On the Download: DuckTales: Remastered

“Life is like a hurricane, here in Duckburg.  Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes, its a duck-blur.  Might solve a mystery or rewrite history!”

When that iconic verse rang through the halls of PAX East, a chill formed down gamers’ spines both young and old in anticipation of the newest adventure with the greedy yet lovable Scrooge McDuck.  From the charming 8-bit graphics to the beautiful chiptune music to the masterful gameplay, Capcom’s DuckTales for the NES has been revered as one of the greatest licensed games of all-time.  To see such an iconic game be remade for a new generation of gamers to experience and older fans to lovingly revisit is simply amazing especially considering the NES original has never been released on any online service.  Being developed by the wonderful team at WayForward Technologies, who are responsible for great titles like Shantae, Contra 4 and the Mighty series on DSi and 3DS, there are high expectations for the return of Scrooge McDuck.

DuckTales: Remastered is not a quick and dirty remake of the NES original.  The team at WayForward has put their heart and soul into reimagining DuckTales for this modern era of video games.  The 8-bit sprites have been replaced by beautifully hand-drawn and animated sprites that look straight out of the cartoon itself.  Even with the limited bleeps and bloops on the NES processor, DuckTales’ soundtrack is held in high regard by most older gamers.  Jake Kaufman, the composer of DuckTales: Remastered, did his best to preserve the original compositions of the soundtrack while taking a more orchestral approach on each track.  The NES did not have enough processing power to convey a story through cutscenes like games do today so most of the storytelling was put in the game manual.  With the extensive power of the game systems of today, WayForward expands on the original story of DuckTales with brand new cutscenes which add more context to Scrooge’s objectives in each level and explains some lingering questions such as how a duck is able to breathe on the moon.  Along with the obvious additions to the presentation and audio, DuckTales: Remastered contains two new levels, new areas to explore in returning levels, the privilege to swim in Scrooge’s money vault, a map screen, an easy pogo jump setting and tons of unlockables such as concept art and music.

As a big fan of the show, DuckTales has been a game that yours truly has wanted to play for the longest time.  I have listened to the music and watched quite a bit of gameplay from DuckTales, but I had never got the chance to play the game itself.  Thanks to DuckTales: Remastered, this writer can finally experience this NES classic now in high definition.  DuckTales: Remastered is available now for 15 dollars on PSN, Steam and the Wii U eShop.  Sadly, Xbox 360 owners will have to wait until September 11th to join Uncle Scrooge on his globe-trotting adventure.  For those who prefer physical copies of their games, a physical copy of DuckTales: Remastered will be available exclusively for PS3 on August 20th, which will cost 20 dollars instead of 15.  No matter if you enjoyed DuckTales on the NES or never played the game before, put down your money and support DuckTales: Remastered in order to convince Disney to revisit more of their classic video game library and hopefully inspire them to start a new age of quality Disney licensed games.

Hump Day Music: Bits of Me Impressions

While it was announced way back in April, I finally got my copy of Brentalfloss' new CD Bits of Me in the mail last week.  Originally when I came on here and talked about Bits Of Me, I was on the fence about buying this album.  After some debating, I gave in and put down my 15 dollars to pre-order Bits of Me and show my support for Brentalfloss and his work.  Even though it took about two months after it's initial release to finally reach me, my patience was well worth it.  I received an autographed physical copy of Bits of Me, a free digital copy, three little Brentalfloss pins and one Brentalfloss sticker all for 15 dollars.  I made such a good choice pre-ordering this CD.

I first listened to Bits of Me when I received the free digital copy over a month, I was not impressed.  I do not know exactly why.  I might have just been in a bad mood when I listened to it.  When I popped the CD into my Mac to listen to it last week, I had a completely different reaction to the CD.  I loved it. There is only one song on the entire 18 track CD that I did not entirely enjoy.  The rest of the CD is absolutely incredible.  I have listened to it many times in the one week I have owned the physical CD.  While I do love every track on this CD other than Meet Me in the Dungeon, Dear, my personal favourites are Contra with Lyrics, Castlevania II with Lyrics, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!! with Lyrics and Zelda II with Lyrics.  All-in-all, any video game fan will find something to love about Bits of Me.  If you are interested in picking up Bits of Me, you can buy the physical CD from Level Up Studios for 13 dollars or download it from iTunes, Amazon MP3 and Bandcamp for about 9 to 10 dollars.  Bits of Me is well worth any price you pay.  And for your viewing pleasure is one of the songs featured on Bits of Me, Castlevania II with Lyrics.

On the Download: July 8-14

There are sales galore this weekend.  Thousands of games are being discounted on Steam while you can grab Mighty Switch Force for the discounted of price of 3 dollars this weekend on the Nintendo eShop.  Along with the sales, a couple of big downloadable games are coming to different platforms.  The every popular Tiny Wings is getting an HD port for the iPad, which you can find on sale for 3 dollars on the App Store and Airtight Game's first big downloadable project has been released for XBLA and PSN this week for 1200 Microsoft Points or 15 dollars respectively.  Re-releases were not the only thing this week as we got a few notable games to download.

While Nintendo's 8-Bit Summer continued with the release of Kirby's Pinball Land and Sword of Hope II for the 3DS Virtual Console, there is a 3DS download that should get a little more attention than it already has.  The game is called Johnny Kung Fu and comes to us by the talented people at UFO Interactive Games.  The local crime gang run by the notorious Mr. Wang has kidnapped Johnny's girlfriend.  Knowing what needs to be done, Johnny dons his Kung Fu grab in order to save his girlfriend, who is being held at the top of Mr. Wang's tower.  Johnny Kung Fu is a unique 3DS download that mixes old and new.  The game jumps between side-scrolling brawling segments to Donkey Kong-esqe platforming levels reminiscent of the games found on Nintendo's old Game and Watch handhelds.  Things start to ramp up as Johnny only has a hour or two to save his girlfriend.  If you like to pick up a game that bridges the old and new in the way Johnny Kung Fu does, you can pick this game up for 6 dollars on the Nintendo eShop.

Made by small indie developer SideQuest Studios, Rainbow Moon is a strategy RPG exclusive to the PS3 which has a strong emphasis on exploration, character development and turn-based combat.  In Rainbow Moon, you start out playing as Baldren, who has been warped to the world of Rainbow Moon by his arch-rival.  Trapped in this unknown realm, Baldren has accidentally opened up a dimensional gate which has freed a full army of monsters.  These monsters overwhelm Rainbow Moon thus turning the once peaceful realm into a living hell.  Now it is up to Baldren to seal the dimensional gate and find a way back to his home world.  Rainbow Moon is packed to the brim with content.  There are six playable characters including Baldren that can be customized with upgradable weapons, armour and other accessories.  There are over 100 special skills that you can teach one of the six playable characters, more than 20 dungeons to explore and a compelling story that will last you over 40 hours.  If you are interested, you can download Rainbow Moon off of the PSN Store for 15 dollars.

Konami has tried many times to bring Frogger into the modern age of gaming, but every time they failed.  Taking a page from what Namco did with Pac Man, Konami has released the classic Frogger gamers know and love with modern graphics and new game modes with Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition, available on XBLA, PSN and WiiWare.  Along with the classic Frogger game mode, there are a brand new game modes such as Tile Capture, Battle Royal and Freak Out for gamers to play through.      In the Hyper Arcade Edition of Frogger, you can customize the graphics through different skins.  Some of the skins you can use are the modern neon skin of Hyper Arcade or classic 8-bit skins and sprites from Frogger, Castlevania and Contra.  Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition also includes 4 player competitive multi-player so friends can compete to see who is the best at Frogger.  Looking to relive the glory days of Frogger, Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition is available for 10 dollars on PSN, 800 Microsoft Points on XBLA and 700 Wii Points on the Wii Shop Channel.