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The Lion King is a video game based on the popular 1994 animated Disney film of the same name, released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, and Super NES. The Super NES and the Game Boy version were released for the Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King.
Plot[]
The plot of the game is the same as the film.
Gameplay[]
In the game, players first assume the character of Young Simba. Level 1 features chameleons, porcupines and rhinoceros beetles the cub must kill or avoid. The drawing of him is a checkpoint so if he dies, he restarts from here. A drawing of the sun gives him a 1-up. The first boss that he'll encounter is a hyena who takes a few hits to kill.
Level 2, based on the "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" musical number, features no enemies. Simba can use the rhino's tail as the rope or jump on its head. If he stands on a giraffe too long, its head will move and will let him fall. When he rides on an ostrich, he must jump over the hippos (or rhinos in the SNES version) and duck the nests. When there are two obstacles, he must jump twice. Monkeys will throw him to a different place. They need to be roared by him to throw them differently.
Level 3 takes place in the Elephant Graveyard. A bone serves as a gate Simba cannot pass. He must kill the hyenas to pass. This introduces a new enemy, the vulture. After that, Scar moves on to the gorge, along with henchmen.
Level 4 takes place in the gorge where a herd of wildebeest is chased by the hyenas and caused a stampede. One will get out and jump over and Simba cannot attack them. Rocks serve as obstacles and note that Mufasa isn't here to save him. After that, Scar told his hyena henchmen, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed to kill Simba and to "Run Away and Never Return".
Level 5 takes place in evening before Rafiki's mourn. The enemies are still the same, but there are various hazards to avoid. Brambles serve as spikes to avoid. Simba leaves the area and Banzai is heard saying, "If ya ever come back, we'll kill ya!"
Level 6 takes place in the waterfalls where the song, "Hakuna Matata" is heard. Enemies in this level are frogs and spiders. Ignoring the spider webs causes more spiders to come out. The web must be destroyed. Falling logs are used as platforms. The boss here is a large gorilla who was cut from the movie; Simba must avoid the coconuts and jump at him to fall to his death.
Level 7 picks up with Simba now an adult and no longer able to roll. Enemies in this level are leopards and monkeys. Leopards attack like hyenas. Monkeys throw nuts at him. There are boulders rolling that Simba has to avoid. After that, a ghost version of Mufasa talks to him.
Level 8 takes place in a cave, resembling the "Be Prepared" scene earlier in the film. New enemies include bats that serve as enemies in the game. They will fly into him and lava and fireballs are hazards that he must avoid.
In Level 9 brings Simba back to Pride Rock reigned by Scar. Simba must beat all the hyenas by selecting the caves.
In Level 10, Simba fights Scar, who is destroying the Pridelands and Simba must kill the hyenas and a fire pops up after a few second. Simba has to fight Scar and toss him off the cliff to let him get eaten by hyenas.
In the Bug Hunt mini-game, Timon must collect all the bugs before time runs out. Grabbing a spider instantly ends the mini-game.
In the Bug Catch mini-game, Timon will drop bugs at Pumbaa that he must collect. Like in Bug Hunt, catching a spider will end the mini-game.
Enemies[]
Introduced in Level 1[]
- Chameleons - A Chameleon will try to attack Simba. It can be crushed or be stunned with a roar.
- Porcupines - A Porcupine cannot be jumped over until Simba flips it over by roaring.
- Rhinoceros Beetle - A Rhinoceros Beetle cannot be stunned. Roaring or stomping will let it explode.
- Vulture - A Vulture is introduced only in other versions of the game. It tries to attack Simba.
- Hyena - Hyenas are common enemies. A Hyena is a boss in Level 1. Hyenas appear in many levels.
Introduced in Level 2[]
- Rhinoceros - A Rhinoceros is blocking Simba and it must be jumped over. They are replaced by Hippos in the NES versions.
- Nests - A Nest also must be ducked.
Introduced in Level 4[]
- Wildebeest - Wildebeests are attacking Simba. Simba must avoid them.
- Rocks - A Rock is an obstacle Simba must avoid.
Introduced in Level 6[]
- Frog - A Frog acts like a Chameleon, but they jump.
- Spider - A Spider also cannot be stunned. It comes from a Spiderweb and must be destroyed.
- Gorilla - The Gorilla acts as a boss. It must be jumped on.
Introduced in Level 7[]
- Leopard - A Leopard will try to attack Simba. It must be swiped.
- Monkey - A Monkey will throw rocks. It takes one hit.
- Boulder - Boulders must be avoided.
Introduced in Level 8[]
- Bat - A Bat will try to attack Simba. It takes one hit.
- Stalactite - A Stalactite will fall on Simba.
Introduced in Level 10[]
- Scar - Simba must keep on fighting Scar until he reaches the top cliff and make him fall into fire.
Differences from the movie[]
- The characters Sarabi, Nala, Sarafina, Zazu, and the gopher do not appear.
- Mufasa's voice is heard in the game ending after the song, King of Pride Rock finishes.
- Scar summons two hyenas to chase Simba, but in the movie, he summons three.
- The scene where Scar was eaten by hyenas is omitted from the ending.
Cheats[]
There are a few cheats found in the game. One cheat provides invincibility. This cheat in particular is known as the infamous "BARRY" cheat. To do this cheat, you need to be at the title screen. Select "options." Then, on the controller, press B-A-R-R-Y. This will take you to a screen where you can not only toggle invincibility, but also select what level you want to start at.
Development[]
The sprites and backgrounds were drawn by Disney animators themselves at Walt Disney Feature Animation, and the music was adapted from songs and orchestrations in the soundtrack. In a "Devs Play" session with Double Fine, game designer Louis Castle revealed that two of the game's levels, Hakuna Matata and Be Prepared, were adapted from scenes that were scrapped from the final movie.
An Amiga 1200 version of the game was developed with assembly language in two months by Dave Semmons, who was willing to take on the conversion if he received the Genesis source code. He assumed the game to be programmed in 68000 assembly, since the Amiga and Genesis shared the same CPU family developed by Motorola, but turned out to be written in C, a language he was unfamiliar with.
Westwood Studios developed the game for SNES, Genesis and Amiga. The development of ports for the other platforms was outsourced to different studios. East Point Software ported the game to MS-DOS, adding enhanced music and sound effects. The Sega Master System and Game Gear versions were developed by Syrox Developments, while the NES and Game Boy versions were developed by Dark Technologies.
Reception[]
The SNES version of The Lion King sold well, with 1.27 million copies sold in the United States. The MS-DOS version sold over 200,000 copies. In the United Kingdom, it was the top-selling Sega Master System game in November 1994. In the United States, it was the top-selling Game Gear game in December 1994. In 2002, Westwood's Louis Castle remarked that The Lion King sold roughly 4.5 million copies in total.
GamePro gave the SNES version a generally negative review, commenting that the game has outstanding graphics and voices but "repetitive, tedious game play that's too daunting for beginning players and too annoying for experienced ones." They particularly noted the imprecise controls and highly uneven difficulty, though they felt the "movie-quality graphics, animations, and sounds" were good enough to make the game worth playing regardless of the gameplay. They similarly remarked of the Genesis version, "The Lion King looks good and sounds great, but the game play needs a little more fine-tuning ..."
The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the Game Gear version as having graphics equal to the SNES and Genesis versions and controls that are vastly improved over those versions. GamePro wrote that the graphics are not as good as those of the SNES and Genesis versions, but agreed that they are exceptional by Game Gear standards, and praised the Game Gear version for having a much more gradual difficulty slope than the earlier versions. Gameplayers wrote in their November 1994 issue that "even on the easy setting, the game is hard for an experienced player".[citation needed]
Next Generation reviewed the SNES version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "even though the game is much harder than Aladdin, it's never unfair or frustrating."
Entertainment Weekly gave the Super NES version an A and the Genesis version a B+ and wrote that "Controlling Simba when he's a playful bundle of fur is one thing; putting him through his paces as a full-maned adult is quite another. When the grown-up Simba gives a blood-curdling roar and mauls snarling hyenas, the interaction is so well observed that it's like watching a PBS nature documentary. The sense of power it gives you is exhilarating, and by the time Simba takes his climactic heavyweight stand against his evil uncle Scar, this Lion King has turned into a wild-kingdom variant of Street Fighter II." Super Play gave the Super NES version an overall score of 82/100 praising the game’s graphics and sound as “almost film-like quality” and stating “a very high-quality platformer game with little in the way of innovation.”
In 2018, Complex rated Lion King 78th in their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time."
External links[]
- The Lion King at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Lion King at The Disney Wiki, the Fandom wiki on Disney.
- The Lion King (NES/Game Boy) at GameFAQs
- The Lion King (SNES) at GameFAQs
- The Lion King at MobyGames