Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Apr 19, 2017

  Pros: Good emulator configuration. Fine performance. Controller support out of box (though steam big screen doesnt recognise it). Tons of artwork included. Boss rush mode with online record mode. Cons: No local/online multiplayer for Chip'n'Dale. Menu item change sound (really high pitched noise). Overall really good release (cant call it remaster, its the same roms + emulator), but lack of multiplayer for chip'n'dale saddens
• gamedeal user

  Apr 20, 2017

  It does what you'd expect, it lets you play 6 classic Capcom Disney games on Steam. The presentation is good, the games run well, and there are bonus modes to try and Steam achievements to collect. There's also a gallery of artwork and all of the soundtracks from each game. Whether or not it's worth $19.99 that's up to you. My personal reason for buying the collection is that I loved DuckTales 2 back in the day and wanted to play it again with the modes/achievements. I'd recommend waiting for a sale if you don't have any nostalgia for the games, but it is a well packaged collection. PROS: - Classic Capcom gameplay with new modes - Well designed presentation - Steam achievements and online leaderboards - Will scratch the nostalgia itch CONS: - Objectively high price point - Doesn't contain some other Capcom favorites such as Goof Troop for SNES - The "retro" filters don't add much to the experience
• gamedeal user

  Apr 20, 2017

  9 year old me inside is really happy. Thanks devs.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 20, 2017

  So far completed DuckTales, DuckTales 2, and Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers, the three games I'm most familiar with in the pack. This is a 1:1 re-release of the listed games. It's easy to tell that the game wrapper itself is a glorified emulator with a lot of bonus features, but what's important is that it's done well. The game has no apparent visual bugs and scales properly by resolution, has proper v-sync, etc. The games themselves are presented in a very nice "arcade" atmosphere with a game select that lets you instantly go into a Boss Rush or Time Attack mode if you wish, and even allows for a two-player local competitve mode on those challenges. A great setup if you want to challenge a friend. Every game appears to be from the original ROMs for the US releases of each game. I can't tell any differences from previous playthroughs on the actual carts and I was able to complete each game smoothly enough. I'm no speed runner but I know these particular games quite well. One slight issue is what seem to be a very slight delay on control responsiveness which I think might have to do with the emulation, but I tend to feel that happening even on a Retron (which uses emulation software to run properly). You won't get the same exact experience as playing on an original NES cartridge, but you'll be so darn close only a speed runner or someone really sensitive to controllers will notice. I've only tested this with a standard Windows controller (XBox / XBox One), but the controls are smooth besides the delay factor. While the bonus features such as art galleries contain nothing special, it's a nice little bonus since the games themselves are a steal. $3.33 on average per game sure beats the average of $50 I paid between the original carts. (Talespin and DuckTales being around the $15 range while DuckTales 2 and Chip & Dale 2 being hundreds of dollars if you buy them straight up from collectors. I was fortunate to hunt down flea market copies.) Overall, this is definately worth a buy if these games were special to you as a kid, or even if you just want to experience the original games for wha they are.
• gamedeal user

  May 22, 2017

  [i]The Disney Afternoon Collection[/i] not only came as a welcome surprise to 90s kids, retro gamers, & speedrunners alike, but arrived just in time for the reboot of the hit series [i]DuckTales[/i] (2017). (Note: An abbreviated version is posted here, because the full set with dedicated reviews for every game, would go far beyond the constraints of Steam’s character limit. Links to the full reviews with references are therefore included.) [h1]Disney, Capcom, & Nintendo[/h1] Since these old licensed games are based on old TV series, here’s a bit of context to understand where they are coming from. [i]The Disney Afternoon[/i] cartoon block, known as [i]Disney Club[/i] in Latin America & Europe ran from 1990-97 & was a worldwide success. So, naturally video games based on it were developed. However, making games took a lot of planning & so Disney worked with one of the best partners at the time, Capcom. Capcom made games like [i]Ghosts 'n Goblins[/i] (1986) or [i]Mega Man[/i] (1987) & was familiar with the NES hardware. Selling games on the NES was also important as the Japanese giant had an almost 80% market share by 1991. But there was a catch. Companies could only make up to five games for Nintendo per year & games could not be ported to other company’s platforms for about two years, which led to a lot of third party exclusives & creative control by Nintendo. Disney circumvented the constraints by having multiple companies make games for them on different consoles. [h1]The Disney Afternoon Collection[/h1] Full version: https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/the-disney-afternoon-collection-pc-review/ The collection doesn’t use an emulator, but the games run on C++ instead. This way, they have new features, like a rewind, a boss rush, & a time attack. Sadly, the rewind changes the gameplay so that players might miss out on some secrets. Further, the collection also comes with a soundtrack, original U.S. American & Japanese NES box art, trivia, & concept art. Lastly, all games run at around 30 fps, as NTSC TV sets used to have around 29.97 fps while PAL & SECAM used 25 fps, while the hub menu uses 60 fps. [h1]Co-op[/h1] Local co-op only works when both players use a gamepad &, at time of writing, it seems impossible to have them share a keyboard or mix & match a controller/keyboard combo. Some users also noted that their gamepads don’t work with collection at all. [h1]DuckTales[/h1] Full version: https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/ducktales-pc-review/ [i]DuckTales[/i] is a sidescrolling platformer & the first licensed game developed by Capcom. It runs on the [i]Mega Man[/i] engine & shared some of its team members, including producer Tokuro Fujiwara & designer Keiji Inafune. For the most part, the game fits right in with the series, looks cartoony & the soundtrack, composed by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi is magical. The best bit is that all of the five stages can be played in any order & contain hidden areas & shortcuts that let players play it safe or take riskier routes. [i]DuckTales[/i] holds up really well & even rewards daunting adventurers with three different endings. [h1]Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers[/h1] Full version: https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/chip-n-dale-rescue-rangers-pc-review/ The two cipmunks from classical Disney shorts solve crimes that humans often consider too small to care about. For this, they get help from two mice, the engineer Gadget & Monterey Jack, who is friends with the fly Zipper. The design team, that included Masahiko Kurokawa did a great job & sticks close to the source material. Disney game producer Darlene Lacey even recalls that “[i]Rescue Rangers[/i] was one of the easiest Capcom projects that she ever had, with little to no changes being required to meet Disney’s quality assurance.” The game’s a lot of fun & even better with a friend. [h1]TaleSpin[/h1] Full version: https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/talespin-pc-review/ [i]TaleSpin[/i] (1991) is a shoot ‘em up based on the reimagining of [i]The Jungle Book[/i] (1967). Rebecca Cunningham runs a delivery service for which Baloo is the airplane captain, the bear cub Kit Cloudkicker is the navigator, & the lion Wildcat is the mechanic. Overall [i]TaleSpin[/i] feels rushed & disconnected from the show, especially when Baloo fights a giant baseball or a giant invisible man. The game isn’t bad but suffers from odd design choices. The airplane moves very slowly & can only shoot one bullet at a time. Of course it is possible to buy upgrades, but to get those, players need to find as many of the treasures as possible, which is difficult for new players. [h1]Darkwing Duck[/h1] Full version: https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/darkwing-duck-pc-review/ Darkwing Duck is a semi-competent caped crusader in the city of St. Canard. Unlike most super heroes, he wants to get rich, famous, & recognized for his actions, which stands in stark contrast to his attempts to be a good role model to his daughter Gosalyn. The series became very popular in Europe & the composer Yasuaki Fujita even recalls that “[i][Darkwing Duck][/i] was mainly produced for the European market”. Even though it’s fun, [i]Darkwing Duck[/i] is not meant for beginners, with its strong enemies, tricky controls, & tough levels. The game is built on the [i]Mega Man V[/i] engine, but Darkwing has less health than Mega Man while the enemies are stronger than in that game. The platforming is also tricky as the hanging mechanic isn’t polished. More development time would’ve worked wonders. [h1]DuckTales 2[/h1] Full version: https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/ducktales-2-pc-review/ Scrooge once again travels the globe in search for treasure & fights his fiercest opponent yet: When the protagonist or his opponents get hit, they don’t blink like they should, but completely disappear for a while (like in a 30fps video of a 60 fps game). Design-wise, Scrooge hasn’t changed, but the enemies & stages are more colorful. Sadly, the developers made some awkward decisions, like Gyro & Launchpad calling him Uncle Scrooge, or Scrooge not caring about money; he’s supposed to be a penny-pincher. Another negative is that the backtracking feels like unnecessary padding & that the RNG against Golem Duck is bad. [i]DuckTales 2[/i] has some great ideas, but could have done with more love. [h1]Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers 2[/h1] Full version: https://gaolioccasionallyreviews.wordpress.com/2017/05/21/chip-n-dale-rescue-rangers-2-pc-review/ This game might be the best game here, but was left in relative obscurity for over 20 years since NES support was dropped shortly after release. The adventure starts with a bomb in a nearby restaurant, which turns out to be a distraction so that Fat Cat could get the urn of an ancient pharaoh with lots of evil spirits inside. Design-wise the other titles in this collection pale in comparison to [i]Rescue Rangers 2[/i]. The haunted mansion stage is especially noteworthy with its incredible color cycling. The mechanics are also upgraded as the chipmunks can now perform charged throws now & hurl crates diagonally. Local co-op also has some unforeseen hurdles like occasional slowdowns. [b][u]Hey there.[/u][/b] If you like my writing or my occasional interviews with developers, why not follow my Steam curation over at [url= https://store.steampowered.com/curator/8839524-Gaos-Corner/]Gao’s Corner[/url] to keep up to date?
• gamedeal user

  Jun 17, 2017

  This is a pretty straightforward emulator of six NES games, but it's a well made one. I noticed no real imput lag on any of the actions. The jump in every platforming game (5 out of the 6) was highly responsive. I never had a single "I swear I pressed jump" moment like I so often have with these retro games. All of the games are also enhanced with a rewind feature. Since early Capcom games relied a lot on trial and error and pattern recognition, it's really nice to have a way to learn what I need to know for a certain section of the game, and not have to deal with limited lives and continues. DuckTales and DuckTales 2 have you selecting stages in a fashion similar to MegaMan. You select a stage, get to the end, and fight the boss. DuckTales 2 complicates things a little in that you need to collect map pieces along the way, but othewise the two games are very similar. Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers 1 and 2 are the only games on the list that I played when I was a little kid. They're mostly how I remember them. You go through the levels, and your only method of attack is picking up small cubes and tossing them at your enemies. Once you learn certain tricks, it becomes pretty easy. It has co-op, and it's a good game to play with the little kids in your family. Darkwing Duck is a MegaMan game. Seriously, the titular superhero uses a gun that is literally just the Mega Blaster, shooting up to three little dots at a time. It feels like Capcom just told the MegaMan development team "Hey, make another MegaMan game, but re-skin it with this American cartoon." This isn't a bad thing, for most people. I'm not very good at MegaMan, but, I could still recognize the quality in this game. It's a well designed game, but considerably more difficult than DuckTales and Chip and Dale's. Tailspin is the hardest game of the bunch. It's a side-scrolling shoot 'em up, which were often some of the toughest games on the NES. You have to think pretty far ahead to keep your plane from ending up in a position where there's no escape. Tailspin certainly isn't the hardest of the genre, but it's definitely the most challenging game in the collection. All of the games come with boss rush and time attack. You can even watch other players play through these modes, if you're the kind of person who enjoys watching speed-runs. These games were already amazing for their time, and this collection has added wonderful enhancements. If you have any interest in a good platformer, I highly recommend getting this game.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 3, 2017

  Games come as advertised, CRT scanlines and all. You won't get all 6 NES carts for this price.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 20, 2017

  This classic games are seriously fun and damn hard! On the other hand, they have rewind button for you who hate dying too much~
• gamedeal user

  Aug 24, 2017

  The pack contains 6 games, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 1 & 2, DuckTales 1 & 2, Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin, and all 6 were originally released on the NES back in the 80's and early 90's. I beat two of these as a kid, Chip 'n Dale 1 and DuckTales 1, and have played TaleSpin in the past, but only briefly. So there might be a bit of nostalgia involved here, clouding my judgement. I'll review these in release order (as that's the order they're listed in-game, and the order I played them): [B]DuckTales[/B] The first, and probably most well known, of the games included in this collection, DuckTales made quite a splash on the NES. Much like in MegaMan you get to pick the order you want to play the levels in, but apart from two pickups that give a permanent health increase, there's no advantage in playing the levels in any particular order. The levels are very varied, some offering more than one path, some being more maze-like and some having more involved secrets. It's all good, and the secrets are telegraphed enough as to not feel unfair, without being overly easy to find. The level design is mostly strong, and it's fun to explore the levels to see if there are any alternative paths. And for a game released in 1989, it looks and sounds surprisingly good. Your main attack is to jump on enemies, but with a slight twist. You can use your cane as a pogo-stick, and landing on enemies with the cane out will usually kill, or at least harm them. The pogo controls can be a bit finicky though, and this is my only real gripe with this game. Sometimes it feels like the game ignores input when trying to pogo, but this is more down to wonky controls than the game actually doing that. This was an issue with the NES original as well. Overall, this is a very nice game, although someone with a bit of platforming experience under their belt is likely to be able to beat it in under 1h from the first time they start it. It's easy. [B]Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers[/B] This game was a graphical powerhouse when it was first released, and it's the earliest game I remember people buying because of its amazing graphics. The actual game though, it's not bad. Although why does Gadget look like a zombie? As Chip or Dale you need to stop the dastardly Fatcat, who's (as always) up to no good. You've got an overworld map in this game, and you've got some say over which levels you'll play. The layout of this map is strange though, with one level being entirely optional, and one path being longer than the other. It would have made more sense if they had just made it a traditional linear game. It's good that the level design is overall very good, and the enemies fun and varied. You can't attack enemies directly, instead you need to pick up crates, apples and other small objects to throw at enemies. It's a nice twist on the traditional formula, and combined with how agile the characters are, Chip 'n dale is a joy to play! Out of the 6 games in the set, this is the easiest, and it was a game I remember blasting through in an evening as a kid. It's incredibly easy, so it would probably suit a newcommer to the genre quite well. [B]TaleSpin[/B] I've heard a lot of bad said about this game over the years... and having played through it properly, I don't get it. It's a pretty good entry-level shmup, with an interesting twist. As Baloo, who for some reason flies in the world's smallest airplane, you need to navigate a bunch of different, and very varied levels. Actually, Baloo himself seem to be hit by a shrink ray, because he's tiny compared to most of the things in the environment. While the scale makes sense for some levels, the haunted house level is just odd. The gimmick in this game is that you can turn around. On any horizontal scrolling sections (but not vertical scrolling ones) also reverses the scrolling, which is important for getting through a lot of tight passages. You can't flip when moving up or down, which takes a bit of getting used to, but once you're familiar with it, it does work well. This is a very easy game (are we seeing a trend yet?), and someone who's a bit familiar with the SHMUP genre, who can get used to flipping back & forth, should be able to get through this game without seeing the game over screen even once. Easy, but still fun. [B]DarkWing Duck[/B] Based on Disney's counterpart to Batman, Darkwing Duck is another platformer. This time you've got a weapon, and a cape that deflects bullets. Like with DuckTales you get to chose what order you want to play the levels, though this time you get them in sets of 3. Beat the first three, and you get 3 more, and once you beat them, it's time for the final boss. The level design is once again strong, but a bit less varied than in previous games. All the levels play roughly the same, but the game is short enough that this does not become an issue. And much like in DuckTales, the order you play them in does not really matter, apart from the fact that you get to pick up sub-weapons, like in Castlevania (you can only hold one at a time), and having the right sub-weapon can make certain sections easier (hint: stick with the Arrow one, it allows you to reach some secrets). This game is a mild step up in difficulty, and one of the bosses was actually not easy. It's still not a hard game though, and someone who's good at the genre can still probably beat this one without ever seeing a game over screen. It's still a good game though, even if it's not one of Capcom's best. [B]DuckTales 2[/B] The often overlooked sequel of DuckTales, DuckTales 2 gives us more of the same... but slightly worse. You've got a few abilities that you unlock through the levels, so the order you play them in matters a bit more here, but you can still beat any level without the right powerup. The main letdown here is the level design. It's a bit bland. The game never becomes bad, but there's not much energy to it, if that makes any sense. They're also structured more similarly to each other than they were in the first game, giving you less variety, and they're on top of that a bit less visually distinct, even if they do still have their own personalities. This is the first disappointment out of the set. No, it's not a bad game, but having played it, I get why it's so often overlooked. It's just not a good as the first game. Still a very easy game though. [B]Chip 'n Dale 2[/B] And finally, we have Chip 'n Dale 2. Much like DuckTales 2, this is basically more of the same, but worse. At least Gadget does not look like a zombie anymore. Gone is the overworld map, instead you need to play the games in order. And that's not a bad thing. The main issue I have with Chip 'n Dale 2 is the level design, which much like in DuckTales 2 feels bland. At no point does it become terrible, but there's not a whole lot of imagination put into the way you navigate the levels. But at least they play with the idea that you're actually a very small creature in some levels (which makes a lot more sense than when Baloo was very small). The game does improve in one area though, and that's the bosses, which are more challenging and more fun than they were in the first game. This game is a little bit harder than the first, but still a very easy game. But it's simply not all that good. If you've got the collection, then sure, do give it a try, but it's not worth buying for this game alone. [B]Final thoughts[/B] Despite finding two of the games to not be anything special, I do think that the Disney afternoon collection is quite a nice set of games. It's a great start for people who are new to platformers, or who are just a bit rusty, but for experienced platform players, you'll probably be able to beat this in about 5h. And the price point of 20€ might be a bit too high for that.So unless you feel like you have to play these games now, wait for a sale. It's well worth 10€, but not 20€.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 26, 2017

  Step right up and come on in. Here's where the fun begins. A blast from the great past of the 90's taking us back to tales of derring-do, weither it a daring duck of mystery rewriting history or these two gumshoes pickin' up the slack just remember to bear 'n grin it cause everybody's just a little dizzy, bringing you a Disney Afternoon.~