Definitive 50 SNES game number 43 is Disney’s Aladdin. It was developed by Capcom and released in North America on November 21, 1993. This is a straight-forward action adventure game based on the massively popular film of the same name.
Players take control of Aladdin himself to guide the famous street rat through many of the events and scenes of the film. The play mechanics should be familiar to anyone who has played an action platformer before. You run left to right, hopping across gaps, grabbing poles, and taking out enemies by jumping on their heads. Aladdin can also chuck apples to stun enemies. Gems and other items are also scattered across the game’s environments for players to collect.
Fans of the Aladdin film will love this game. The music largely consists of instrumentalized versions of the catchy tunes from the movie. For the most part, environments, items, and characters are also taken straight from the movie. Most of the levels are recreations of events which occurred in the film, although there a couple exceptions. The game begins with Aladdin running through the streets of Agrabah while he dodges palace guards, just like the film. Later on, however, one level has the hero bouncing across clouds and on platforms that look like the Genie’s head. That level apparently represents the inside of the lamp, and it does fit with the rest of the aesthetic, but it’s certainly not something from the movie.
Aladdin is comprised of six main levels, each of which is divided into three sections, as well as one bonus stage, and one final boss stage. Although some of these levels can be tricky, once a player has acclimated, it’s not a tough game to get through in a single sitting. Thanks to this, the play experience is tight, well paced, and perfectly satisfying.
In the years since the 16-bit era, gamers have learned to ignore titles based on franchises that exist outside of gaming. Just about every movie these days it seems gets it own game, and those are generally terrible. Aladdin, however, does not deserve to be ignored like so many of those games. It is a fun and well made experience, and should still be fun for action platformer fans of today.
Check back next week for entry 42 on the Definitive 50 SNES games.
