O Rei Leão

This is going to be a short and precise no-spoiler review.

No matter how many times I watch this film, it always gets me emotional. The visuals are spectacular, the fluidity of the animations, well-captured perspectives, well thought out camera angles and even the gorgeous sound tracks just makes the experience so amazing! I enjoy the brilliant story line and dialogue. The voice acting is superb and so is everything honestly.

I'm just really in love with this animated film! It is like apart of my childhood.

"The Lion King" on the Dendy somehow passed me by back in the day. I actually watched the legendary animated movie much later than when I first got my hands on the game. As a result, I didn't pay much special attention to it, preferring other Disney-based games instead. Still, this one stayed in my memory as a solid adventure - though not without its challenges.

You play as young Simba, who eventually grows into a strong adult lion and seeks revenge for his father. It follows the movie's plot: the savannah, adventures, villainous hyenas, and, of course, Scar. But the adventure itself turns out to be quite tough.

The graphics - classic 8-bit beauty (well, almost). When I first launched the game, I remember thinking the backgrounds looked almost three-dimensional. Of course, that's probably just childhood memory, but for 8-bit graphics, the visuals actually looked very nice. Simba jumps, runs, does amusing rolls, and his animation is quite decent for the platform.

However, once you get to the controls, the real safari on my nerves would begin. Simba often jumped somewhere he wasn't supposed to, sometimes wouldn't jump at all, or would suddenly fall off platforms like he was too tired to live and decided on a dramatic somersault to his doom. That's when I realized how loudly and creatively I could curse.

When playing the level with the ostrich - the one where you have to race forward on its back - I learned just how many new words you could say in a single minute. That ostrich is a true nemesis. Jumping over obstacles, reacting instantly to on-screen prompts, constant mistakes, and, of course, those heartbreaking moments when you had memorized the path but still managed to crash into something.

When Simba grows up, he finds himself in confusing caves, where everything is dark and maze-like. It was a good memory workout for kids, but getting lost was something I excelled at. Nowadays, these caves don't seem nearly as complicated, but back then, it felt like being stuck in a twisted dream you couldn't escape from.

In conclusion, "The Lion King" is a visually charming but occasionally frustrating platformer that taught me the limits of my patience. Beautiful, atmospheric, but not very player-friendly. As a kid, it frustrated me more than it delighted me. Yet it still stuck in my memory. Although, to be honest, I have no real desire to replay it today.

7 out of 10.

This is another of my personal favorite video games of all time, as well as licensed games and games from Disney. Disney in the 90's was indeed on a roll, to me that was probably my favorite decade for the company, looking back at that decade now makes me appreciate it more and realize how much is sorely missing now. "The Lion King" is one of my favorite animated films of all time, it truly was something else and of course seeing a video game on it I was both excited but also a little worried as licensed games are always hit or miss, thankful lighting struck twice after the "Aladdin" games this became the number two hit.

The whole plot of the game pretty much follows the movie closely from the first to last act, so you can't really expect too many surprises. But that's part of what licensed games do anyway, it's just the feeling of being part of the action in the movie that makes it all the more exciting and memorable; even though you know the movie you also know you know you were part of it.

I really love the graphical design which really showed how both consoles "Genesis" and "SNES" were really pushing their limits as the graphical design is accurate to the movie itself. From it's African wild landscapes to the character models themselves they got to a tee. I really like how lively and expressive the character models are which really reenforce the Disney movie feel.

The gameplay is solid, it's your platform action which is cool as platform action is one of my favorite genres in games and fits right with the game. Really like how you control the character Simba (young and old). With both versions you play the same, but you have different functions and different kinds of challenges. I really like the whole jump grasping and climbing on edges and swinging on bars, not to say that wasn't common in most platform action games but the execution in this I feel is just done well.

Each of the levels are always a different kind of challenge which I really like as it keeps the game fresh and interesting. And the difficulty in them is varied, the game isn't too hard but it's also not too easy as there are plenty of tricky spots, which makes the game a matter of trial and error, so some parts of the game require some practice, but that just makes the game feel even more rewarding.

There are a lot of memorable levels, some which consist of you point a to b levels; but one of my favorites is the Stampede level, it was just cool as it's sort of a mix of both 2 and 3 dimension. The level is pretty much a moving level but it's in the reverse as you see Simba running toward you on the screen while trying to avoid the animals coming toward Simba. As least from that perspective you are a step ahead of Simba as you can see the oncoming danger and patterns. In a way it's a little like a moving scenarios from the video game "Dragon's Lair" as they give you only seconds to act/react as well as memorize the patterns if you made too many errors first time around. Another after the stampede you have a chase level which I always like as those levels always cause you to think on your feet while getting ahead of the oncoming threat.

And of course, there is the music score, which is great, most of it consists of tracks from the movie but in video game track from. Just hearing the "Genesis" version of the songs from the movie is just music to my ears and show how timeless and universal those songs really are.

This vintage classic is a roaring good time.

Rating: 4 stars.

Review of Sega Genesis version. A lion grows up, and does stuff. Well, that's the plot that this actually conveys, as it doesn't at all attempt to go into what happens in the film(I guess they just expected you to go straight from watching that to playing this), and this follows the law of licensed games sucking. It is, in fact, quite probably the worst "Disney Action" title. I'll get the little good out of the way first. The animation uses people from the feature(music is also from it, as are all of the locations), and you can really tell, movements look exactly right. Graphics aren't bad for the time. Same goes for sound. Level design is nicely enough done. If they didn't throw crap at you, it might even be enjoyable to work your way through them. Yup, we've gotten to the bad. While I wish I could be comparing this to Aladdin, the one truly great of these, I must instead use Hercules, because these both get a lot of the same wrong. Let's start with the 3D... this is worse at that than that, the one positive being that there's less of it. The one segment is one of the many burn-through-a-bunch-of-hard-earned-lives, here with you running away from the stampede of...wildebeests? You head toward the screen, meaning that you can't tell what you are running at... that isn't a big issue, since it's limited to rocks, that you get warning of(too late, as with everything else in this... it doesn't help that it reacts too fast *or* slow, and the amount of movement either excessive or not enough)... the problem is that you can't tell if you are to the side, or in front, of these beings. You can't tell at all where anything is in relation to you. So they suddenly "turn" and harm you, and, like with everything else in this, it takes almost nothing for you to die. Getting back to the regular platforming, for most of it, you can just barely identify what hurts you, much less how you avoid or injure it. This is infuriatingly, abusively difficult(overly fast and intense, and just plain exhausting) right from the very start. Actually, first and last are relatively easy(and the final boss is a breeze, unsatisfying... and you "earn" nothing, no cool cutscene, no highscore table). There is far too much going on at once. When you can just barely handle one foe, why does this throw several at you simultaneously? Did they think they were making a freaking beat-'em-up or something? Most of the enemies aren't even from the movie(one of your main ones is a salamander that does appear once, though not in that function), with you fighting spiders, bats, large felines and... porcupines? Would they even be there, geographically...? How would you fight these? By jumping on them(because Super Mario made money). Nope, it doesn't make sense! And don't worry about the ones you wouldn't want to get on top of, they can be flipped upside down by use of the short-range roar(what, you thought this would grant you a ranged attack? No, in spite of how badly it needs it), that stuns small animals. Anyway, did you ever wonder where all those goose-stepping hyenas went after the Be Prepared(that scene appears here, by the way... later in the chronology, and with your presence! What on Earth?) song/spoken word? Into this, you fight tons of them - the one type of adversary that's actually from the flick! They are the main opposition(other than inanimate dangers that come out of nowhere... why are stones falling when getting towards Timon and Pumbaa?! In fact, why are they only in the bonus areas, that are so vaguely defined that you will almost definitely mess up the first time you try one, and that one failure will throw you back out of that, without having earned anything), they have much more health than you, as mentioned before they attack in packs(so you have to "juggle" several, when they can even come at you from different sides, and you may not be able to tell what they'll do, meaning how you should dodge them, and there is no way to temporarily hinder them so you can focus on one while another recovers), and they only have a tiny window for you to hit them, and often even if you fit into that *and* manage to damage them, you'll be wounded, yourself. And almost invariably, when one can be injured, another is ready to charge at you. Well, once Simba is adult(over 50% of this has him as a kid, and he is *terrible*, so weak), he finally gains the claw slash, and he can use that to maul them... well, whenever they aren't engaging in those combos that you simply have to wait through. Of course, this leaves you open from behind, *and* the one you're whaling on can sometimes *still* strike you(fairness, what's that?). Oh, and you're supposed to be able to leap onto them and take them out with your paw with no chance of their retaliation, but it's tough as crap to get it to work. This barely has a pause at any point. The real kicker? There is no password system, die completely and have to start all over. The challenges in this are seriously counterintutive. Why does this have me fighting Donkey Kong? He doesn't even have a princess for me! No, seriously, it's him. What else do you call a large monkey throwing rolling objects(...fruits?) at you(that you have to avoid), across rising terraces, with you gradually making your way to him? And don't get me started on that waterfall, where you have to get from falling, sinking log to the next, with you repeatedly finding that you are going backwards, not progressing. And the maze, near the end...! This is not gratifying. There is constant bloodless violence and some disturbing content in this. I recommend this to... masochists, I guess. 5/10