Lion King

Genre: Platformer
Developer: Westwood Studios, Virgin Interactive
Platform: Sega Genesis
Release: 1994
Rating: N/A

- Graphics -

While the scenery, backgrounds, and character sprites are extremely detailed and beautiful, the most beautiful part about this game is the animation: with no more than about 5 frames for each movement, we see Simba move incredibly smoothly and realistically.

Graphics: 10/10


- Story -

The game follows the movie as an outline very well, but is not an original story, so I'm going to rate this on how well the game gave justice to the movie.

Story: 9/10


- Gameplay -

The controls for the most part are simple, and and easy to manage. However, the problem comes with Adult Simba's flip attack (he becomes an adult starting at level 7; there are 10 levels). On a normal Genesis controller, this was done by rapidly moving the thumb from B to C with timing so precise it was nearly impossible. The "6-button" controller allowed players to use X, Y, or Z instead, but I noticed no difference with this method as the timing is the more crucial part.

(Note: SNES players had a button built in for it; I don't remember, however, if it was X or Y)

Gameplay: 8/10


- Music -

You wouldn't think a 16-bit rendition of Hans Zimmer's work would sound good. You'd be surprised. Of course, the lyrics from the themes from the movie are absent due to system limitations, but the sound quality is superb (it was less so in the SNES version, unfortunately)

Music: 7/10

Total Score: 8.5/10

Also available for Super Nintendo