula
Duck? Wait-wait-what?? And as it turns out, this second visit to Transylvania is the same level, stripped of all diamonds and rubies, because it’s totally not
boring to go through the same level again without the possibility of making any
more money. That was lazy from Capcom. (Yes, the final level in Remastered was
brand-new, and appropriately tough, so that was much better).
The bosses were also ridiculously easy back then, each
resorting to only one or two attack for the entire duration of the fight. All
the Aztec statue could do was move left and right and jump to shake the ground.
all Magica could do was fly around as a vulture and throw thunder in her normal
anthropomorphic form. The African sphere king could only roll around his boss
room. The abominable snowman would jump around and make a few snowballs fall
down, also it was small enough to jump on. The Moon Rat was not only
unexplained, it also could only run around and jump on platforms – which, to be
fair, was a surprisingly effective strategy since it seemed to randomize its
movements. Dracula? He threw bats at Scrooge; that was all. Pogo-cane the bat,
pogo-cane the undead bloodsucker duck on the cranium.
You want to talk about lazy some more? That race between Scrooge and the
Glomgold-Magica Duo, in which Scrooge merely has to climb a rope and be faster
than his enemies. This, too, was heavily improved in the remaster.
The game does suffer from poor translation, which
obviously has been untouched as this is the old game, unchanged. The game is relatively
easy – it does have some tough sections, delving sometimes into fake difficulty
(looking at you, falling bridge in the Amazon). It can still be really hard the
first time you play, especially if you don’t know about the various secrets and
struggle through the game with only three Hit Points. I’m also slightly annoyed
by Launchpad’s appearances in most levels, where he asks Scrooge whether he
wants to go back to Duckburg – A for yes, B for no. Pray you did not tap A
accidentally, especially when Launchpad is found in the latter part of some of
the tougher levels, which means having to go through the whole difficult level
again!
DuckTales
It’s kinda funny to end the year with a review of the
original DuckTales when I started it with a review of its updated remaster,
no? Perhaps some comparisons can be made.
So apparently, all of these locations happen on the same continent. I didn't know the Disney Duck Universe took place on Pangaea. |
DuckTales Remastered, as an homage to the original
game, improved on the story, turning each level into a story arc of some kind. In the Amazon, you have to find eight tokens to
open the way towards the fortress. In the Himalayas, you must gather the pieces
of an item dropped by Launchpad. In Transylvania, you must save the nephews.
And on the Moon, you must find the pieces of Fenton’s GizmoDuck suit, while in
the original you only needed the remote control (though it was behind a locked door, and you had to find the key).
Extra Hit Point, you will be so useful to me! |
The spaceship is still one of the better levels in the original. The music certainly helps. |
A boss so easy, it's the first one in the Boss Battles mode. |
Just climb the rope. Lazy easy. |
I mean, is DuckTales a perfect game? No. But it has
been a part in the nostalgia of many a gamer, just as much as the TV show. This
is in spite of its issues, including, as I said, the laziness of the final
level, and the very simple bosses (the difficulty of the levels makes up for it, however). The music is stuck in our heads, especially the Moon Theme, and the
graphics were very impressive at the time. I can also say that I prefer the
free exploration of the original to the forced exploration in the remaster.
Gravity decided to comeback from its day off after letting these stones in midair for way too long. |
Last but not least, the game also feels rather short
overall, since you can’t go back to explore beaten levels in this version.
However, it’s still very enjoyable. Sure it has its flaws, but it’s pretty fun. Then again, I know the game inside and out, which is
something I cannot say about some of the later titles in this collection…
Join me next Monday as I look at two more games in the
collection!
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