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Darkwing Duck: Capcom's Secret Mega Man

Posted by Bob Mackey

Since we've all got Mega Man 9 on the brain--and because XBox 360 owners won't even get to play the game until tomorrow--there's never been a more appropriate time to talk about Capcom's 2D legacy. Tragically, a good chunk of Capcom's 8-bit output will never be seen or played again outside of illegal methods or flea market acquirements; the rights to various Disney franchises, once held by the company, are now elsewhere, leaving us with quite a few orphaned and homeless games dating from the late 80s to the early 90s. It doesn't look like Capcom or Disney is interested in bringing these titles back to life--and Disney especially seems to be fond of completely ignoring most of their older television animation--so all we're only left with memories, and the magic of emulation.

Surprisingly, playing Mega Man 9 over the past week has caused memories of Capcom's Darkwing Duck to start leaking from my brain, so I went back to the game to find out why.

The shocking truth? Darkwing is shamelessly similar to Mega Man--he even makes that same little cricket-y noise when he lands on his feet. But Darkwing (the game) lacks many of the accoutrements that can lower the blood pressure of the frustrated Mega Man player; there're no boss weaknesses, energy tanks, or robotic dogs to help shield you from certain death. Darkwing does have a few more moves than Mega Man, but being able to shield yourself from projectiles and hang from certain objects only facilitates more scenarios where you will die. Repeatedly.

Could Darkwing Duck possibly be more hardcore than Mega Man 9? While it's seemingly not crafted with the same devious intentions and self-referential sensibility, Darkwing is a tightly-designed Capcom platformer that just happens to involve Disney characters--and it's balls hard. Though in a way that will leave you cursing at yourself, rather than the Japanese psuedonyms found in the credits (if you make it that far). Darkwing is a bit of an anomaly with its difficulty; after all, it was produced in the era of the later NES Mega Man games, which were incredibly easy. Could the Mega Man team have been working out their frustrations with Darkwing Duck? Did they even work on the game? The world may never know.

But if Mega Man 9 has put you in the mood for that special brand of Capcom self-punishment, I recommend you track down Darkwing Duck. That's what's important here.

Related Links:

Mega Man 9 Goes Back To Your Roots. Way Back.
OST: DuckTales
Capcom to Date, By the Numbers

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+ DEL.ICIO.US

+ REDDIT

Posted Sep 30 2008, 06:30 PM

Filed under: capcom, nes, disney, mega man 9, retro, bob mackey, darkwing duck

Comments

Roto13 said:

I own the Game Boy version from when I was, like, seven years old or something. What a great game. The bosses don't have weaknesses, but some types of gas were just more effective strategically. Quackerjack, for example, was a cinch with Heavy Gas. The battle took place on two platforms. If you hung from the first one and shot heavy gas, it would drop down below and damage him without putting yourself in much danger.

Man, he even had that little speech at the beginning of the game. "I am the winged scourge that pecks at your nightmares!" or something. Fantastic.

September 30, 2008 10:00 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

Love me some Darkwing, and I own the Game Boy game as well. I believe Keiji Inafune had a hand in the sprite artwork for some of the Disney games, but I'm not sure if DW was among them. I'd have to check the credits, see if I could match them up.

It is sad that they are essentially driving people to piracy by not releasing these games on the Virtual Console or in a collection, but it's not entirely out of the question: If I remember right, DuckTales' namesake has returned in comic book form, adorning the comics which inspired the cartoon in the first place. A lot of Disney Afternoon shows are now on DVD.

And most of all? It's not Disney and Capcom, but Konami, Mirage, Fred Wolf, and Ubisoft all got their shit together to enable a release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the Virtual Console NES and the arcade game for Xbox Live Arcade. They cost a little more, but really, who wouldn't pay that slight markup to relive some of these games? Especially when you consider the quality of a lot of the releases on the former with which we've had to deal.

September 30, 2008 10:19 PM

Bob Mackey said:

I never thought about the gas exploiting the patterns of bosses--which is strange, because Mega Man 9 is perfect in that way. I guess I ignored the special weapons because they were basically useless aside from the arrows, which let Darkwing reach hidden areas and did a crapload of damage (if I remember right) to enemies.

October 1, 2008 2:05 PM

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For a brief period of time I was Bull from TV's Night Court, but some of you may know me from the humor column I wrote for Youngstown State University's The Jambar, Kent State University's The Stater, and Youngstown's alternative newspaper, The Walruss. I'm perhaps most well-known for my bi-weekly pieces on Something Awful. I've also blogged for Valley24.com and have written articles for EGM, 1UP, GameSpite and Cracked. For all of my writing over the years, I have made a total of twenty American dollars. It's also said that I draw cartoons, which people have described with words such as "legible." I kidnapped the Lindbergh Baby and am looking to do so again in the future.

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