Aladdin Retro Review

October 16, 2008 - In 1993, the SEGA Genesis started its sunset period while the Super Nintendo was still going strong. At the same time, Disney was enjoying its incredible renaissance period, thanks to superlative animated movies like Beauty and the Beast. Disney's Aladdin, though, provided the inspiration for a platformer that proved the Genesis, while aging, was still quite capable of great gameplay and delightful artwork.

Developed for SEGA by Virgin Interactive, Aladdin roughly follows the plot of the Disney film. Street urchin Aladdin falls in love with princess Jasmine, but she is coveted by the evil vizier Jafar. With a fast-talking magical genie backing him up, Aladdin rescues Jasmine from Jafar and rids the land of his evil. Oh, and along the way Aladdin learns that love and honor are far more valuable than wealth and fame. The game naturally jettisons some of the nuance, but it hits all the requisite set pieces, like the streets of Agrabah, the Cave of Wonders, and the royal palace.

But even more than hitting its marks, Aladdin evokes the charm and flourish of the animated film. For one thing, the animation is exceedingly fluid. Watch the billow in Aladdin's pants and the flapping of the magic carpet. And the faces of camels when you jump on their humps are priceless. It looks remarkably like the movie -- and that is one of the benefits of 2D sprite work. By removing the worry of creating a model that looks decent from all camera angles, an artist can really concentrate on personality. Of course, the fact that the actual animation cels were used to create those sprites gives Aladdin an extra boost.

Aladdin is an excellent example of the 16-bit platformer, almost its own subset of the entire platformer genre. Thanks to a couple extra buttons, heroes now have a couple attacks instead of just the basic hop-and-bop actions. Aladdin can not only swipe Jafar's minions with his sword, but also throw apples at them. (Apparently, a well aimed apple is enough to drop a thuggish swordsman with shoulders wide enough to hold up a Geo Metro.) The combination of these two moves -- and some precision jumping -- gets you through a series of left-to-right stages. The platforming is rock solid, with lots of ledge-leaping, rope climbing, and monkey bar work. Plus, there are carpet flying scenes to break up the traditional platforming. It's a breezy adventure -- not too difficult, but not entirely a pushover.

Between stages, you play little minigames, such as dodging falling jars as Abu the money and a slot machine-esque genie game for bonuses like extra lives.

Aladdin has some notable talent behind it. Not only did Disney work directly with Virgin Interactive to make sure the characters look exactly like the film, but the game itself was worked on by people that went on to form Shiny Entertainment, such as David Perry, whose accomplished game catalog includes Earthworm Jim and MDK.

Now, there is a SNES version of Aladdin, but it is not the same game. The SNES version was developed by Capcom. It is similar in nature, but definitely not a port. And while the SNES version certainly isn't a bad game, the Genesis game is the better of the two.

Closing Comments
Licensing issues are likely to prevent Aladdin from reaching the Virtual Console anytime soon, so hit the used game marketplaces -- garage sales, eBay -- and find a copy of this light-hearted, but exceptional platformer. It's absolutely gorgeous and immensely playable.

Rating	Description
out of 10	click here for ratings guide
8.5	Presentation Exceptional stagecraft from start to end.
8.5	Graphics Drawing on the actual movie's art, Aladdin looks wonderful. Fantastic animation.
8.0	Sound The movie's memorable soundtrack is reproduced quite well.
8.0	Gameplay Breezy platforming fun. One of the best for the Genesis.
8.0	Lasting Appeal A bit short, but worth playing again and again.
8.0 Impressive	OVERALL (out of 10 / not an average)