The Disney Afternoon Collection’s Rewind Button Makes A Big Difference

Capcom’s Disney Afternoon Collection drops this week on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, bundling together six classic NES games based shows from the heyday of Disney television animation. They’re just like you remember them, only now you can rewind. Watch us play.

We streamed brief plays of all six games in the collection over Facebook earlier today, and we saved a copy of that stream for those of you who weren’t around to watch it. You may hear me addressing questions to Facebook commenters, or helping my children open snacks and fix their controller batteries.

Otherwise, the video below is a whole lot of fondly remembering, dying and utilising the collection’s new rewind feature to escape that death. The option to dial back time rather than lose a life transforms the way these games play, making them more much more approachable for new and old players alike.

Here are some timestamps to hop to in order to see each game in action.

DuckTales — 3:17

The ultimate NES Disney tie-in, DuckTales is a bit of an odd duck, as we recently got a fully remastered version with new graphics and voice actors. Still a fun game. Here you see it playing in full screen cropped mode.

Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers — 6:41

Here we kick things up to widescreen stretched, which takes a bit of getting used to if you’ve played these games recently. The games run like a dream no matter what options you choose.

TaleSpin — 9:31

I have absolutely no recollection of this game, though I swear I played it. Check out the scan lines, courtesy of the collection’s TV filter.

Darkwing Duck — 13:19

There’s a fair bit of Mega Man-style platforming and shooting in this superheroic side-scroller. Might be my favourite of the bunch.

DuckTales 2 — 18:48

Pretty sure DuckTales 2 came out past my NES prime, during the time I was discovering things like having sex before playing video games.

Rescue Rangers 2 — 21:57

Man, those NES graphics got pretty impressive towards the end, didn’t they? Compare this to the first game, it’s like night and day.

That should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from The Disney Afternoon Collection when it drops tomorrow. Old games played in old ways with a new rewinding twist, plus each game also gains Time Attack and Boss Rush modes for the speedy-runner-types in the audience.

Between the new modes and special behind-the-scenes archives featuring old concept art, ads and the like, it’s a pretty nifty little collection. But that rewind option? That changes everything.

The Disney Afternoon Collection will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC tomorrow for $US19.99 ($26).