Back in the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s, Disney had a block of weekday after school cartoons on TV called The Disney Afternoon.  They featured such memorable and high-quality shows like DuckTales, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Darkwing Duck, and many more.  Tons of people, including myself, have very fond memories watching these cartoons as kids.  Game maker Capcom even made some bonafide classic games based on those Disney Afternoon cartoons.  About a decade ago, they released a collection of those games, and I reviewed it here, as well as wrote an extra special article about the cartoons and games here.  I loved that collection, but two things always baffled me.  Why wasn’t it released on Switch, and why was it missing two other SNES Disney Afternoon games?  Well now those questions are answered with The Disney Afternoon Collection on Switch 1 and 2!

The games on this collection are all 2-D in nature, but are mostly very different games.  DuckTales is a 2-D platformer where you play as Scrooge McDuck, and you use your cane in creative ways to defeat enemies and bypass obstacles.  You can tackle the sprawling stages in any order, and can explore every nook and cranny to find hidden treasures.  DuckTales 2 was released a few years later and is more of the same, but now Scrooge can do a few more things with his cane and find upgrades for it, too.

Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers is also a 2-D platformer, but it focuses more on action rather than exploration.  You can play with one or two player co-op as Chip or Dale as you run, jump, pick up objects (or each other), and toss them at bad guys.  The sequel is more of the same as well.  TaleSpin is more of a 2-D shooter as you control Baloo in a pint-sized version of his Sea Duck plane as you shoot down enemies and collect cargo for points that you can spend to upgrade your plane.  And Darkwing Duck plays very similarly to Mega Man.

They’ve added a few new features to this collection.  Probably the most handy one is the rewind button.  At any time during the games, you can push a button to rewind your actions in case you make a mistake.  NES games are known for being brutally hard, and while Capcom’s Disney games were a bit easier, there are some parts in these games that are a bit tough, so this feature makes those games a bit more accessible (TaleSpin and Darkwing Duck are especially more difficult).

There are also Boss Rush and Time Attack modes for most of these games.  There is also a gallery where you can view cool artwork and interesting facts about the games.   Plus you can save your progress in any game.  And now that this collection is on Switch consoles, they’ve added two new games here.  I wanted to focus on these two new games in this review, so let’s take a closer look at Goof Troop and Bonkers on SNES!

Goof Troop

At first, I was excited when Goof Troop was coming to The Disney Afternoon.  Disney had a successful streak of shows like DuckTales, Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, and Darkwing Duck.  But after watching it, I wasn’t as into Goof Troop as much as the others.  Goof Troop stars Goofy and his son Max as they live their suburban life next to their crazy neighbors: Pete and his family (yes that Pete).  Pete’s son PJ is Max’s best friend, and they have lots of adventures together in this cartoon.  It even spawned two cult classic Disney movies.  But I just wasn’t into it.  I felt Pete’s family was more interesting than the stars, and at that time I was getting older and preferred the more sarcastic and mature cartoons on competing stations that were showing stuff like Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and Batman: The Animated Series.

So when the Goof Troop game came out on SNES, I skipped out on it.  Years later when I finally did try it, I hated that I initially skipped out on it because it’s surprisingly good!  You play as Goofy or Max in single player or co-op as you explore an island as you try and rescue Pete and PJ from pirates!  You move around in top down fashion as you throw items to defeat enemies, push blocks to solve puzzles, and use tools to bypass obstacles.  If that sounds kind of like a Zelda game, it really is!  In fact, I read somewhere that members of the team that made Goof Troop actually helped make some Zelda titles like Four Swords, Oracle of Ages and Seasons, and Minish Cap!  So I’m really glad that Goof Troop is on this collection.

Bonkers

The history of Bonkers is kind of well, bonkers!  It started out as a short on a Saturday Morning cartoon called Raw Toonage.  Bonkers the bobcat would get into all sorts of cartoony mischief and adventures, typical stuff.  But in this show, Bonkers is now a down and out toon who works on the police force with his human partner as they solve crimes around Toontown. It also has a lot of references to other Disney cartoons.   If that sounds a lot like Roger Rabbit, it really it.  Disney may deny the similarity, but I don’t buy that.  By the time the Bonkers game came out on SNES, I wasn’t really into the Disney Afternoon at all, so I never played this game back then either.  It’s a typical 2D platformer where you play as Bonkers.  You can jump on enemies and have a dash move, and the game has all sorts of crazy animations.  It’s an all right game, and since it’s made by Capcom, it’s still good.  But I felt other toon games at the time that had similar controls worked better, like Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose.  But I’m still glad this game is on here to make the collection complete.

Now my only problems with the collection is that I wish it had other Disney games like the Mickey’s Magical Quest trilogy, or maybe non-Disney Capcom games like Little Nemo: The Dream Master.  But it would make NO sense to have those games on here since they had nothing to do with The Disney Afternoon.  I also feel kind of sorry for people who have the other versions of this collection since they don’t have the two extra games.  Would be nice if they added those in as DLC or something.  Anyway, you can download the game now, and I’m so glad that Atari’s PR let me review it.  But I’ll probably also buy the physical game when it comes out at Atari.com.

Kid Factor:

The Disney Afternoon Collection is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Mild Fantasy Violence and Use of Alcohol and Tobacco.  When you beat enemies or get defeated yourself, characters just fall off the screen and that’s it.  In the first Rescue Rangers game, when you battle Fat Cat, he flicks cigar ashes at you as an attack, so that’s where the use of tobacco comes from.  Just a sign of the times, really.  Use of alcohol is even stretching it further, as the only things I could find is that in the Rescue Rangers Casino Stage, you can climb on giant wine glasses as platforms.  And in the sequel, one of the bosses drinks something that lets him breath fire (could be alcohol, could be hot sauce) But that’s it.

When people ask me what games are good to start kids out on, I usually recommend older games like arcade and console classics.  They are easier to understand and the controls are simpler and the games are less violent.  And these are good examples of those kinds of games.  Normally, NES games are brutally hard, but Capcom knew their audience back then with these titles so most of them are a bit easier.  And the rewind feature makes them even more accessible.  Plus, I loved these games so much as a kid, that I can’t imagine today’s kids not liking these games either.

PS Don’t forget to check out podcasts I guest starred in about some of these cartoons:

Rescue Rangers

Darkwing Duck

Tags: Game Reviews, Movies with Children, Television