Few things were as amazing in the early 90’s as the Disney Afternoon cartoons. These cartoons were amazing and brought us some great experiences such as Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck, a very different kind of superhero. Many of the Disney Afternoon cartoons were given video game adaptations by Capcom, and Darkwing Duck was among their finest work,
Capcom truly made something special with the terror that flaps in the night, in a game made using a reworked engine from Mega Man 5 to give themselves plenty of room to work. Because the game was following an established blueprint already, the developers could focus on making the game feel more unique to give the game a familiar but different feeling. Among the changes that were done, Darkwing Duck could actually deflect some attacks via his cape for example. But it was more than just that, as Capcom didn’t so much as shoehorn Darkwing Duck into a Mega Man game, but instead. adapted Mega Man to Darkwing Duck
Darkwing Duck to me, is the perfect example of how to adapt a cartoon into a game. It was Capcom taking what worked and applying it to a license in a way that made sense. After playing the game for the first time in decades, I was so happy to see it still holds up perfectly today and retains the charm it had back when it was first released. From the 8bit renditions of music from Darkwing Duck, to the spritework that was among Capcom’s best in the NES era, Darkwing Duck was special. Ducktales gets a lot of praise but to be perfectly honest, the NES version doesn’t fully hold up well and needed the remake. Darkwing Duck on the other hand does hold up perfectly well, and this is the game that should be played still.