History Trivia / AladdinVirginGames

* ExecutiveMeddling: In an arguably improved manner; According to designer Seth Mendelsohn, the initial prototype for the game had Aladdin using a basic jump attack instead of a weapon. When a Disney representative saw it, they asked "Why doesn't Aladdin have [[CoolSword a sword]]?".
* NoExportForYou: The UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem version was only released in Europe.

** [[https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/5/27/18526122/sega-girls-task-force-female-players?utm_source=pocket-newtab According to an interview with the marketing manager of Sega at the time, Pamela Kelly,]] the Disney producers wanted their game to become "the hardest game ever!" Kelly shot down this request, noting how much this would have alienated the film's TargetAudience. While the finished product is still reasonably challenging for younger players, it doesn't quite meet the qualifications of being NintendoHard.[[note]]The game maintains a 3.20 difficulty ranking on [=GameFAQs=]' Game Rankings, while the minimum threshold for NintendoHard games is 3.50.[[/note]]

* TroubledProduction: Creator/BlueSkySoftware was originally chosen by Sega for this project, but they were busy doing ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' and only assigned a small team to ''Aladdin'' . Disney soon noticed the slow progress, cancelled that game, and hired Virgin to do it from scratch.[[https://www.sega-16.com/2014/03/behind-the-design-disneys-aladdin/]]

--> '''Shinji''': If I didn't actually make [the SNES game], I would probably buy the Genesis one. Animation-wise, I think the Genesis version's better. The Genesis version had a sword, actually. I wanted to have a sword.

**

** [[https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/5/27/18526122/sega-girls-task-force-female-players?utm_source=pocket-newtab According to an interview with the marketing manager of Sega at the time, Pamela Kelly,]] the Disney producers wanted their game to become "the hardest game ever!" Kelly shot down this request, noting how much this would have alienated the film's TargetAudience. While the finished product is still reasonably challenging for younger players, it doesn't quite meet the qualifications of being NintendoHard.[[note]]The game maintains a 3.20 difficulty ranking on [=GameFAQs=]' Game Rankings, while the minimum threshold for NintendoHard games is 3.50.[[/note]]

** The game was going to have an enhanced remake for the Sega-CD, but Virgin was too busy with working on ''The Jungle Book'', so it was scrapped.

*** The cut song was to play in the Desert, called "Arabic Ne Naw". It was composed by Donald S. Griffin but was replaced by Camel Jazz in the final version. Similarly, Camel Jazz originally played in the Cave of Wonders while Gloomy Tune played in the Dungeon. Friend Like Me were originally the first level theme, before it was moved to the more sensible "Inside the Lamp" level, with Prince Ali taking its place.

** According to [[http://www.sega-16.com/2014/03/behind-the-design-disneys-aladdin/ the Sega-16 article]], many of the gameplay features in this game was originally planned for ''The Jungle Book''.

*** The cut song was to play in the Desert, called "Arabic Ne Naw". It was composed by Donald S. Griffin but was replaced by Camel Jazz in the final version. Similarly, Camel Jazz originally played in the Cave of Wonders while Gloomy Tune played in the Dungeon. Friend Like Me was originally the first level theme, before it was moved to the more sensible "Inside the Lamp" level, with Prince Ali taking its place.

* ApprovalOfGod: Capcom game designer Shinji Mikami prefers the Genesis version over the one his own team made:

* ExecutiveMeddling: In an arguably improved manner; According to designer Seth Mendelsohn, the initial prototype for the game had Aladdin using a basic jump attack instead of a weapon. When a Disney representative saw it, they asked "Why doesn't Aladdin have a sword?".

** [[https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/5/27/18526122/sega-girls-task-force-female-players?utm_source=pocket-newtab According to an interview with the marketing manager of Sega at the time, Pamela Kelly,]] the Disney producers wanted their game to become "the hardest game ever!" Kelly shot down this request, noting how much this would have alienated the film's TargetAudience. While the finished product is still reasonably challenging for younger players, it doesn't quite meet the qualifications of being NintendoHard.[[note]]The game maintains a 3.20 difficulty ranking on GameFAQs' Game Rankings, while the minimum threshold for NintendoHard games is 3.50.[[/note]]

** [[https://www.polygon.com/features/2019/5/27/18526122/sega-girls-task-force-female-players?utm_source=pocket-newtab According to an interview with the marketing manager of Sega at the time, Pamela Kelly,]] the Disney producers wanted their game to become "[[NintendoHard the hardest game ever]]!" Given how much this would have alienated the film's TargetAudience, Kelly shot down this request. The game is still quite challenging for younger players, but still reasonable in its difficulty.

*** The Palace stage was to be followed by a second Marketplace level, transitioning straight from the Sultan’s Palace to Jafar’s Palace. There was also a second encounter planned with Razoul for this stage. This would have represented Aladdin's return from the Ends of the Earth. The Sega-CD version of this stage would have featured the Fire-Eater (from Jasmine's first visit to the Market and the Prince Ali sequence) as a boss.

* CreatorCameo: David Perry's face asside via debug mode, all of the voice clips in the game were provided by Music/TommyTallarico.

*** Among other flourishes of this scrapped remake, Razoul was to appear at the end of the Dungeon instead of Agrabah Rooftops. The Desert would have seen Aladdin fight against a new boss in the form of a giant snake. Jafar was going to have his third genie form in this version after the [[ScaledUp cobra form]].

*** The Palace stage was to be followed by a second Marketplace level, transitioning straight from the Sultan’s Palace to Jafar’s Palace. There was also a second encounter planned with Razoul for this stage. This would have represented Aladdin's return from the Ends of the Earth.

*** Animations were found of Abu looking into a bag and Jafar throwing a smoke bomb. The latter of the two was to be used in the final boss battle before Jafar transformed into a cobra. Abu's animation was to be used in boss fights where he would pull items out of the bag for Aladdin to use, and would have played a greater role in the fight with Iago on the storm machine.

*** These two enemies were a sword-swallower much like in the movie, where Abu pulls the sword from his mouth, who tossed swords, and a prisoner who would attack with his ball-and-chain. The first was cut due to redundancy with the knife-jugglers and fat guards who do a better job at throwing swords, while the second was cut because they couldn't get his colors right.

** According to [[http://www.sega-16.com/2014/03/behind-the-design-disneys-aladdin/ the Sega-16 article]], many of the gameplay features in this game was originally planned for ''The Jungle Book''.

*** Strangely enough, Arabic Ne Naw ended up in the GameBoy and NES ports of the game. The track was also reused in the Jungle Book as "Jungle Jazz" playing in both 16-bit versions.

*** The redrawn enemies were the skeleton and the ghosts. The Ghosts behaved the same, but would have appeared in the dungeon as well. The skeleton originally had an exploding potion which would cause it to collapse into a pile of bones, and then reform.

** The game was going to have an enhanced remake for the Sega-CD, but Virgin was too busy with working on the Jungle Book, so it was scrapped.