GEN - The Lion King

Haiku-Review:

from cub to adult,
a well done adaptation
from movie to game

Additional Comments:

Another Genesis title I had growing up; I think outside of the NES Capcom era of Disney games, this is one of the best - and not only that, I'd probably rank this as my 4th fave Disney Game, just behind Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers, Duck Tales and just only being squeaked out by Aladdin. On top of that, perhaps other than Toy Story, this is probably one of the best movie to video game adaptations out there, which is saying something when you think about the 8-bit/16-bit gaming era and the stereotype, which sadly is true, that movie adaptations make for the worst games. Well, not here. The game is not only an incredible platformer, but also has a rather unique gameplay style since you play as a lion.

The game follows the movie fairly close, starting with young Simba and of course ending with adult Simba fighting Scar. However, one thing I found rather odd, especially concerning young/adult Simba, is when it came to the three different difficulty modes. Now, it may just be that I got use to it, but it seems the difficulty modes only affect young Simba since the Hyenas and Vultures appear to be the only creatures that follow any sort of difficulty curve (1 additional hit per). If the difficulty did indeed affect adult Simba in any fashion - well, you've got me.

On the topic of difficulty, as a kid, I never actually beat this game because I could never figure out how to kill Scar. Come to find out, you can maul - huh, I don't think I ever knew that. Well, that's what happens when you don't have the manual and wonderful places like GameFAQs don't exist. Nevertheless, Scar's still a tough son of a bitch, but that's mostly because I really didn't grasp the maul/throw technique until the third playthrough on Difficult mode.

I chose to play this on the Genesis as opposed to the SNES for two reasons: one, I grew up playing this game on the Genesis, and two, when it comes to cross-platform games, I typically always prefer the Genesis version because of Sega's sound engine. The thick, chunky basses and raw, growling synths always won my heart over the smoother, more presentable instruments of the SNES.

Be Prepared (Genesis Version)
Be Prepared (SNES Version)

It's no contest - the SNES version, to me, just sounds like garbage - and really out of tune at that.

Rating: 3.5 bugs out of 5