Many moons ago, when I was just a child, I watched Disney's Aladdin. I remember being blown away, I loved everything about it, even the singing which generally I am not a fan of with Disney movies. I remember playing the game on the Megadrive, which at the time I found fiddley, especially the level where you are riding the flying carpet. Only in the last few months had I mentioned playing it when I was younger, my lovely better half Nolls purchased it for me as a Christmas present. Yay! I couldn't wait to play it again.
Marshmallows are quite nice, they are soft, fluffy, sweet and remind me of being a child. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours. While I like the classic pink and white ones my favorites are probably the multi-coloured ones. They don't contain artificial colours, flavors and have zero sugar. Okay, that last sentence was a complete lie. The only downside is that you can't eat too many of them and you will feel really sick. Playing Aladdin I found myself asking had I eaten the perfect amount or did I have one too many?
Story
He is known by many names, Prince Ali, Street Rat, but his friends call him Aladdin or Al. A story about a boy living on the streets with his pet monkey Abu, trying to survive. The story used in the game is a little more straightforward than the movie. The first couple of levels you get to see Aladdin trying to escape the guards and survive before he is eventually thrown in the palace dungeon. There he meets an old who offers him a way out, as long as he will do him a small favor first. If some reason you missed one of the best Disney movies of all time I won't say anymore by spoiling the story.
The story is fun and there are moments of comedy in the game, but it is far cry from the movie. That being said I did enjoy the story that unfolded in the game. I really want to watch the movie now though, might watch it on my birthday (celebrate good times, come on).
Visuals
The game looks remarkable especially for one that is nearly twenty-five years old. There were two versions of the game produced, one on the SNES and the other on the Megadrive, the latter is considered the better of the two. This was due to Disney themselves playing an active role in the games design process after the original studio (Blue Sky Software) had failed to produce a complete product. Virgin Interactive helped to bring the game to life along with Sega.
One of my favorite animations in the game is when you hit Iago the parrot, his feathers fall out and he drops off the screen, it just looks really comical. In the desert level, Abu can be seen jumping excitedly up and down on the stomach of a guard who looks dazed. When Aladdin attacks the guards they drop their trousers and you can see their boxer shorts, another classic. The most imaginative level was when you are in the lamp, it is a lot of fun and very colourful. The only negative is the escape level which features a lot of yellows and reds, sometimes it can be difficult to tell where one ledge ends and another begins, leading to more than a few deaths.
Music
When I popped in the cartridge and powered on the Megadrive I smiled instantly, the first thing I heard was the opening of 'Whole New World' - which is a great song. The soundtrack for the game has some of the classic songs from the movie but are slightly reimagined, due to the sound restrictions of the Megadrive. The creators/reworkers of the score were:
Tommy Tallarico, American composer, musician, creator of Video Games Live, who has worked on over three hundred video games. Some of his works include; Earthworm Jim 1 and 2, Terminator, Unreal Tournament 2004, Robocop Vs The Terminator, Advent Rising, Mick and Mac as the Global Gladiators.
Donald Griffin, American Composer who works include; Mario's Time Machine, Rampage 2: Universal Tour, Jungle Book, and Cool Spot,
The soundtrack was great and I often found myself humming along to the songs, my favorite pieces included; 'Prince Ali' (Prince Ali! Fabulous he! Ali Ababwa!), 'Camel Jazz', 'One Jump Ahead', 'Rug Ride', 'Friend Like Me', and 'Whole New World'.
Gameplay
Aladdin may be short by comparison of today's games but it's certainly not lacking in gameplay. There are two weapons in the game, a trusty sword, and apples, it turns out apples not only keep Doctors aways but also guards, parrots and weird spirits. The combat generally works fine but I certainly found myself relying on apples over the sword as they were far more reliable and offered a good distance attack. The game has you jumping around quite a lot, as any old-school platformer does, unfortunately, Aladdin's jump is a little poor and certainly is nowhere near as impressive as his movie counterpart. The merchant featured in the film is hidden on different levels throughout the game, if you collect enough jewels you can buy more lives or continues, which can be really handy later on.
Two of the most memorable levels for me were 'Inside the Lamp' and 'The Escape'. The lamp level was fun and imaginative, it features Genies' body which is used to traverse the level, his head is on balloons that float around and his hands flick you to different areas. At the end of the level, you walk upstairs that is tongue, gross but still funny. The escape is memorable for a very different reason. It is by far the most annoying level, not only are there no checkpoints but it is often hard to tell where one ledge ends and lava begins. This resulted in me dying multiple times, and that's before you start jumping from one floating rock to another with exploding lava between them.
The final boss is Jafar, who is a pain in the ass. His first form isn't too bad but I did have to hit him a helluva of a lot before he changed into a snake. This form is really frustrating as he shoots flames across the floor and on the two small ledges. The ledge attack is the worst as it does not follow a pattern, stand on it for more than second and he will cook you like a chicken (mmmm chicken).
There is a lot of fun to be had, but the game is not without annoying parts, all in all though, I really enjoyed playing it again.
Final Thoughts
So after playing for fours hours was I feeling sick or nicely satisfied? Definitely the latter. The story is great, it looks good and music is fantastic. The gameplay is not always rock solid and could be annoying at times but certainly did not stop me playing it. For this old classic, I give it 4 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment