{"id":16513,"date":"2017-05-19T00:01:47","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T00:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=16513"},"modified":"2017-05-14T05:04:46","modified_gmt":"2017-05-14T05:04:46","slug":"the-games-of-the-disney-afternoon-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2017\/05\/19\/the-games-of-the-disney-afternoon-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Games of The Disney Afternoon Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Recently I reviewed The Disney Afternoon Collection.\u00a0 It\u2019s a compilation of Capcom\u2019s NES titles that were based on shows on The Disney Afternoon, a block of Disney cartoons that aired back in the late 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s.\u00a0 I really loved watching The Disney Afternoon as a kid, and I also enjoyed the NES games a lot, too.\u00a0 In fact, many of the games on this collection are more memorable to me than titles like Mario!\u00a0 They could\u2019ve called this the Cary\u2019s Childhood Collection!\u00a0 So I thought I\u2019d go into more detail and share my memories of each of the NES games on this collection, and the cartoons they\u2019re based on.<\/p>\n

If you do a search on The Disney Afternoon, you\u2019ll find a lot of people who will gush about it the same way I am.\u00a0 This was a block of Disney made for TV cartoons that they aired after school during the week.\u00a0 But these cartoons were special.\u00a0 They were of much better quality than what was on TV for kids at the time in comparison.\u00a0 They also had a timeless feel about them and hold up well even to this day.\u00a0 Another reason why I think so many people my age find these cartoons special is that they were a great way to wind down after a hard day at school.\u00a0 As adults, I think we forget how stressful school can be.\u00a0 At least when I was a kid, I found school more stressful than most of my current jobs as an adult!\u00a0 Of course, maybe that means my jobs are easy now (not really), or maybe I\u2019m better at handling stress than I was as a kid.\u00a0 All I know is, I really liked The Disney Afternoon as a kid.\u00a0 I even bought the comic books based on these shows, and I\u2019ve never gotten into comic books before or after that.\u00a0 Anyway, here are my memories of the cartoons and games based on this great afternoon cartoon collection.<\/p>\n

DuckTales<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hate it that Capcom is marketing the Disney Afternoon Collection with \u201cHey 90\u2019s kids\u201d because half of the cartoons in their collection actually came out in the 80\u2019s.\u00a0 Plus I don\u2019t want to be labeled as a 90\u2019s kid.\u00a0 No reason really, other than the fact that 90\u2019s music sucks.\u00a0 Admittedly, the 90\u2019s did have a lot of great cartoons and video games, so I have nothing against the 90\u2019s.\u00a0 I was just more of a cartoon-watching age in the 80\u2019s.\u00a0 Anyhow, DuckTales the cartoon came out at a good point in my life as a cartoon fan.\u00a0 Before DuckTales, most cartoons in the 80\u2019s were just 30 minute commercials for a toy line, and all of them were not that good.\u00a0 Sure I got into Transformers for a couple of years as a kid, but it wasn\u2019t long before I was sick of it and I actually stopped watching cartoons there for a while, if you can believe it.<\/p>\n

When DuckTales was first advertised on TV, I still wasn\u2019t planning to watch it.\u00a0 They were going to do a premiere of it one Sunday afternoon with a bunch of episodes in a story arc.\u00a0 But as luck would have it, on that Sunday they were going to show the new cartoon, I got very sick and couldn\u2019t get out of bed.\u00a0 So my mom rolled a TV into my room and I watched DuckTales.\u00a0 I was blown away.\u00a0 Here was a cartoon that not only looked good and had an interesting story, it wasn\u2019t based on a toy line either!\u00a0 From then on, I watched DuckTales every day after school for several years.\u00a0 It was detrimental in rekindling my interest in cartoons.\u00a0 It was also one of the few times I got into comic books for a while, as Disney published comics based on their Disney Afternoon shows.\u00a0 It was here that I learned that DuckTales was based on the old Uncle Scrooge comics from the 40\u2019s and 50\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The DuckTales cartoon was very successful for Disney.\u00a0 In fact, this summer they\u2019re making new DuckTales cartoons.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking forward to watching them, but I\u2019m also a bit skeptical as well.\u00a0 Mainly because from the preview, the new animation style looks like crap.\u00a0 But that\u2019s probably because it was animated in Flash and most Flash cartoons look like crap.\u00a0 I wish it looked more like the old DuckTales cartoons, because they looked SO good, but that\u2019s probably because they were animated overseas by underpaid cartoonists.\u00a0 One interesting thing is that the new DuckTales will have more of Donald Duck in it.\u00a0 He was in the Uncle Scrooge comics, but for the old DuckTales cartoon, they kind of replaced his role with Launchpad McQuack.\u00a0 But Launchpad is in the new DuckTales as well, so it\u2019ll be interesting to see how they do it.<\/p>\n

Anyway, as far as the DuckTales NES game goes, I don\u2019t remember how I got it, but I did own it.\u00a0 Most NES games I just rented back then, but this was one of the few that I owned.\u00a0 I still have it, actually.\u00a0 I loved it and played the heck out of it.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not the only one.\u00a0 According to The Disney Afternoon Collection, it sold over a million copies, which is pretty good for a third party NES game.\u00a0 It was so popular that a couple of years ago, they made a Remastered version of DuckTales.\u00a0 I loved that game, too, and even reviewed it<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 If it weren\u2019t for Animal Crossing: New Leaf coming out that same year, DuckTales Remastered probably would\u2019ve been my Game of the Year that year.\u00a0 Anyway, I must\u2019ve played the NES DuckTales to death because when I played it again on The Disney Afternoon Collection, I was able to beat it quickly and get the best ending, too!<\/p>\n

DuckTales 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the time that DuckTales 2 came out, I was already more interested in playing SNES games.\u00a0 As a kid, I couldn\u2019t afford to keep up with games from TWO different systems, so there were a lot of good NES games I missed out on late in that system\u2019s lifecycle.\u00a0 And even back then, it was obvious to me that Capcom was just trying to poop out a game before their license on it ran out.\u00a0 But even if that was the case, the game is still pretty good.\u00a0 Just not as memorable as the first one.\u00a0 I do like how Scrooge\u2019s cane has more uses, like for pulling objects and hanging off of others.\u00a0 I hear DuckTales 2 is hard to find now, but what\u2019s cool is that I actually have the cartridge of it somewhere.\u00a0 About 15 or so years ago, I bought it used before collecting classic games was popular enough to raise the prices to ridiculous amounts.\u00a0 I wish I would\u2019ve picked up that copy of Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers 2 they had as well!<\/p>\n

Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers<\/strong><\/p>\n

DuckTales was so successful that a follow up show came two years later in 1989.\u00a0 I have to say that out of all the Disney Afternoon cartoons, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers is my favorite.\u00a0 Admittedly, DuckTales really is the better show, both on a writing and animation standpoint.\u00a0 But Rescue Rangers is just cartoon comfort food for me.\u00a0 Every time I watch it, I just have to smile.\u00a0 Also, Chip N Dale have always been my favorite Disney characters.\u00a0 Even when I was a little kid and would rent cartoon video tapes, my favorite was the Disney Chip N Dale cartoon collection.<\/p>\n

Another reason why Chip N Dale are my favorite Disney characters is because when I was a kid, I took a cartooning class from a former Disney animator, and he helped create Chip N Dale!\u00a0 His name was William \u201cTex\u201d Henson, and he also worked at Fleischer Studios on Casper cartoons, did early TV ads like the Trix Rabbit, but his favorite place to work was where they made the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon.\u00a0 After all that he moved back to his hometown in Texas to be a teacher, and he also taught just-for-fun summer classes at a community college, and that\u2019s where I met him.<\/p>\n

Around the time I was watching shows like DuckTales and Rescue Rangers, I thought it would be neat to grow up to be a cartoonist.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure my parents wanted to talk me out of it, since there\u2019s no money in that field and it\u2019s hard to get into unless you live in California or something.\u00a0 But like all loving parents, mine supported me and found a class for me to take one summer, and it was Tex Henson\u2019s class.\u00a0 I was actually too young to take the class, but Tex Henson said I could anyway.\u00a0 Of course I didn\u2019t learn a lot of cartooning skills from his class, as all he did was sit on his stool and talk about the \u2018good old days\u2019 of animation (he was pretty old).\u00a0 But there is something I got from his class.\u00a0 He always said, \u201cAnimators are storytellers first, and cartoonists second.\u201d\u00a0 Well, I\u2019ve been writing game reviews and other articles in newspapers and web sites for more than 20 years, so at least I\u2019ve done good on the storytelling part, in a way.\u00a0 At least my dreams of being a game reviewer have panned out a lot better than my dreams of being a cartoonist, more or less.<\/p>\n

The Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers NES game actually came out that same summer that I was taking the cartooning class.\u00a0 In fact, it was an early birthday present from my mom and she even had to order it from a catalog for me to get it in time.\u00a0 I got it the last day I was taking that class, and I brought it in for Tex Henson to sign the box.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think he was too happy about that, as he didn\u2019t seem too thrilled that his creations at Disney were now wearing clothes and solving crimes.\u00a0 But I THINK I convinced him that the new show made today\u2019s kids happy, and he reluctantly signed the NES box, which I still have to this day, by the way.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I have more to say about Tex Henson later on in this blog, but like the DuckTales NES game, I played the heck out of the Rescue Rangers game as well.\u00a0 It was fun to play two player co-op with friends.\u00a0 I played it so much back then that when I revisited it on the collection, I was able to beat it super quick!\u00a0 And like I said, Rescue Rangers is my favorite of the Disney Afternoon cartoons. I could probably write a whole blog about my favorite episodes.\u00a0 If you\u2019d like to read a blog like that, let me know in the comments section!<\/p>\n

Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like DuckTales 2, this came out WAY after the first one.\u00a0 The collection says it came out in 1994.\u00a0 By then I was enjoying FF3 on my SNES, so needless to say I never owned this one or played it.\u00a0 And I call myself a Rescue Rangers fan.\u00a0 I hear this one is REALLY rare now, and I wish I would\u2019ve picked it up when I got DuckTales 2 fairly cheap.\u00a0 Again, even back then it felt like Capcom was just trying to poop out a game to cash in on it before the NES faded out, but at least the game is still pretty good.\u00a0 It\u2019s more of the same from the first game.\u00a0 The graphics are touched up a bit and the bosses are more varied and challenging, but that\u2019s it.\u00a0 The first game is still more memorable, though.<\/p>\n

TaleSpin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of all the cartoons on The Disney Afternoon, I think TaleSpin had the weirdest premise.\u00a0 It starred characters from The Jungle Book, but in different roles and not in their usual setting.\u00a0 Baloo the bear was now a laid back ace pilot.\u00a0 His friend Louie owned a restaurant and bar just outside of town, and Shere Khan was a ruthless businessman and CEO.\u00a0 There were a bunch of other new characters, too.\u00a0 And the setting was a South American style bay town set in a post WW1 1920\u2019s to 1930\u2019s era!\u00a0 It was crazy, but it worked very well.\u00a0 And as Rescue Rangers was aimed at a younger audience than DuckTales, TaleSpin was clearly aimed at an older audience, as it had a bit more violence and dealt with more series themes (well not TOO serious, but you know).\u00a0 So the possibilities were endless for a TaleSpin video game.\u00a0 So what did Capcom go with?\u00a0 A 2-D sidescrolling shooter.<\/p>\n

I remember the day I played TaleSpin on NES.\u00a0 Capcom was having a mall tour where they were showing off their new Disney games, so it was kind of like a mini-E3 booth.\u00a0 I wanted to go so bad, but the day it was at a nearby mall was going to be a very busy day for me.\u00a0 But miraculously, somehow I was able to go.\u00a0 I was so excited to play the new Capcom Disney game, but ultimately I was very disappointed with it.\u00a0 You could flip your plane backwards to change the scrolling and shoot behind you, but it was so awkward.\u00a0 It was also way more challenging than other Disney games they made, and Baloo flying a Sea Duck plane that was smaller than his head just looked stupid.\u00a0 So I decided I wouldn\u2019t buy it after all.<\/p>\n

The day I got to play that game was also a very big day for me in other ways.\u00a0 After we went to the mall, we went to a trade market in Texas called Canton Trade Days (you might have heard of it).\u00a0 That day we went, I bought the Super Nintendo there two weeks before it was really supposed to come out, and I got it cheaper, too!\u00a0 This was before there were actual official release dates on games and consoles.\u00a0 And then that evening, I had a marching band competition to go to.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how I was able to do all that in one day!\u00a0 So yeah, I didn\u2019t get TaleSpin on NES.\u00a0 But then, I just got a SNES, so if I had to choose to play an awkward shooter with TaleSpin characters on NES, or a near arcade perfect version of U.N. Squadron on SNES, you can guess what I would\u2019ve picked.<\/p>\n

Darkwing Duck<\/strong><\/p>\n

This was originally going to be a spinoff of DuckTales based on an episode where Launchpad was a spy.\u00a0 But they changed the main character and made Launchpad a sidekick and Darkwing Duck was born.\u00a0 If you watch the show as a DuckTales spinoff, it\u2019s not really that good.\u00a0 But if you watch the show as a superhero parody, it\u2019s genius.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit more slapstick than DuckTales, too.\u00a0 It also translated well into comic books, and I had a few as a kid.\u00a0 I think there are even new Darkwing Duck comics now.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to get them.\u00a0 The stories in the new comics have a bit more serious stuff than the cartoon did.\u00a0 Like that one Quackerjack story arc\u2026wow!\u00a0 After Disney reboots DuckTales, I hear they\u2019re going to release a new Darkwing cartoon, too, in 2018!<\/p>\n

I was still keeping in touch with Tex Henson when the Darkwing Duck cartoon came out.\u00a0 In fact, he even sent me a postcard he must\u2019ve gotten at The Disney Store that had Darkwing Duck on it.\u00a0 He wrote on it that people in the animation trade were calling it \u201cDisney Does Daffy\u201d because of Darkwing\u2019s personality and his costume was very similar to the one Daffy wore in the Looney Tunes short, \u201cThe Scarlet Pumpernickel.\u201d\u00a0 I still have that postcard he sent me.\u00a0 Sadly, without email or cell phones, it was harder and harder to keep in touch with Tex Henson as I went further into high school and off into college.\u00a0 I learned that he was still alive when I graduated, but by the time I learned that, he had already passed away.\u00a0 The lesson here is to spend as much time with the elderly people in your life, because you\u2019ll miss them when they pass away.<\/p>\n

You know, what\u2019s strange is that I never owned the Darkwing Duck NES game, but I do have vivid memories playing it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I rented it because I already had the SNES (man, wouldn\u2019t a SNES Darkwing game be cool?).\u00a0 It plays a LOT like Mega Man, except I don\u2019t like how you can\u2019t run and shoot at the same time.\u00a0 Also climbing and hanging from ledges was slightly awkward, and some of the later bosses were annoying!\u00a0 But other than that, it was a pretty good game on the NES.<\/p>\n

The \u201cFall\u201d of The Disney Afternoon<\/strong><\/p>\n

So after Darkwing Duck, the next cartoon the Disney Afternoon had was Goof Troop.\u00a0 And I hated that cartoon.\u00a0 And as for what followed, it just kind of went downhill from there.\u00a0 Aladdin was hit or miss and I guess Gargoyles was pretty good, but I didn\u2019t like any of the other cartoons.\u00a0 But around that time, WB\u2019s animation department was kicking butt with Animaniacs and Batman: The Animated Series, so my attention was diverted to them instead.<\/p>\n

Capcom did make a Goof Troop game on the Super Nintendo, and while the cartoon was horrible, the Goof Troop game was actually pretty good, as I found out much later.\u00a0 It\u2019s an overhead viewed co-op puzzler game where you play as Goofy and his son.\u00a0 It actually plays a lot like a Zelda game.\u00a0 In fact, I heard that the team who made Goof Troop went on to make some of the Capcom Zelda titles, like the Oracle series, Minish Cap, and some of the Four Swords entries.\u00a0 Capcom also made a Bonkers game on the SNES, but I never played that one and that cartoon was also awful.\u00a0 I think the only other game I wish was on The Disney Afternoon Collection was Little Nemo: The Dream Master, but I can understand why it\u2019s not on there since it has NOTHING to do with Disney.\u00a0 I just liked it.<\/p>\n

You know what\u2019s interesting is that when I first started watching cartoons on The Disney Afternoon, my peers considered themselves \u2018too cool\u2019 or \u2018too old\u2019 to watch cartoons and they would ridicule anyone who did.\u00a0 So I just didn\u2019t talk about it at school.\u00a0 But I think a lot of those other kids probably secretly watched them at home, too.\u00a0 A few years later when cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series was on TV, it was cool to watch cartoons again and I could wear my Animaniacs T-shirt with pride.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how a few years can change kids.\u00a0 But I haven\u2019t changed much.\u00a0 I still play video games I\u2019m probably too old for, like Kirby.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t care, I do what I like.<\/p>\n

Anyway, that\u2019s all I have to say about the cartoons and Capcom\u2019s games based on The Disney Afternoon.\u00a0 As you can tell, it had a significant impact on my childhood.\u00a0 In the comments section, let me know what you think of my list, and tell me your favorite Disney Afternoon cartoons, if you have any.\u00a0 Also, what\u2019s your favorite Disney characters?\u00a0 Mine are Chip N Dale, Scrooge McDuck, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Wreck-It Ralph.\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I reviewed The Disney Afternoon Collection.\u00a0 It\u2019s a compilation of Capcom\u2019s NES titles that were based on shows on The Disney Afternoon, a block of Disney cartoons that aired back in the late 80\u2019s and early 90\u2019s.\u00a0 I really loved watching The Disney Afternoon as a kid, and I also enjoyed the NES games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","category-movie-reviews","category-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16515,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16513\/revisions\/16515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}