Though the experiences are both all too short, never let it be said that they didn’t do a fantastic job of translating Disney’s classic designs to a 16-bit format.Īlthough the games at the heart of this collection are rather middling, we feel it bears special mention just how much the extra ‘museum’ features add to the overall package. In addition to this, the soundtracks contain both new arrangements and adaptations of songs from the films, creating music that sounds like it pushes the limits of what the 16-bit sound chip technology could do. Despite the humble 16-bit graphics, most of the sprite work and animation is impressively close to what was present in the films themselves, and it still looks quite excellent even by modern standards. Disney contributed some key members of its animation teams to assist in the development of these games’ art directions and it definitely shows in the bright colours and expressive designs. One way in which both games have managed to wow, however, is in their utterly stellar presentation quality. Though each stage is visually distinct from the last, the hour-long runtimes ensure that there aren’t a whole lot of new ideas introduced as you move through levels. The 2D sidescrolling action in either game is serviceable, if not particularly memorable, mostly because there’s no notable rhyme or reason to level designs. Play with modern features, and you’re looking at two games that can be beaten in an afternoon.īoth games adapt the storylines of the films they represent while throwing in a few extra levels or designs here or there that weren’t present in the films, such as a level in Aladdin in which the titular thief enters a world within Genie’s lamp. Play without modern features, and you’re looking at two deliberately frustrating experiences that hardly hold up to modern game design standards. Nowadays, it’s difficult to recommend these releases, mostly because you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place in regards to how you play them. These are cruel games in so many ways, merciless in how they punish the new player for their mistakes, and – right or wrong – they were intentionally designed to be that way. If you choose to play that way instead, the meandering level design, blind leaps of faith, and instant death traps are sure to add several more hours to your total play time as continuous, gruelling trial and error carries you to victory. Beloved as they may be, both games can be beaten in about an hour if you don’t play them ‘purely’. The new features do act as a double-edged sword, however, as they also expose the rather antiquated game design that lies at the heart of the main versions of both these releases. Now, with the Interactive Game Viewer, you can coast through the madness easily and pick up the controller again whenever you want. Case in point, the much-hated ‘monkey level’ in Lion King was intentionally made to be frustrating so kids renting the game couldn’t easily beat it in a weekend. We’d like to especially commend the inclusion of these latter quality-of-life features, as they go a long way towards balancing out the often inconsistent difficulty. On top of this, various screen filter and ratio options have been included to give you the option to tweak the visuals to exactly as you remember them, while modern features like save states, rewind, and a curious “Interactive Game Viewer” mode are included to round out the rougher edges of these nearly thirty-year-old games. Digital Eclipse has lived up to the high standard it’s set with its work on previous retro collections, as the emulation quality is as pitch-perfect as you could hope for.
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