Super Nintendo, 1992 by Capcom.
Debate rages on message boards across the Internet over which Aladdin videogame was better – the Super Nintendo one or the Mega Drive one.
While they’re both good games I’m not all that attached to either and I don’t think there’s a clear winner when you put them head to head.
Capcom’s version on SNES had the most potential to be the best but fails to fully deliver, with some poorly thought-out design choices undermining it.
Aladdin’s main move in this 2D platformer is a handspring which can be used to attack enemies by jumping on their heads, or to bounce off other objects to gain height.
This is used in conjunction with swinging on hoops and bars to string together some very cool-looking, acrobatic sequences which flow beautifully, but feel like they come a little too easy, as the button inputs are kept incredibly simple.
Handspringing off a bat never gets old, though.
A ‘run’ button comes a welcome addition and I would recommend keeping it pressed basically at all times, because the game can feel a little slow otherwise.
But the controls are on point and as far as the core platforming goes, Aladdin is extremely enjoyable to play as you clamber through familiar settings from the film like the streets of Agrabah and the Cave of Wonders, all of which are rendered faithfully.
There’s a pleasing softness and richness to the graphics with a warm, inviting colour palette and a sturdy look to the sprites, while the multi-layered backgrounds that stretch out into the distance are very impressive.
Aladdin and the rest of the cast have plenty of character and personality and are animated nicely, though perhaps not with quite the same smoothness Virgin Games managed on the Mega Drive.
Though they reportedly had help from Disney.
Items such as throwing apples and a blanket parachute can be collected to provide extra weapons and abilities, while gems add a heart to Aladdin’s health bar for every 100.
The red ones are often well hidden or difficult to reach and getting all of them offers some replay value.
Grabbing a hidden gold scarab beetle allows you to access a bonus round after each stage where you spin a roulette wheel for extra lives, credits and health extensions – the wheel spins for far too long though and is thus a Mode 7 wall of shame candidate.
By the time you finish you’ll have about nine hits per life, which is maybe just a wee bit excessive for a game like this.
Aside from a few tricky parts inside the genie’s lamp and the predictable magic carpet escape from the collapsing caves, there isn’t much challenge to Aladdin and the abundance of extra hits, plus the parachute, chip away at its difficulty further.
There’s also a strange lack of boss fights.
Only the first and final stages feature one, meaning every stage in between kinda tails off to an underwhelming, uneventful end.
And I’m not sure what they were going for with the pyramids stage, where a floating pharaoh head is unmasked as your monkey friend Abu after one hit, leading to an awkward and confusing scene.
The final boss is of course Jafar in snake form and here, Capcom redeems itself with a suitably spectacular fight, which sees Aladdin running along the serpent’s back and handspringing onto his head.
He briefly rises again once defeated, making you think there’s going to be a rematch but – somewhat disappointingly – this never materialises.
Instead the game launches into a lengthy ending sequence showing Jafar being trapped in the genie’s lamp, as per the film.
This is one of several cut-scenes which fill out the story details after stages and while they’re good – consisting of well-drawn images and accurately-scripted text – they’re a bit excessive and feel like a wasted effort.
I find myself wanting to skip them every time and just get on with the next stage.
This is also the case with the bonus A Whole New World segment, where you take a magic carpet ride with the princess over the city by night.
It’s a pretty but extremely dull stage where all you do is collect gems and it feels completely out of place as it’s shoehorned in before the final stage of the game – plus it’s unskippable.
Sometimes it seems like Capcom were a bit too preoccupied with recreating the film instead of focusing on making the most of those sweet platforming mechanics.
Aladdin is at its best when it has you dashing through the markets, leaping over stalls and whacking the Sultan’s guards in the face with apples – or handspringing between rocks to cross a river of lava in the Cave of Wonders – or balancing on balloons in the surreal setting of the genie’s lamp.
It goes off the boil a little too regularly, while the difficulty level is all over the place, but I’d still recommend giving this game a look – probably sooner than I would with the Mega Drive’s take.
FINAL GRADE: [C]
Zeexlash 