A
Platform Game based on
Disney's
The Lion King, developed by Westwood Studios and released by Virgin Interactive in 1994. The game has ten levels loosely following the plot (and the soundtrack) of the movie, the first six with Simba as a cub and the other four with the adult Simba.
The game appeared on a variety of platforms, including both the
Sega Genesis and the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System; unlike with
Aladdin, the two rival 16-bit consoles got what was essentially the same game, and telling which version was better
could be
a very close call. Other versions tended to leave stages out.
Tropes occurring in the game:
- Bonus Stage: Two types, featuring Timon, Pumbaa and bugs to collect.
- Bottomless Pits
- Collision Damage
- Everything's Better with Monkeys: Horribly, horribly subverted by the second level, "Can't Wait To Be King". Figuring out just which way the pink monkeys have to be facing in order to get flung into the right direction is an exercise in patience.
- Game Over Man: Rafiki in the SNES and Genesis versions; the 8-bit versions have Scar instead.
- Heart Container: African red bugs.
- Indy Escape: There are several instances where you have to escape a Rolling Boulder.
- Jungle Japes: "Hakuna Matata."
- Ledge Bats: These appear in the lava level: at one point you have to ride a river of lava on a floating rock. A very small rock. Any wrong move, and you fall in the lava. As you float further across the river, several bats awaken and try to hurt you. Being hurt pushes Simba back by about a meter, which is more than enough to make him fall into the lava.
- Lethal Lava Land: Level 8, "Be prepared". Especially egregious as the level is not based on any scene in the movie. Yes, there is lava during the song of the same name in the film, but Simba doesn't appear in it, and it happens muche arlier.
- Luck-Based Mission: In the DOS version, the fountain of acid that Simba needs to escape (by climbing), seems to be bugged. It either starts rising or not. When it does rise, it is too fast to escape even by frantically mashing the jump button.
- Made of Explodium: Be careful when killing the rhino beetles or you could get hurt. Yes, the rhino beetles explode upon dying.
- Magical Mystery Doors: "Simba's Return."
- Minecart Madness: Or, rather, ostrich madness.
- Misplaced Wildlife: Why are there a bunch of cheetahs in the jungle? (They look like leopards, but the manual refers to them as cheetahs, and if you look closely, you'll notice the sprite is based off the cheetah that appears in the opening sequence of the film.)
- Nintendo Hard
- Ring Out Boss: Scar.
- Super Drowning Skills: Some levels have water serving the purpose of Bottomless Pits.
- The Spiny: Porcupines.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: "The Stampede."
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