“Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams a forever.” -Walt Disney

I remember running in the house at full speed, throwing down my backpack, yelling for my grandma to make me a bowl of mac n’ cheese or fishsticks, turning on the tv and lounging around in nothing but a tank-top and briefs just as the Disney Afternoon block came on. Ah to be 35 again. Just kidding. I was 10.

The Disney Afternoon was two hours of cartoon gold, whether I doodled through it or was glued to the screen the whole time. It featured the likes of Goof Troop, Bonkers, Aladdin, Gargoyles, DuckTales, and Darkwing Duck, which was easily my favorite. Many a superhero and supervillain creation came out of my pencil while watching that show. I did not do homework during the Disney Afternoon block.

Today, Capcom released The Disney Afternoon Collection, which you can be sure I downloaded immediately. The game takes us back to those golden days of simpler times, better television, and classic gaming. This anthology features six games from the NES, each of them based off of the Disney cartoons which aired all those years ago, now become veritable icons. In order of original release they are: DuckTales, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, DuckTales 2, and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers 2. Among these titles are some of the best-selling platformers on the NES, highly popular and sought after games. They represent a chunk of gaming history that exemplifies the evolution of the NES from 1989 to 1994 and the system’s propensity for solid licensed games, and for that this collection is a valuable piece of preservative goodness.

This retro collection is all that and a bag of chips.

I’ve played many a modern retro compendium, remake and rehash in my time. It’s actually surprising how many times developers miss instead of hit the target. Often there’s an ugly lag, a crappy UI, not enough special features, or graphics that are overly touched up and hence lose the original appeal.

Thankfully, there are some really bangin’ collections that really have it going on. I highly suggest DuckTales: Remastered (in which the original cast of the cartoon reprise their roles) and Digital Eclipse’s Mega Man Legacy Collection for pitch-perfect emulation and modern perks.

The overwhelming success of the Legacy Collection, in fact, helped influence Capcom to go ahead and release Disney Afternoon, so we have the Blue Bomber to thank for this great new compilation of classics, also developed by Digital Eclipse.

Disney Afternoon treats its six classics with respect and dignity. There’s little to nothing changed about them, though I’m glad to see they got rid of a lot of slow down, sprite flashing, and other quirks that plagued the NES because of its limitations. Still, playing these again I got the feeling that they weren’t much different than they were all those years ago on their original system.

Click here for the full review... https://thewellredmage.wordpress.com/2017/04/18/the-disney-afternoon-collection-2017/