Next month, Capcom goes barreling down your 90’s-kid memory lane with The Disney Afternoon Collection on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. It's a six-game anthology of the 8-bit adaptations of four beloved Disney cartoons.
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and its sequel, Darkwing Duck, DuckTales and DuckTales 2, and TaleSpin, all of which first appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 1990s, are included. These are not remastered, so bask in the 8-bit sprites and chiptunes of days gone by.
The collection launches April 18 for $19.99. It will also offer some new content and options, including boss rush and time-attack modes, plus a rewind feature that allows players to start over just before a mistake was made rather than replay an entire level. A museum mode also will showcase concept art and making-of content.
DuckTales published in 1989, Rescue Rangers in 1990, TaleSpin in 1991, Darkwing Duck in 1992, DuckTales 2 in 1993 and Rescue Rangers 2 in 1994. The games are mainly side-scrolling platformers. All appeared on the NES, though a few were ported or developed for other platforms.
The Disney Afternoon was a landmark franchise in cartoon television in the United States. Along with the DC Comics animated series of the time, it rivaled anything on Saturday mornings and was one of many factors ending that tradition.
It was also a righteous answer to the excesses of afternoon television on UHF stations in the 1980s, when Reagan administration deregulation meant a 22-minute advertisement for She-Ra or Wheeled Warriors helped a local station fulfill its requirement to provide educational programming.
Not that 80’s kids who didn't get this kind of quality programming until they were already in college are bitter or anything.
