Aladdin (Virgin Interactive 1993)

Aladdin is the game based upon the classic Disney film of the same name. In it you play the role of a young thief named Aladdin. An evil wizard named Jaffar has found a secret cave filled with vast treasures including a magic lamp and magic carpet. The only problem is that he cannot enter the cave himself. He tries to trick Aladdin into going into the cave and finding the magic lamp for him, but Aladdin discovers the nature of the lamp and tries to stop the evil Jaffar. Along the way he also finds time to fall in love with the princess and do a bit of magical carpet riding.

The game tries to follow the plot of the film closely and you'll travel through levels like the Agrabah market, desert, cave of wonders, inside the lamp and Jaffars palace. Although Aladdin is a platform game you'd be hard pressed to find a game with this much animation packed into its graphics. You're familiar with the phrase "It's like watching a cartoon.", but in this case it really does apply. Everything is packed with humorous touches like the fat guards that stuff their faces with food until they see you and then lose their pants when you hit them. 

The levels feature multiple layers of parallax and sometimes you'll see some Disney characters hidden among the backgrounds. The levels are all nice and varied and it's not always as straightforward as walking from left to right. Aladdin is capable of jumping, slashing with his sword, throwing apples at his enemies, climbing up ropes and swinging hand over hand across some ceilings. Some levels also have you riding the magical carpet and having to dodge obstacles. 

The game is surprisingly challenging for a cartoon license and you won't breeze through it. On each level you have a new objective like collecting flutes or finding parts of a scarab. Along the way you must also collect apples to throw, gems that will allow you to buy extra lives and continues from a shady merchant that is hidden on each level, genie icons that give access to a slot machine like sub-game where you can win prizes and a hidden monkey icon. The latter is usually well hidden and if you find it you get to play a sub-game as Abbu the monkey, where you have to collect prizes while dodging obstacles and enemies.

The soundtrack includes the inevitable "Whole New World" tune but this is done surprisingly well for a Megadrive game. There are quite a few other songs too with some of them sounding really familiar and obviously inspired by the film soundtrack. Sound effect wise the game fares well with enough cartoony bangs, yells and crashes to give it that authentic Disney feel.

The controls in the game are nice and responsive and it's going to take a fair amount of practice and reflexes to make some of the more tricky jumps on some levels. After its stages you're treated to some static scenes that further flesh out the story, but it's a pity that they didn't use actual scenes from the film. There is no password or save option so you're going to have to complete the game in one go, but this isn't too hard. A few more levels would have been nice, but those that are on offer are of adequate length and pack some nice surprises.

 It really is hard to fault a game like Aladdin. It succeeds on almost all levels and despite a crowded platform market still manages to distinguish itself. The insane amount of animations is thanks to Dave Perry, the mastermind behind games like Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 and his sense of humor is definitely evident in some places. What you have here is a well above average platform game that doesn't take itself too seriously, but will keep you challenged and entertained for a while. You don't have to be a Disney fan to appreciate a game as good as this, but fans will be delighted.

 [9/10]