This is another of my personal favorite video games of all time, as well as licensed games and games from Disney. Disney in the 90's was indeed on a roll, to me that was probably my favorite decade for the company, looking back at that decade now makes me appreciate it more and realize how much is sorely missing now. "The Lion King" is one of my favorite animated films of all time, it truly was something else and of course seeing a video game on it I was both excited but also a little worried as licensed games are always hit or miss, thankful lighting struck twice after the "Aladdin" games this became the number two hit.
The whole plot of the game pretty much follows the movie closely from the first to last act, so you can't really expect too many surprises. But that's part of what licensed games do anyway, it's just the feeling of being part of the action in the movie that makes it all the more exciting and memorable; even though you know the movie you also know you know you were part of it.
I really love the graphical design which really showed how both consoles "Genesis" and "SNES" were really pushing their limits as the graphical design is accurate to the movie itself. From it's African wild landscapes to the character models themselves they got to a tee. I really like how lively and expressive the character models are which really reenforce the Disney movie feel.
The gameplay is solid, it's your platform action which is cool as platform action is one of my favorite genres in games and fits right with the game. Really like how you control the character Simba (young and old). With both versions you play the same, but you have different functions and different kinds of challenges. I really like the whole jump grasping and climbing on edges and swinging on bars, not to say that wasn't common in most platform action games but the execution in this I feel is just done well.
Each of the levels are always a different kind of challenge which I really like as it keeps the game fresh and interesting. And the difficulty in them is varied, the game isn't too hard but it's also not too easy as there are plenty of tricky spots, which makes the game a matter of trial and error, so some parts of the game require some practice, but that just makes the game feel even more rewarding.
There are a lot of memorable levels, some which consist of you point a to b levels; but one of my favorites is the Stampede level, it was just cool as it's sort of a mix of both 2 and 3 dimension. The level is pretty much a moving level but it's in the reverse as you see Simba running toward you on the screen while trying to avoid the animals coming toward Simba. As least from that perspective you are a step ahead of Simba as you can see the oncoming danger and patterns. In a way it's a little like a moving scenarios from the video game "Dragon's Lair" as they give you only seconds to act/react as well as memorize the patterns if you made too many errors first time around. Another after the stampede you have a chase level which I always like as those levels always cause you to think on your feet while getting ahead of the oncoming threat.
And of course, there is the music score, which is great, most of it consists of tracks from the movie but in video game track from. Just hearing the "Genesis" version of the songs from the movie is just music to my ears and show how timeless and universal those songs really are.
This vintage classic is a roaring good time.
Rating: 4 stars.
