Is Disney's Aladdin Still Good?
Disney's Aladdin was released on the Sega Genesis back in 1993, a year after the successful
film debuted in theatres.
The game was developed by Virgin Games, and directed by David Perry, who also had a hand
in some other popular games of the era including The Terminator, The Jungle Book, and Earthworm
Jim.
Much like the movie, the game was a huge success, with the Genesis version going on to sell
over 4 million copies.
To put that into perspective, it outsold Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which is kind of amazing when
you think about it.
Anyway, not only was the game a commercial success, it was a critical hit.
GamePro magazine gave the game a 10 out of 10 stating, “Aladdin's breakthrough animation
and all the fun surprises waiting throughout the game make it an enjoyable play for anyone.”
Edge magazine scored the game an 8 out of 10 noting, “At last the Mega Drive has a
new platform king.
Move over spiky blue one, Aladdin’s in town.”
Finally, Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game an 8.5 out of 10, proclaiming, “Let's
hear it for Virgin!
This game is a masterpiece!
The animation is second to none plus the little Disney touches to the backgrounds and characters
make this cart a visual extravaganza.”
So is Disney's Aladdin still worthy of this praise?
Let's take a look.
The game opens with some static cut scenes laying out the plot, with Jafar and Iago looking
for the diamond in the rough who is able to enter the Cave of Wonders.
In all honesty, if you haven’t seen the movie these cut scenes probably won’t make
much sense.
And if you have seen the movie, these don’t really do the movie justice.
In either case, you’re better off just skipping them, which is exactly what I’m going to
do.
The first level is Agrabah Market.
Here we quickly learn the main mechanics of the game.
Aladdin is equipped with a sword used for attacking, and features typical running and
jumping.
Sadly, Aladdin cannot jump on enemies, but he does have access to apples, which he can
throw at foes.
While not infinite, extras are scattered almost everywhere, and you generally won't find yourself
running low on ammunition.
The level itself is actually pretty cool.
Aladdin will work his way up and down, as well as forward and back, and it seems the
level designers did an awesome job using absolutely all the space available to create a long sprawling
level.
While it isn't always obvious what is the background and what is the foreground, it
does manage to give the feeling of running down the center of Agrabah, rather than a
structured video game level.
It's a good trade-off in my opinion.
After clearing the market Aladdin makes his way to the Desert to gather the two pieces
of a scarab.
Yeah, the first level didn’t have any objectives, but this Desert level does.
Also changing is the level design and structure, with a more linear left to right experience.
However, there are far more little touches.
If you stand in the right spot by this Mickey Mouse hat for example, an extra life will
appear.
This ancient pillar has Goofy on it, and if you jump while standing behind it, you'll
discover a secret area.
There are some obscure secrets as well, returning to the beginning of the level will reveal
another bonus life, and there are plenty of little nooks and crannies behind the ancient
ruins featuring apples and other collectables.
These alternate paths and hidden nooks make exploring the level a ton of fun.
After procuring both pieces of the scarab, we move onto the Agrabah rooftops.
Here the game tells us to collect the flutes.
Grabbing these will make a rope appear out of a pot, and thus let you progress to the
next area of the world.
Other than collecting flutes, level 3 feels pretty much identical to level 1, but with
the added rope gimmick.
This third level also introduces bosses.
These are few and far between in Aladdin, but don’t put up much of a fight.
The first dude can be defeated by chucking apples at him.
If you do it quick enough, he never recovers and is dispatched quite quickly.
The main boss is also basic.
Simply hit him with an apple, jump the barrel he throws, and repeat.
Yeah, not much of a challenge.
Next we arrive at the Sultan’s Dungeon.
Again, this is a sprawling labyrinth style level, having Aladdin traveling in nearly
every direction searching for an escape.
Unfortunately, some of Aladdin’s age starts to show in this level.
First up is annoying enemies.
While the levels themselves are fun to traverse through, with plenty of hidden areas to discover,
there are also plenty of surprise moments where you’ll take damage due to no fault
of your own.
This could be awkwardly placed enemies with impossible attack patterns, or enemies placed
in a location where you have no choice but to fall on them and take damage.
Or this could be exploding skeletons.
These skeletons in the dungeon must be defeated within moments of appearing on the screen,
or they’ll explode.
Unfortunately, sometimes these appear on the screen and there is no way to reach them to
kill them.
Instead, the bone shrapnel will no doubt hit Aladdin causing unavoidable damage.
Needless to say, this feels exceptionally cheap and sloppy.
Speaking of cheap and sloppy, let's move onto the Cave of Wonders.
This level includes another objective, hitting statues, which opens up new sections of the
map.
This level also includes bats, which are beyond annoying.
These things fly erratically and seem all but immune to Aladdin’s sword slashes.
These flying creatures will eat through your life bar rather quickly, resulting in some
rather obnoxious deaths.
Still, the level itself is actually pretty cool.
The difficulty is noticeably higher with tougher platforming, and I like how Aladdin has little
objectives needing to be completed to progress.
It isn’t much, but little touches like this were missing from a vast majority of the crummy
platformers released during the 16-bit era.
Speaking of little touches, Aladdin actually reaches the lamp in this stage, one of the
few plot devices actually implemented into the levels.
Of course, if you’ve watched the movie you know things turn sour from here, and we now
have to escape the Cave of Wonders which is ready to erupt like volcano.
The Escape also happens to be the worst level in Aladdin.
It incorporates one of my least favorite gameplay design choices, trial and error.
If you don’t know how this level is supposed to be played, you are going to die, a lot.
The camera is unforgiving and you have to know exactly when to jump to avoid pits while
being chased by a boulder.
The jumping is also wonky as well.
You either have to be right on the edge of a platform, or have momentum already built
up, or you’ll miss the perfectly spaced platforms which require a long jump.
It will take a ton of attempts to get all of the obstacles down, and its unfortunate
the challenge comes from trial and error rather than any sort of platforming proficiency.
This trend is continued in the next level, Rug Ride.
The gameplay is changed up completely here and all you need to do is move up and down,
following the directions on the screen provided.
A question mark does appear once in a while, and you have to guess at which direction to
go, which is kind of stupid, but there is an easy extra life to nab at the beginning
of the stage, and if you fail three times you just skip the level.
It feels like a waste of time if I’m honest, but does show off the awesome blast processing
found in the Sega Genesis.
Clearing the Cave of Wonders brings us to level 8, Inside the Lamp.
From here through the end of the adventure, the traditional platforming mercifully returns.
The main gimmick inside the lamp is the weird blue platforms you need to jump on.
These feel like a gooey gel, and match the physics found on the palm trees in the desert.
Basically, you have to keep jumping or you’ll fall through.
Again, I must note the difficulty is again increased, but in a fair way.
There are plenty of moving platforms requiring accuracy and precision.
Failure to learn the patterns or mastering the jumping mechanic will result in death
as the lamp features bottomless pits.
Thankfully, the controls in Aladdin are up to the challenge at hand.
When you’re not being chased by a boulder, you can take a few moments to line up your
jump correctly, and with the excellent mid-air controls, there isn’t anything here to get
frustrated with.
The level design works perfectly with the limitations of our hero, creating a fun, satisfying
level.
As the adventure comes to a close, we arrive at the Sultan’s Palace.
Like Genie’s Lamp, there are bottomless pits and tiny platforms to jump across, offering
a decent platforming challenge.
There are also some awkward magic carpet sections, where you hop on carpet and it randomly roams
about the level.
Sadly, it’s easy to take some more cheap shots as it flies wildly across the screen.
The end of this level also features a boss, something we really haven’t seen since level
5.
Here, Iago is running along Jafar’s machine in a scene ripped stripped straight from the
film.
All you need to do is hit Iago a few times with apples so he stumbles, repeat this three
times and we move on to the tenth, and final level, Jafar’s Palace.
As one would expect, this is the most challenging level in the game, featuring tricky platforming
over spikes, a ton of enemies to defeat or avoid, and plenty of jumps requiring precise
timing.
Not only this, power-ups are limited, so use your apples wisely and try not to get hit.
It’s everything you could ask for in a final level really, which brings us to the final
boss.
The final boss has two separate forms.
First is Jafar.
He sits in the center of the screen and uses his magic to toss Aladdin across the screen.
If you time it right, you can jump over him as he affects your movement but this is very
tricky.
Your best bet is to just get in as many apple hits as you can and hope for a bit of luck.
After taking him down, he transforms into a snake.
This is a far more thoughtful boss.
You have to time your jumps over the flames perfectly, and throw an apple at the peak
of your jump to hit the snake.
By this point you’ve also probably run out of apples, so once your stock is depleted
you have to jump to the other side of the level.
You can’t stop either, or the platforms will burst into flames.
It’s a tough endeavor for sure, but nothing here is cheap.
Once you get the patterns down, you just need to perform them as flawless as you can and
the snake will eventually go down.
Upon defeat, a quick cut scene showing Aladdin and Jasmine, the princess you rescued, riding
the magic carpet and the game concludes.
Then of course, the credits roll.
Of course one can’t talk about Aladdin for the Genesis without talking about the wonderful
music.
Five of the main songs from the film are all featured here, and they sound pretty good
on the Genesis with nice instruments but more importantly, the catchy tunes actually make
for some awesome video game music.
The graphics too are outstanding.
I do have to admit using RGB and a Framemeister does make the game look a bit more basic than
it did back in the day.
Still, everything is razor sharp and the use of color is excellent.
Other than levels 1 and 3 being the same, each level has a very distinct look to it,
and is colored completely differently.
Be it the yellow sands of the desert, the blues of the dungeon, the reds of the cave
of wonders, the darkness of the lamp, the greens of the palace gardens, and the gold
of Jafar’s Palace, everything feels very different, helping the adventure feel big
and diverse.
But as nice as the environments look, the animations are simply sensational.
Aladdin moves with a fluidity unmatched for its time.
Whether he is running, climbing a rope, or just standing there, he looks amazing.
Its obvious Disney animators had a hand in the art, and it really helps put Aladdin a
step above most other games of the time.
Before wrapping up, let me talk about the items.
First are these Genie icons.
Grabbing these gains you access to a mini slot game after each level.
Here you can score extra lives and some other goodies.
But I mostly landed on Jafar, which promptly ends the bonus round.
Next are gems.
These can be used as currency.
Throughout the adventure a merchant will appear, sometimes along the main path, other times
hidden.
He will sell you an extra life for 5 gems, or a continue for 10 gems.
It gives an incentive to actually bother with the collecting, and the extra continues will
be invaluable if you’re new to the game.
Finally, there are a couple of Abu tokens.
These unlock an Abu mini game.
Basically, you have to dodge obstacles while collecting gems and extra lives.
These are tough and unfortunately require memorization to actually complete.
Still, they are a bonus feature so I’ll give it a pass.
So, with all of that out of the way, we arrive back at the question asked at the beginning,
is Aladdin still good?
Now I’ve been pretty hard on the game up to this point, as I feel Aladdin has some
flaws that are tough to overlook, and the game is no doubt showing its age.
However, I still adore it.
Despite some issues, the game is awesome.
This starts with the controls.
Not only is the animation exceptionally fluid, Aladdin moves as smooth as he looks.
The running and jumping are responsive and the level design fits the limitations of the
character movement perfectly.
The combat is solid as well.
While the sword is sometimes lackluster, other times hitting enemy's attacks back at them
is satisfying, and the apple throwing mechanics more than make up for any shortcomings with
the melee attack.
I also enjoy the sense of progression.
Aladdin slowly gets more challenging, with the first few levels being very easy, and
the final few levels requiring a more methodical approach.
I like how the mechanics of the level 3 boss are reused and expanded upon in the final
battle.
And how these swinging balls are first introduced in level 4, and then expanded upon in level
10, requiring jumping in addition to the timing.
The result is a very satisfying platformer, overall.
Some of the trial and error drives me bonkers, and the enemy placement can be annoying, but
as a whole, Aladdin offers an exceptional 16-bit experience.
Next, the presentation is just over the top.
While the sprite work is sometimes very basic, with large patches of a single color and no
detail, as a whole, the attention to detail is fantastic.
I love all of the little nods to Disney, like the hidden Sebastian here down in the dungeon.
I dig the Genesis in the background of Genie's lamp.
I also love how enemies will slice through your apples if you don’t time your throws
correctly.
And while the sprite work isn’t always the best, I do love how these pillars reflect
on the floor, helping the floor look like actual glossy marble.
While little graphical touches like this don’t really affect the gameplay, it really does
add a sense of polish and charm, and make traveling through Aladdin’s 10 levels an
enjoyable experience.
And then there is the soundtrack.
I generally don’t care for the music found in classic Disney movies, but the songs in
Aladdin really are quite good, and hearing them represented on the Genesis FM sound hardware
is a real treat for the ears.
The melodies are timeless, and the Genesis really excels at these horned instruments,
adding a layer of depth to the compositions.
So yeah, Aladdin is still pretty damn good.
While I wouldn’t give it a perfect 10/10, because the game has some less than perfect
moments, I still find this to be one of the best third party platformers of the era.
The attention to detail, smooth controls, and amazing presentation do hold up remarkably
well, making Aladdin mandatory for fans of 2D platformers.