It is kind of hard to believe, but the anticipated DuckTales Remastered, an upcoming HD remake of the original DuckTales for the NES, was not a recent breakthrough for Capcom. As we recall, Capcom USA’s senior vice president Christian Svensson described how the first conversation about the game goes all the way back to early 2010, almost three whole years before the gaming world got the official announcement on the HD remake’s development.
Quotes from Capcom’s own forum show that DuckTales Remastered had a rather rocky beginning: Capcom negotiated intensely with Disney for the rights to use the DuckTales brand. Svensson describes, “It took more than two years (on and off) to do the deal even before any development started,” and “The first conversations I had with folks at Disney about this were had at Dice in 2010 (Feb 2010).” He continues further by saying: “Initial proposals for greenlight started preparation in mid-late 2011 (when it looked like we would be able to reach a deal with Disney). Active development started a bit later after greenlight was achieved. In short, it was a lengthy process.”
Disney’s involvement in the project did not just revolve with simply handing over their intellectual property either, but also putting in their recommendation for critically acclaimed developer WayForward Technologies as the team that would bring DuckTales Remastered to life.
This tidbit of information comes from an interview with Siliconera, where the game’s producer, Rey Jimenez, described the situation with working alongside Disney. He remarks, “We have Disney helping very closely with us to approve the look and make sure everything feels right. And actually, WayForward was a suggestion from Disney. When we signed the project and decided to look for a developer, Disney suggested them and we checked them out and decided they were the guys to do it.”
Ducktales Remastered is an HD remake of the original NES game, Ducktales, which was both a critical and commercial success and considered a masterpiece in game design. In the game, players were put in control of Disney’s own billionaire, Scrooge McDuck, who, through some classic platform hopping, had to collect various amounts of treasure littered through the game’s variety of levels. These included the Amazon rainforest and the Himalayan Mountains. Known for its brutal difficulty and multiple endings, Ducktales is a fond, if not aggravating, memory for many long time NES enthusiasts.
Ducktales Remastered has been given a official release for this Summer, and will appear as a downloadable title on the Playstation 3 (PSN), Xbox 360 (XBLA), and the Wii U (eShop).
