Why Haven't You Played This?: Darkwing Duck for NES

Nowadays the mere mention of a movie/TV-based game is met with scoffs and guffaws and with good reason; movie and TV based games suck. But, this wasn't always the case. Back in the 8-16-bit days Disney had a deal with Capcom. If you played a Disney game on the NES/SNES/Genesis chances are it was made by the same people who brought us Mega Man and Street Fighter. Such classics as DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie were all based on pre-existing properties and are remembered fondly by many 20-somethings to this day, but one slipped through the cracks. And it's one of the best.

Darkwing Duck for NES was released in 1992 and like 1993's DuckTales 2 it was largely missed because it had come out so late in the NES' lifetime. America had already moved on to the Super Nintendo by that point, though each game had a stripped down port to the GameBoy that ended up becoming quite popular. Made by Capcom, Darkwing Duck is essentially Mega Man 5 with a new, radder paintjob. Yes, Darkwing Duck is radder than Mega Man. Deal with it. In fact DW runs on a slightly tweaked version of MM5's engine.

Rather than collecting weapons from defeated bosses DW picked them up as he went along, but much like Mega Man's they helped him solve specific situations. Some weapons fired at weird angles while others had a shorter range and more powerful damage. He also has the handy ability to hang from ceilings. In Mega Man the player has his or her choice of stages from the beginning, but Darkwing Duck gives you a choice between three at a time. Finish all three and you can move onto a new part of St. Canard.

Darkwing Duck also has a pretty boss soundtrack:

If you have any second thoughts about the game, just think about how much you loved Duck Tales. And there are a few other Capcom/Disney games not many have played like Goof Troop, which is essentially a co-op Zelda game on SNES. A few great ones never even made it to the states. I'll have to do a post soon on the Super Famicom's Mickey no Tokyo Disneyland Daibouken. That game did some crazy things with 16-bit physics.