Aladdin
 |
 |
1992 Virgin Interactive
Sega Genesis
The first wave of "new" Disney movies hit right around when I entered high school (my first date was to The Lion King.) But Disney games weren't my first choice back in the day, I preferred something less cutesy, something with more asskicking. Thus I ended up missing out on several really good platforming titles such as this one.
The game follows the basic plot of the movie, with the early levels starting off in the streets of Agrabah avoiding palace guards and eventually ending up at a showdown with Jafar in giant Snake form. Aladdin can throw apples for a ranged attack as well as use a short curved sword (and in some cases the ol' stomp-them-on-the-head attack works too.) Character animations for Aladdin and the various other characters are extremely fluid, with lots of personality and funny reactions. Most of the major players from the movie show up in one form or another.
Gameplay in the side scrolling segments involves jumping from platform to platform, collecting apples & gold, hitting guards with apples, bouncing on store awning trampolines, etc, all to 16-bit midi renditions of the movie's award winning soundtrack. There is a decent progression of difficulty but even at the later levels it's not too hard. Inbetween the platforming levels are brief flying segments where Aladdin must dodge various obstacles on the the flying carpet. The Genie's blue hands give you hints on which way to go (although sometimes he doesn't seem to help very much.) These flying portions are slightly more difficult as they rely more on memorization, but they're not nearly as hard as other games with similar play mechanics (Battletoads for instance.)
Overall it's a decent platformer that fans of the movie will enjoy. Great graphics and animation compliment decent gameplay that never takes itself too seriously.
Graphics: Very smooth, fluid animations. Graphics have a somewhat bland color palette, but it matches the movie for the most part.
Sound: Background music taken from the various musical numbers in the movie fits in well with the overall feel of the game. Not much else special to report in the sound department.
Gameplay: The levels are large with lots of things going on, most of them have alternative paths and hidden areas to explore. Controls remain tight despite the high animation, and difficulty progresses at a good curve.