We return to childhood with the remastered version of two Disney games such as the Aladdin of SEGA and the Lion King.
“I can't resurrect the dead… It's disgusting! AND IT SMELLS VERY EVIL! ”, The rules of Genius
Imagine that, as a gamer, when you rub the crosshead or stick of a console, the Game Genie appears to you and grants you the desire to bring the game you choose back to current systems, whatever it is. Which one would you ask for? In the case of who signs this, considering that SEGA's Aladdin is his favorite game of the 8 generations, the desire is clear. And that is what Disney has done, in full fever to relaunch its animated classics in Live Action format: open its 'Vault', its camera as it did in the time of the VHS and the DVD for and bring us two of the large number of games that make up your videojueguil catalog.
And it is that on the one hand, we talk about 2 jewels of the great and rich era 2D platform of the 4th Generation, and on the other of a perfect commercial strategy bringing back the games of Aladdin and The Lion King in the same year that it has released the real image versions and the date they are coming out in Bluray. Disney, under the Classic Games label, premieres on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and PC Aladdin and The Lion King, titles that are 26 and 25 years old respectively. Games with which many we weaned and / or earned a bit of the plataformeros awards, with which we were glad for Christmas and played again and again and again at a time when hopefully they gave you three games ALL YEAR. How have they aged?
Well, hell, hell.
There is no cooler game
Released in 1992, Aladdin is one of the best-known Disney classics and that burst ticket offices at a brutal level that year in the second considered Disney Golden Age that began with The Little Mermaid (of the same directors, by the way). Like all Disney films, Aladdin had to have a video game. And as happened with Jurassic Park for example, different studios made different games, instead of just one multiplatform. The version of Mega Drive was made halfway by Disney Software and Virgin Games, while the Super Nintendo version was for Capcom.
The rivalry between the two is well known, although the one who took the cat to the water at the time was Sega without a doubt. The Super Nes version, which sold 1.8 million copies, is a superb platform, more faithful to the film -Aladdin does not carry a sword, for example, and saves Jasmine at the beginning-, who also directed a Shinji Mikami… Capcom gold title, great and that unfortunately does not come in this compilation because of the licenses, leaving the collection 'lame' in this regard.
24 frames per second
This Disney Classic Games is therefore focused on the Mega Drive Aladdin, which sold 4 million copies and is the third best-selling console game behind Sonic and Sonic 2. In fact, its success was such that the versions of Friend, DOS, and even Game Boy and Nintendo NES left him and not the Super Nes Aladdin. The compilation presents the original version of the game, plus a kind of 'Director's Cut' that includes “bug fixes, camera settings and other better ones that were not in the original version of the game, but represent possible changes that the team development could have been implemented if I had more time. ”
Does this Final Cut change anything to the original? For if you are one of those who know by heart the Aladdin of Genesis, you will notice the small adjustments here and there. For starters, the camera is more polished and centered to correct the obstacles and enemies that sometimes made us lose a life because Aladdin almost came out flat and we didn't see them. The ‘hit-boxes’, the impact boxes, have been readjusted to eliminate enemies more effectively – you will take less blows into the air / through the enemy. There is also the occasional retouching of the imperceptible scenarios if you have never played it or did it a long time ago, but that is there. And more gems to buy lives and you continue, and some extra hearts too. Retouching, as we say, that does not ruin or affect the experience, and that they are fun because they give it a small novelty.
Easy but difficult
Next to the main title we have the Japanese version of the game, the normal Game Boy Aladdin and the colored Game Boy Color. But the real star and jewel is the demo that Sega exhibited at the 1993 Chicago Trade Fair. A version with a few levels that presents elements that would later be discarded from the final version, such as characters, obstacles, art – nothing more start the genius phase goes Goofy to the bottom – and curiosities like a hand of genius that indicated the way forward.
It is also an absolute challenge, because if the Aladdin of Mega Drive was accused of being easy at the time, this demo version is a Cuphead, with enemies everywhere who hit hard, platforms that crumble in a microsecond and controls that are noticed in beta version. It is not explained that the compilation does not include the Aladdin Master System or Game Gear, much more faithful to the movie and with a gameplay debtor of the Prince of Persia.
And how about the game itself? In the golden age of 2D platforms, Aladdin is still a great experience to play, fluid, 'easy' in general – you do it in 45 minutes of a stroke – but with moments that can despair of supposing some excessive peaks of difficulty in comparison with the rest – it is what was distilled in many titles of the time – such as the (patient) ascent through the platforms that disappear from level 4, the escape from level 6 or the famous magic carpet ride, a phase of purely trial and error to memorize. Although the version of Game Boy itself has aged quite badly, because basically it is a desktop Aladdin downgrade grateful to the beast with a jump with tremendous lag.
The pixel cycle
The second of this diptych is The Lion King, the forced video game of a Disney film that hit a tremendous bombing in 1994 – raised almost $ 1 billion, which is now "normal", but that 25 years ago was crazy. Work of Westwood Studios – yes, those of the Command & Conquer saga or the graphic adventure of Blade Runner -, the Lion King was also a 2D platform, although with a slightly more labyrinthine scenarios than those of Aladdin and with greater weight in the Puzzles – although without going over, of course.
This time, Disney did not want the war to repeat itself, and the versions of Mega Drive and Super Nintendo were identical in themselves in the playable although with differences: Super Nes had the best graphic and sound finish – even digitized choirs – while Mega Drive gained in performance and controls, with a more fluid execution.
Controlling Simba as a young man and then as an adult, each one with his controls – the young Simba can roll and jump on his enemies, the adult Simba can hit them with the claws – we have phases in which the difficulty is higher without doubt, with very tight jumps, areas to repeat quite a few times as the great and mega-patient ascent through the trunks of the waterfall, and phases of learning them based on trial and error like the stampede – a technical portent 25 years ago without a doubt. The game is not much longer than Aladdin, you can do it in 50 minutes at a stretch, but it is more demanding without a doubt, with purely Old School moments that can make you despair today.
The game also includes the Japanese version of Super Famicom and the versions of Game Boy and Game Boy Color, which are once again downgrades of the original. But they do not include either the Master System or the Game Gear. In itself, it seems that Nighthawk Interactive have focused more on Aladdin, because The Lion King has no improvements or a final version. In itself it is true that the camera was always better focused, but the adult Simba fights would have been an improvement in the hit-boxes without a doubt.
For any type of audience
What this compilation has and to spare are options so that it can be enjoyed by anyone:
- You can play all the games that it brings to the classic style, which means that by losing all your lives and ‘continue’ you have to start them again.
- You can choose to use the system to save game in the emulator style, at any point in the game – ideal if there is an area or jump that resists.
- You can go further and use the Ingame Rewind capability, which in the style of the Prince of Persia trilogy allows you to undo an action, such as a vacuum fall.
- You can even activate an invulnerability trick in Options, or choose the level at which to start
In case all these were not help, both Aladdin and The Lion King bring a curious Spectator mode that allows you to see the entire game as if it were a demo version that plays itself, with controls to accelerate, rewind and even jump from ' chapter'. The shot is that anywhere you can pause it and start playing yourself, so if you resist any point, you see it in spectator mode, stop it and start from there. Like the selection of chapters of a Bluray, only at stake.
DVD Extras
Ideal for fans and for the curious, both games bring, as if they were a Bluray Disney, a selection of extra content in the form of videos and interactive galleries and slides, with arts, sketches, color guides, discarded material, etc. A total of 38 pieces to contemplate and which are a great addition, although the only problem is that they are not subtitled at all.
1080p art
In the era of Pixel-Art, seeing and playing again Aladdin and El Rey Leon at 1080p is an artistic beauty. Aladdin demonstrates that at the time of aging he turns the years just as well as the master Comix Zone: the backgrounds of each stage, the absolutely fluid handmade animations, the dozens of visual details to look at, the colorimetry … A work of Pixelated art that will never pass the years and that surely some neophyte will think that he is not 26 years old, but that it is a remake.
The Lion King is another jewel of animated sprites, scenes drawn in detail, fluidity in movements and pixelated charm, especially in its Super Nes version – which is nevertheless worse at the level of performance than Mega Drive. The compilation allows different types of image, since we want to play it at its original resolution, adapted to 4: 3 to the surface of the TV or stretched to occupy the entire surface – something horrible at 16: 9, because its ratio is 4: 3. We can even choose an art that surrounds the game screen as a frame, and even CRT and LCD display modes, which already depends on the fan that one is from the ‘Scanlines’ and the level of nostalgia desired.
And loudly, here we have nostalgia in vein because it is the BSOs of both movies remade in MIDI format. Aladdin's famous songs are instrumentally versioned and fit perfectly with every stage, from Prince Ali to An Ideal World through A Genius like me, and in passing with some new themes made for the game. In the Lion King we hear Hakuna Matata, Die for … I am going to be the Lion King, etc, all in Midi, although the SNES version surprises by containing digitized choirs and sampled voices from the film like that of the great James Earl Jones ⁄ Mufasa.
We have obtained codes provided by GOG.com
CONCLUSION
Appealing clearly to pure nostalgia – hopefully next time with Hercules and Tarzan -, this Disney Classic Games is a throwback, a return to childhood for some, and the opportunity for others to rediscover two of the greatest jewels As for Disney games. Both show a playability of more than two decades ago, but still fun, irregular in its difficulty but thankfully demanding. It is a pity that the group itself, which has many good things – the extras, the Final Cut version – is lame because of the sound absence of the Aladdin of SNES and those of Master System and Game Gear, or for leaving aside a little to the Lion King. But if you're a Disney fan, even though the price is a little high, there are only 2 possible words to describe the game: Must-have.
THE BEST
- Enjoy 1080p these jewels, which visually age that gives pleasure
- The inclusion of the mythical demo of Aladdin and the Final Cut version with its surprises
- The phase of the waterfall of the Lion King remains a challenge to the platform skills of every player
- The amount of options for everyone to enjoy both games, especially the Spectator mode
- The amount of videos and extra galleries …
WORST
- … That on the other hand they are not even subtitled in Spanish
- The absence of Capcom's Aladdin is very noticeable, and together with those of Master System and Game Gear, they leave a compilation that seeks to be definitive on both titles
- That the Lion King has not had a Final Cut too
Good
It meets the expectations of what a good game is, it has quality and does not present serious failures, although it lacks elements that could have led to higher levels.
