Friday, April 16, 2021

Jack Red reviews Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King

 Hello everyone I'm Jack Red or XboxClown89 in Resident Evil: Resistance community. I decided to review Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King. I previously reviewed their DOS versions. Originally I couldn't finish both of them. Which is more true about The Lion King. But I recently in two live streams today in fact fully played through one version of each game.

I rather start with Aladdin because I technically was further in DOS version prior to even attempt any version of Aladdin included. You have three different versions of Sega Genesis alone. The original game, a demo of a few stages and exclusive to this compilation, Final Cut. Also included is Game Boy port with two different color lay outs.

Before I continue that's kinda weird it isn't just an option like you would expect. Not only that, Game Boy version is in a different menu from most versions as well. Last I checked there's no hidden games or unlockables that I'm aware of. In terms of newer game compilations, it does have some stuff to expect like rewind.

There is only one save per a game. Honestly due to the length of them this isn't much of an issue. Now if we were talking RPG long games. Then yes it would be a deal breaker for me. Aladdin has some great stages with Inside the Lamp being my least favorite. A handful of boss fights not too bad. It is faithful to the source material.

I felt the little problems I had, Aladdin was a solid platformer experience. I got excited playing it as I played it on my stream. This was a great adaptation of a classic movie. Keep in mind, this compilation was a tie in for the more recent live action versions of both movies. Hands down, Final Cut is the best version of Aladdin.

This was created to be what if the team had the time they wanted to complete the game. For a game that in a sense got rushed out it did amazing well. In fact, it's one of the best sold Sega Genesis games in history. Usually not the case for majority of rushed games. SNES game wasn't made by the same company since that was handled by Capcom.

The Lion King oh boy where to begin with this one. In terms of being faithful to the source material, it's very accurate. I would even go as far to say more so than Aladdin I'm not kidding. There's not much game play variety. Some of the puzzles can be confusing & tedious at times. The hit detection is more strict than at times in Aladdin.

I will say both games for the most part has great songs. I had Toy Story & Ariel the Little Mermaid on the same console growing up but I never had both of those. The Lion King has a handful of stages where you play as Adult Simba. Although the difficulty goes up, I felt the controls were more interesting.

There's slightly more bosses than Aladdin surprising I know. The Lion King does have some furious obstacles like Simba trying to survive an stampede stage. It's tricky to tell where exactly those animals or how to properly avoid em at times. I am not going to hide it anymore. Even the developers of this game apologized to those who any version of the game.

You are probably wondering oh wait you already know why. It is so damn hard & unforgiving at times. I would even say most bosses aren't that bad. Just luck at times to not die otherwise not bad. Some stages leading up to the end are actually tougher than most bosses no lie. The final stage is simply repetitive & tedious as hell.

You have to face Scar whose Simba's evil uncle in the movie. Everyone knew he was going to be the final boss. But do we need to face him three times within the same stage? No really not far into the final stage, we're already facing him. It isn't exactly clear how you get him to run away. Thus allowing you to continue the stage.

It will take some time getting to the second fight. More or less the same thing again. After he runs away again, you work your way up. Once again the same process except you can now throw him off the cliff. This time there's some form of knowing when to attempt throwing him off. When you see Simba notably jump him further than normal.

All you have to do is get him close enough to the edge on either side to throw him. But the way they went about "throwing him" isn't that easy. If you had an original Genesis controller you had to press both B & C buttons to do that. Thankfully they also included a button to work like one the other extra buttons from a six button controller.

Also it's a little weird how you throw him off. You got to have him just close enough when you get to the edge of a cliff. Then you got to hope when you go to throw him. He doesn't attack you which could take all of your health away if you aren't careful. Oh yeah it felt so good to finally throw Scar off a cliff.

Oh yeah another stage had this maze with caves too. It is so confusing where to go. Just when you thought it doesn't get much worse. You bet it does by forcing you to keep fighting hyenas repeatedly. Why do I have to keep fighting enemies I already defeated?  Another furious portion is a particular puzzle in Stage 2.

Yeah this usually became quickly known as the most likely rage quit I won't come back point of the game for people. Now that's insane they made what seems like an easy puzzle so damn frustrating, a lot of people just gave up like that. Keep in mind, both these games were created in mind for children of the 90s including myself.

I know I am bashing The Lion King hard here. On the surface it is a surprisingly decent licensed game for it's time. I would replay it but likely with codes honestly. It just has major problems that were too much for it's targeted audience. The Lion King on both Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo are considered among the hardest games to complete.

The Lion King side of this compilation has Sega Genesis, SNES version and Game Boy versions. Both games also came with their Japanese versions too. The interesting part is majority prefers Aladdin on Genesis while The Lion King on Super Nintendo. So in that particular case, if this compilation lacked one or both versions I wouldn't bought it.

There's plenty of extra stuff like behind the scenes & videos related to both franchises. At first, the compilation felt like it balanced both franchises. After you look deeper, you quickly realize there's not enough on The Lion King. You would expect something new for that since Aladdin got a new version.

Sadly that simply wasn't the case folks. The achievements are majority Aladdin with only three for The Lion King. At least it's straight forward beat the game on each difficulty. Yes it is possible to cheat all the achievements. At first, you are likely wondering, couldn't they do more achievement wise with The Lion King?

After you fully play that game you'll understand. It was actually best the way they done that. There's no way anyone going to have the patience of a saint with a game like The Lion King. The difficulty was already so high for Easy, I beaten it on Normal. Instead of Easy, Normal and Hard like you would expect from most games.

You got Hard, Very Hard and Hardest you're going to die a lot baby. Believe it or not, that's right on the money with The Lion King. Aladdin has a much better overall balance. I felt The Lion King on Super Nintendo is a competitor for best soundtracks on this compilation. Aladdin does have some challenging obstacle like the famous magic carpet stage.

I am surprised in a weird sense part of it's mechanics are actually in both these games I'm not kidding. You gotta move fast while paying attention to the game telling you where to go to avoid dying. I will say this considering The Disney Afternoon Collection. Which I already reviewed that has six NES games from Capcom.

I would say the fact all six of them got represented equally was mind blowing. So why couldn't Aladdin gave some of that attention to The Lion King? I'll tell you exactly why, the game was so damn hard. They don't wanna acknowledge it's now legendary difficulty anymore. Honestly, I do enjoy this compilation, it's a lot of.

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