In the ’90s, games licensed from movies were generally awful, but there was one bright spot. For a while, you could count on any game starring Disney characters to be excellent. And thanks to gaming site Good Ol’ Games, aka GOG, three of them are finally back.
Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book are all coming back after years of being unavailable except via shady methods. They’ve been especially missed because many view them as among the best games of the 16-bit era, and licensing issues made them seemingly impossible to license. The games were so good because Disney actually cared about quality. The unusually smooth animation for the time was due to the fact that Disney was directly involved in the art and music, to the point where sprites and backgrounds were drawn by Disney’s own animators, and there was unprecedented access to the directors, artists and other creative personnel where Disney could provide it. The Lion King, for example, featured two levels based on scenes from the movie that got scrapped during production.
GOG also chooses sides in an infamous gaming argument over Aladdin, which had two very different games for the Super Nintendo and Genesis. GOG is releasing the Genesis version, generally seen as superior, so you can expect a few arguments about whether they slipped up there. But you can decide for yourself, as the games are $10 a pop and will play on pretty much any computer. And if nothing else, you might finally beat the Cave of Wonders!
(Via The Verge)