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Disney’s Aladdin Game Review

Disney’s Aladdin is a 1993 platform video game developed by Virgin Games USA for Sega Genesis. It’s one of the best Disney gaming adaptations of all time.

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“Give me the scarab, street rat, and I will show you

the way to the Cave of Wonders“

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Considered one of the best Genesis games for many valid reasons, Disney’s Aladdin was a huge hit back when it was released and it’s still revered to this day. This was the time of huge rivalry between Sega and Nintendo, so this particular Disney classic received two game adaptations, the other one being released on the SNES. That one is totally different, so I am going to focus only on the Genesis game this time around.

One of the best things about the Genesis game objectively speaking is its faithfulness to the source material. It’s so extreme, in fact, that I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Not only is the basic plot of the game the same, but all of the levels are set in a place that was fully taken from a corresponding scene in the film itself. The result is a highly cinematic gaming experience that is especially important for the Disney fans out there.

Another huge selling point is the game’s aesthetic. Yes, the overall palette is very similar to the other Disney games from this period, but the animation is absolutely brilliant, and understandably so given that the actual animators that worked on the movie worked on this game too, which was an unprecedented move that paid off gloriously. The details are vibrant, the characters are expressively animated and the movements are highly fluid. The backgrounds are also stunning. It’s just a beautiful game to look at and it genuinely feels as if you are playing a real cartoon.

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When it comes to the audio department, it also scored a huge win. The various sounds in the game are instantly memorable and they made the experience highly atmospheric while the score is superb. We get the majority of songs from the ‘Aladdin’ movie played here, resulting in a dream come true for any fan of the film like myself.

The gameplay is this very unique mix of platforming and action-adventure elements, especially focusing on sword fights. The addition of the sword worked despite not being in the source material because it lent more gameplay variety to the experience. Slashing your way through the enemies was a lot of fun and the human enemies, though repeated a lot, are all different from each other, which was great to witness.

Even more important than the sword are the apples that you can throw at the enemies from a safe distance. The game, thus, gives you both a short-range and a long-range option to play it, which was quite unique for the time. Why they chose apples as a dangerous object is beyond me, but they actually give you additional apples during boss fights when you deplete them. That was a brilliant decision that paid off as otherwise the bosses would have been too difficult.

You get just enough lives, though you run out of energy rather quickly. However, there are power-ups in the form of Genie Hearts that replenish your health. All of these power-up items are so wonderfully balanced so as not to make the game either too hard or too easy, though it gravitates toward the latter a bit too much at times. When you trigger Jafar’s lamp, it destroys all enemies on screen while the gems are important during the Peddler encounters where you trade them for a bonus item.

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If you collect enough Genie Tokens, you can receive a bonus machine. It’s a luck-based mini-game that rewards you with items, such as lives and apples. There is also a bonus level if you collect a certain Abu Token. This level is a lot of fun and the rewards are terrific. The game is exceedingly fair at awarding you with extra items if you are a completionist in particular. I just wish that the bosses were a bit more difficult. They were fun to play against, but most were repetitive in their attack patterns and too easy to finish off with apples. Still, the game’s long enough at ten levels, all actually not being as linear as you’d expect from a 90s side-scroller.

Agrabah Market is a terrific first level. It’s highly nostalgic to me as I played it so many times as a kid. It’s just so much fun fighting your way through these tough guys on the streets of Agrabah in a beautifully recreated One Jump Ahead scene from the film. The Desert is not as memorable, but it’s gorgeously designed and vibrant in its colors. The hidden entrances among the ruins were the absolute highlights here.

The snakelike ropes that transport you to higher levels are the highlights in Agrabah Rooftops, a level that has always seemed a bit too sprawling for my taste. It’s a good level, but a repeat of the first one nonetheless. Arabian Nights was beautifully used within the fourth level – Sultan’s Dungeon. Again, this is also an overly big and sometimes confusing level as you can get lost easily, but it has some of those disappearing platform challenges that are difficult, but very well designed. Those skeletons also made this highly atmospheric level one of the hardest in the game.

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For some reason, I never really cared for Cave of Wonders all that much. I think that reason is those annoying bats and fish that were more of a nuisance than a truly challenging obstacle. It’s well made as every level in this game is, but it’s the least memorable one of the bunch. Finally, we arrive to The Escape, an infamous level that made many players rage quit during the day, including myself. I could never beat this one as a kid, but playing it now, I could defeat it rather easily. You just have to time your jumps properly and avoid those boulders carefully and you’re good to go. It’s very well executed, but fleeting in length.

The actually hardest level here is Rug Ride, an infuriatingly designed hair-pulling mess that starts off fine, but becomes way too difficult and unfair in certain moments where you do not know from where the rocks will come on the screen. Unfortunately, this level proved to be the only unfair one in this entire game and the biggest proof that the rug ride segments overall did not work here.

Inside the Lamp is the rare true platforming level here as it requires you to jump on so many platforms to get to the finish line. Its rendition of Friends Like Me is solid, the visuals are suitably colorful and it’s a fun level, though it is a bit too easy and short. Sultan’s Palace represents everything that is great and problematic about the sprawling nature of this game’s level design – it’s huge and it rewards exploration, but it is also messy in the rug ride in the mid section and too confusing at times. Still, the game is lovely to look at and superbly constructed across the board. I just wish that they included A Whole New World section too.

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Everything that I’ve said above also applies to Jafar’s Palace. It relies on the rug way too much, but it’s admirably large, it’s meticulously detailed and Jafar is a lot of fun in both of his forms, albeit too easy for the last boss. The game overall is a bit on the easier side, but it’s extremely entertaining throughout.