Aladdin
These days when a blockbuster movie is released that has loads of action is bound to have a game about it as well. Actually this was even the case way back in the beginning of gaming though not as much as today. You wouldn’t expect anything else from a company like Disney to make games of their movies also and Aladdin is such a game. The game is a standard platformer like oh so many movie translations with places and characters taken straight out of the movie.
Aladdin is the story of a young vagebond who lives in Agrabah stealing to stay alive but one day he finds a lamp that contains a genie and with three wishes at his disposal he aims to win over the princess whom he is in love with. The game doesn’t follow the story completely but it does have several scenes from the movie like the Agrabah market, the desert with the magical cave and later the prison and the palace. Gameplay consists of standard run and jump platforming as Aladdin has a sword which he can use to take out any guards and he can pick up apples for ranged attacks. Along the levels he can also pick up powerups which will give him back some energy or a lamp which will enable him to start there once he loses all his energy. You can also find gems which you can use to buy lives and wishes (basically a continue option) from a vendor who pops up once in a while. Complete the level and you will be able to play a minigame where you can win gems or apples. After the first level there is a minigame where you can control Abu, Aladdin’s pet monkey, where he has to avoid falling pots, this is quite a nice minigame but for some reason it’s only available after the first level.
Aladdin is much like other movie licenced platform games but still the execution is done quite well in most version. The action is fast and the controls responsive and the characters are well recognizeable from the movie. The locations are also nicely taken out of the movie and they fit the mood of the game well. Music is another good thing about the game as when you like the soundtrack of the movie you’ll find all of the tunes back in this game. Normally movie licenses are a bad excuse to make some money but in this case the game isn’t half bad and I enjoyed it quite a lot so give it a go.
Overal rating: 8/10
This game was released for many different systems here are some notes:
| DOS | Released in 1994. Game has been tested but not completed on a Win2k PC. One of the best platform games I know of for the PC platform. It has many problems with olders systems as well as it does not work if you have more then 32 Mb of memory. Run it under dosbox for best compatability. |
| Megadrive/ Genesis |
Released in 1994. Game has been tested but not completed with WGens v2.11. This is pretty much the same as the dos version. |
| Super NES | Released in 1993 . Game has been tested but not completed with ZSNES win v1.36. This version is quite different as it’s more a run and jump game, you don’t have a sword and the only way to take out guards is to jump on their head (Mario anyone??). |
| SMS – Sega Master system |
Released in 1993. Game has been tested but not completed with Dega v1.12. This is also differernt form the others as it is a fastpaced scrolling affair where you simply avoid all the obstacles standing in your way. |
| Others | The game was released for several other systems. Gameboy normal/color/advance released in 1995/2000/2004. Game gear released in 1994. NES released in 1994. |
| Date added | Nov-25-2005 19:32 |
| Name | Aladdin |
| Developer | Disney software |
| Publisher | Disney software |
| First released | 1994 |
| Genre | Action |
