DuckTales Remastered easier for modern players, paves way for future Disney-Capcom games

When DuckTales Remastered comes to PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360 it will bring with it a piece of nostalgic '80s gameplay modernized to be more appealing to a generation of gamers not as willing to work for their entertainment.

Yes, it will be easier, or at least it can be.

DuckTales Remastered will include a mix of new features designed to make the game more forgiving than the original. Players won't have to master the art of jumping, ducking and tapping a button to "pogo," for instance, instead they can simply jump and press a button. Maps with built-in guidance will be available in the game as well, and a particularly nasty level, which had to be played three times, has been reworked to require only one play through.

But that doesn't mean that those gamers looking for a difficult, more faithful recreation of the game won't be able to embrace their masochistic nature.

Almost all of those features can be removed through an options menu or difficulty setting, Rey Jimenez, the game's producer, told Polygon.

"We had to make it significantly easier and more accessible."

"If you want the pure experience we are reproducing that with the harder difficulties," he said.

Why include some of the hand-holding in the first place? Modern day gamers are to blame.

"Gamers are just different today," Jimenez said. "We had to make it significantly easier and more accessible."

When released this summer on the PlayStation Network, Wii U eShop and Xbox Live Arcade, DuckTales Remastered will include a complete overhaul of the game's visuals. The new game, developed for Capcom by WayForward Technologies, will feature an interesting blend of hand-drawn 2D art that is texture mapped onto 3D models. One of the layout artists who worked on the original afternoon cartoon helped with the game, Jimenez said. The team also worked to expand the original game's script, adding a new introduction and end of level scenes for each level.

That additional content required new voiceover work. The studio was able to grab some of the original show's cast to do that, including the people who voice Scrooge McDuck, Magica De Spell and Launchpad McQuack, Jimenez said.

Grid View

The WayForward team also revisited some of the key art elements of the game to try and incorporate more of the art from the original TV show. One example Jimenez gave was that a generic bat found in one area of the original game has been replaced with a copy of the bat that appears in the introduction to the original television show.

The team also added a lot of new content, including galleries, the ability to unlock a rare full-length version of the TV show's theme song and even the ability to swim Scrooge around through the gold in his vault. Jimenez said that the amount of coins that Scrooge swims around in will be directly impacted by how many gems the player has discovered in the game.

The biggest change, aside from the visuals, is the addition of an entirely new level, the last in the game, as well as removing the need to visit, revisit and revisit again the Transylvania level. Now players will have to go through the level just once and then proceed to the new level.

The team also removed the ability to skip through the entire African Mines level by taking a treacherous shortcut. The shortcut is still there, Jimenez said, but now the reward is some items.

"I think Chip n' Dale would be the next logical one."

"For a remake of an NES game I'm surprised how much dedication they are putting into this," Jimenez said.

While nothing has been locked in, Jimenez said that the work Capcom put into getting approval from Disney to remaster the game could lead to future remastered releases of other classic Capcom-Disney projects. Those games include classics like Chip n' Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck and Aladdin.

All of that will be dictated by how well this game is received though, Jimenez stressed.

What game would be next if Capcom were to do a second remastered release from their Disney days?

"In a purely hypothetical world," Jimenez said, "I think Chip n' Dale would be the next logical one. It makes sense because it's the next in the hierarchy."

Update: Capcom's Christian Svensson took to the Capcom Unity forums to say that the game will feature all of the original voice actors from the show.