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Chiptune Friday: Dangerous Disney Ducks!

As previously reported, Capcom is all about the retro revivals these days, what with Bionic Commando Rearmed, Mega Man 9 and the upcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Unfortunately, some of their best retro games are likely to never be revisited due to complex liscensing issue.Yes, once upon a time there were fantastic platformers staring unlikely heroes like Mickey Mouse and Little Nemo, action puzzlers staring Goofy, and more! Of course, their most remembered liscensed property is Ducktales, which has gotten some 61FPS love in the past. Ducktales for the NES even got a sequel and its action spinoff Darkwing Duck got its own sweet NES action-adventure.

So now, chiptune lovers, the NES renditions of both duck-cartoon theme songs. Feel free to sing along after the break.

Darkwing Duck: Capcom's Secret Mega Man

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.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.