A decent Disney adventure for its time.
User Rating: 7.8 | The Lion King SNES
The Lion King was one of my alltime favorite movies when I was a little kid. Low and behold a video game came out and it doesn't totally suck. You get a typical story focused game with limited gameplay but with a moderate challenge that doesn't come off too cheap, and still remains mildly entertaining. Everything about this game screams mediocrity outside of two aspects- the graphics and sound. No one can argue that Disney falls short with production values in this game, sound effects are a plenty from midi formatted short voice tracks to re-composed versions of the original movies sound track. Its not bad, and keeps you going, plus the levels look very lovely for an NES game. However the gameplay is rough and frustrating at times, consisting of one attack as young Simba- a pounce, and a couple of useless abilities like the roar and roll. Pouncing is fun, and almost has a Tigger-like bounce to it, but gets old after a while. Unfortunately, adult Simba is more complicated, but his attacks are typically ineffective and lame. Getting through the last few levels of this game as the mane-wearing catscratcher is far tougher than the age group this game is targeted towards would appreciate, and in the end, is somewhat unfulfilling. It can be said though that the game has its moments of brilliance, even if they are cheap little episodic gameplay tweaks, such as giraffe rolling "I Just Can't Wait", the stampede level, and Hakuna Matata's lovely jungle backround. If you find it in the bargain bin, pick it up. Its a decent collectors item for any Lion King afficianado.
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