![]() The game starts off similarly, in Agrabah market, but goes off in different directions after that. One of the main differences is that Aladdin is always armed with a sword here, whereas he needed to jump on enemies in the SNES game to kill them. The Genesis’ version’s main draw is that the developers worked closely with members of Disney’s animation studios to create something that looked, sounded, and felt extraordinarily close to the source material. This included access to many of the original illustrations, allowing the designers at Virgin to replicate the style faithfully in the game. But more importantly involved a process called “Digicel” – much like “blast processing”, it’s a marketing buzzword, but refers specially to the method in which drawn cartoon cels are scanned into a computer and then touched up for use in a video game. Even though this was the first time this process was used, it produced remarkable results. Without shading, the characters use a fairly palette, which kept within the technical limitations of the Genesis’ 64 color on screen palette. Compare it to the SNES version, which technically uses more colors but looks more like….well, a Capcom SNES game than the Disney movie it was based on. In working with the animation producers at Virgin, the designers were able to capture several characters that only looked gorgeous, but were smoothly animated, all within the confines of a 16 megabit cartridge.īeyond the style, the level of detail has a certain level of authenticity that transcends not only the SNES game but most licensed games in general. One particular type of enemy swordsman routinely loses his pants, a reference to a quick shot of a guardsman in the movie. In fact, many of the enemies are taken from various minor characters, including the knife throwers, as well as occasional appearances by Iago the parrot. The backgrounds contain fun little games, like tents that act as outhouses for men, women, and genies. ![]() Various skeletons have little Mickey Mouse ears on then. When you run out of health, you don’t technically “die”, but rather the Genie calls a time-out and gives Aladdin a rest and a shoulder rub before restarting the level. Not every gag is lifted from the movie either, but everything here keeps with the same tone, making it feel like a logical extension. Most of the music is taken from the movie, primarily Alan Menken’s vocal songs. Surprisingly, these are all rendered excellently within the limits of the Genesis’ FM synth, despite missing the lyrics. There are a few original songs added in, primarily the fun “Camel Jazz” and the exciting “Arab Rock” themes provided by recurring Virgin composer Tommy Tallarico as well as Donald Griffin. The game was programmed by David Perry, a programmer who had worked on a few other titles for Virgin, including Mick and Mack Global Gladiators and Cool Spot, and later went on to create Earthworm Jim. As a result, it feels very similar to those games. (This game was later finished by Virgin without Perry’s involvement, as by that point he had left to form Shiny.) Before Virgin began work on the project, he was actually working on a Genesis version of The Jungle Book, but his engine was adapted for use with Aladdin. ![]() The main hallmark of a David Perry game is the large, sprawling levels, that scrolled multidirectionally rather than just being forced from left to right. His earlier titles had elements that required exploring the stages for collectibles, which is greatly scaled back for Aladdin (only one of the stages requires this). In spite of the more linear nature, Aladdin’s path still sends him zig-zagging through the levels, often with small branches that lead to bonus items. These include apples, which are collected and used as ammunition to throw at enemies gems, to be used as currency to purchase stuff from shopkeepers, like extra lives or “wishes” (continues) Genie tokens, to allow you to play a slot bonus round and Abu tokens, to unlock another special stage starring Abu the monkey, where you need to dodge falling pots. ![]()
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