Line #1 YMMV/AladdinVirginGames


1	* AntiClimaxBoss: Jafar, while undoubtedly hard, is a rather lackluster final boss in an otherwise stellar game, especially in comparison to the SNES Aladdin game. The first phase basically has him trying to hurt you through CollisionDamage, and his snake form has a very predictable attack pattern and is significantly scaled down from its massive size in the movie. Did we mention you defeat him by merely chucking apples at him nonstop?
2	* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: The game notably features hand-animated sprites done by Disney's own animators, including a few who had worked on the movie, resulting in some of the best sprite animation ever done for a Sega Genesis game. Notably, at least one Rare employee said that, when making the original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'', Creator/{{Nintendo}} urged them to give it "better graphics than Aladdin".
3	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Most of the music originates from the movie. The ones that don't are just as amazing to listen to though. Arab Rock's track provide an intensity that has it [[AutobotsRockOut feel like speed metal]].
4	* BrokenBase: There's no real consensus on whether the [[VideoGame/AladdinCapcom Capcom adaptation]] or the Virgin Games adaptation is the superior game, though either camp tends to acknowledge that the other is still a good game in its own right.
5	* DemonicSpiders:
6	** The knife-throwing stout guards. In addition to being one of the most common enemies, they're one of the few enemies with ranged attacks, and very accurate ones at that. Worse yet, their attacks can stop your thrown apples mid-flight, making it annoying to take them out from a distance. The knives can be deflected, but the timing can be tricky. Not helped by the fact that they often hang out in places that make it very difficult to attack them or avoid their knives. Doubly so in the last two levels, where several of them are stationed along the magic carpet routes, essentially giving them cheap shots against you unless you know they're there.
7	** Knife jugglers are similar to stout guards, but they attack faster, making it harder to hit them with apples or deflect their attacks, and they can also throw their knives in an arc if you're above them. Worse yet, they appear very early in the game, but thankfully stop appearing after the third level.
8	** Scimitar guards may not have ranged capabilites, but they more than make up for it with their swordplay. They're even more common than the stout guards, and are also one of the few enemies in the game that can block Aladdin's sword. You're almost guaranteed to take a hit or two fighting them up close from their rapid attacks, and they tend to hang out in areas where you might not always have room to throw apples at them, meaning you'll more than likely ''have'' to go toe-to-toe with them. Fortunately, they do have a glaring weakness — if you jump out of their attack range, they'll immediately [[IShallTauntYou stop attacking to taunt you]], giving you a window to land a free attack.
9	* GoddamnedBats:
10	** The literal bats in "Sultan's Dungeon", "Cave of Wonders" and "The Escape", mostly because their annoyingly unpredictable movement makes them difficult to defeat.
11	** The fish that leap out of water in "Cave of Wonders" and "Sultan's Palace" are equally annoying, not only because they can spit rocks at you and are hard to hit, but also because they have a nasty tendency to leap out of the water while you're jumping from platform to platform. Colliding with one will slow down your momentum and likely cause you to [[SuperDrowningSkills fall in the water and die]].
12	** Iago becomes this in the last two levels outside of his boss appearance, due to the fact that the carpet's flight routes in those levels will often carry you right into his path without warning, resulting in nigh-unavoidable damage unless you react quickly. ''And'' he often appears alongside the above mentioned stout guards in those carpet routes. Worse yet, he's also capable of ''respawning'' unlike the game's other enemies, so even if you do get rid of him, you'll have to put up with him again if you fall off the carpet or have to backtrack for some reason[[note]]That is, unless you hit him with an apple, which ''does'' permanently defeat him, at least in the Genesis version[[/note]].
13	* NightmareFuel:
14	** The infamous GameOver screen, which was no doubt a source of nightmares among those who grew up with the game along with the movie. Running out of lives and continues treats you to a close-up of [[GameOverMan Jafar]] brandishing a SlasherSmile against a fiery background, emitting an EvilLaugh with the words [[https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ialP8U2_RxI/UB_41zxEe3I/AAAAAAAAUaY/-6NBH0fRhVo/s1600/Aladdin_37_%28DOS%29.gif "GIVE UP, STREET RAT"]] beneath him; the rest of the screen will either be black or bright red, depending on whether you're playing the Genesis or DOS version respectively. Since the game never tells you how many continues you have, you can't see it coming unless you buy a lot of them or use the cheat code to avoid seeing the screen. However, the next screen, which has the words "The End" and the Genie popping in to say, "Made you look!", [[NightmareRetardant softens this a bit.]]
15	** This Game Over screen was [[https://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/retro/user_screenshots/saves11/114713/NES--Aladdin%202_Nov25%2012_14_15.png made much scarier]] in the [[PortingDisaster awful bootleg port]] of this game for the [[Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] called ''Aladdin II''. It now takes place in [[NothingIsScarier a complete silence, against an entirely black background,]] and stays on screen longer. It's mostly composed of gloomy, muted dark browns (as opposed to the more varied colors of the original), and Jafar here does not even look like himself; being [[UnintentionalUncannyValley disturbingly detailed for 8-bit standards]] and baring a full-on NightmareFace with tiny eyes and a massive mouth with sharp teeth.
16	** The infamous "Escape" stage. Easily the most difficult level in the game, the fact that the "enemies" are the collapsing cave itself and the abundant amount of OneHitKill rolling boulders and [[AMoltenDateWithDeath lava pits]] has been the source of many a nightmare for gamers of the time. The tense and ominous soundtrack, [[AutobotsRockOut while undeniably awesome]], doesn't help matters when you're trying to manage the tricky jumps.
17	** The "Sultan's Dungeon", [[HellholePrison given its setting.]] It's obviously not as bad as, say, the Dungeons in ''Wolfenstein'', but there are still piles of bones strewn all over, [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean a guard dog taunting a fellow prisoner with the key, said prisoner trying to lure them with a bone (with just their arm sticking out of a prison door)]], hidden spikes that are nearly impossible to see, bats, ''exploding skeletons'' and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking images of poor]] [[Franchise/TheLittleMermaid Sebastian]] [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking held captive inside]]. It's one of the most bleak levels of the game.
18	* NintendoHard: Between annoying enemies (particularly the ones with throwing attacks), sections requiring precise platforming, and the infamous [[LuckBasedMission Rug Ride]], the challenge in the game is very high.
19	* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: It's a very fun, polished platformer with beautiful hand-drawn sprites, great music, and a [[SurpriseDifficulty surprising degree of challenge that's tough, but mostly fair]].
20	* SurpriseDifficulty: While it's a great game that looks straight out of the movie, it's also a very hard one, which 90s children have both fond and traumatizing memories. And make it a double surprise for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IoxNb4D-Oc players unfamiliar with platformer convention]].
21	* ThatOneLevel:
22	** "The Escape", the level in which the cave collapses and Aladdin attempts to escape on foot, will absolutely ''destroy'' new players and put veterans under pressure. It's a long, brutal level where you have to [[IndyEscape outrun several giant boulders]] (the first OneHitKill hazards in the game besides pits), with massive pits of lava in between. The lava pits are much larger and easier to fall into than the water pools of the previous stage ("The Cave of Wonders"), the roofs of the caves are so low that jumping over the lava pits becomes a matter of perfect timing, and the color of some of the platforms is so similar to the background that you can mess up some jumps by not realizing that there was a platform that you ''could'' jump on. Then there's the last boulder, which can sometimes end up falling on top of you ''[[KaizoTrap during the level-clear animation.]]''[[note]]It's actually possible to jump ''over'' the final boulder in the Genesis version, though it requires precise timing.[[/note]] To top it off, the Genesis version of game won't skip this stage for you like it will for the following stage, "Rug Ride", if you mess up enough times. The rest of the game is a ''breeze'' once you clear this level.
23	** "Rug Ride" itself qualifies in the DOS version. In both versions, you're riding the carpet through a narrow tunnel, while trying to dodge OneHitKill boulders. The level slowly becomes faster and faster ''and faster'' until it's so fast that you need lightning-fast reflexes in order to not die. Worse, there are no checkpoints, so dying will send you back to the beginning of the level. What makes the DOS version worse than the Genesis version is that the Genesis version will automatically skip the level after you fail enough times, while the DOS version has no such MercyMode. Good luck.

Context YMMV / AladdinVirginGames