Disney on Deck: DuckTales: Remastered
Hey all. Yes, Star Wars Battlefront Collection is out but it will be at least several days before I can put that through its paces both online and off and form some thoughts to then put down into a blog entry so that’ll be sometime next week.
In the meantime, I’m revisiting a remaster of a classic NES platformer that was released just over a decade ago, is listed as Steam Deck verified, and happens to currently be on sale for only $3.74, so if there was a time to evaluate how DuckTales: Remastered performed on Valve’s portable platform, now is a very opportune one.
In the 80s and most of the 90s, Capcom was not only on a consistent roll, making tons of great original games, but also making a string of excellent licensed games based on Disney properties specifically. Some have been re-released on more modern platforms (i.e. The Disney Afternoon Collection as well as the Disney Classics Games Collection) but DuckTales is the only one given any sort of real modern facelift as well as added voice acting and a lot of other goodies. And it’s not as available as you’d like to think. There is no version for the PlayStation 4 or 5 (it’s available on Xbox thanks to Microsoft’s fairly impressive backwards compatibility efforts) and more surprisingly, no Nintendo Switch release because 2D platformers are usually great on that and great to play portably in general.
So with that in mind, we come to a game that came out well before the Steam Deck was even a thing, but it is listed as verified, does that not only check out but is it a good game to play on Steam’s handheld device?
The gameplay of DuckTales: Remastered remains largely faithful to the original (to a fault really since some enemies respawn or reappear a little too easily and there are a few cheap hits here and there) but it’s far more generous with checkpoints. But the biggest strength of this remaster is the gorgeous animated sprites of just about every character in the game. The backgrounds and stages are polygonal and that offers a bit of a stark contrast, but playing on the Steam Deck’s OLED screen if you have that option makes the animated sprites really sing to arguably be one of if not the best-looking version of DuckTales: Remastered you can have.
That wouldn’t mean a whole lot if the game didn’t run well, and granted I am not a frames person, but DuckTales: Remastered runs incredibly smooth on the Steam Deck, which probably should be expected for a game this old, but Alice in Wonderland was deck verified as well and sub-par looks aside, didn’t run anywhere near as well as this does, which arguably is a more impressive feat since 2D animated sprites were mostly an afterthought in games a decade ago much less now.
So, some minor quibbles aside that are mostly a result of its old-school platforming roots, especially for the insanely low price of $3.74, you cannot go wrong with DuckTales: Remastered on the Steam Deck, it looks and runs fantastic and fits the platform perfectly.
That’s it for today, but yes as soon as I get the opportunity (likely whatever my first day off next week is) you will be able to read my thoughts on the Star Wars Battlefront Collection, so see ya real soon!
