They are life-like – you can hear the fracas from the jars people throw out their windows – and even have some (would-be) voices like the ordinary guard taunting you with his “Come on!” and the enemies showing their suffering when you throw apples at them.
Sound effects are also good, but if you don’t care for them you can turn them off while keeping the music on. Finally, Arab Rock (when escaping the Cave of Wonders and in the last level) sound appropriately dramatic – although I would have preferred a more dramatic track for the last level – and Rug Ride sounds dramatic enough to maybe have you blood pressure rise a little. Gloomy Tune (inside the Cave of Wonders) is the strangest track of all, with a mix of “desert music” that sounds out-of-place and more mysterious sounds that are more appropriate. Original tracks like Camel Jazz and Turban Jazz do have a jazzy beat to them, although the former one is livelier with its “desert-like” orchestration – you know, a kind of Persian bagpipe. I even have to confess that, except for Friend Like Me, I kind of prefer the Genesis version to the original one. Tracks like Prince Ali (level 1), One Jump Ahead (level 3), Arabian Nights (level 4), Friend Like Me and A Whole New World were wonderfully remastered for Genesis.
Wow! I’m still amazed at how the game’s creators were able to adapt the movie’s soundtrack so well. In the Cave of Wonders, you see Abu taking the forbidden treasure and Carpet trying to stop him (rather than just see his picture) and after killing Jafar, you relive what happened in the movie, from his imprisonment in his lamp to the freeing of Genie. The only thing the SNES version had better than the Genesis version was the “cinematics”. However, Jafar had “more to offer” on the SNES, be it in his magician or giant snake form. Finally, the few bosses you come across (the thief, the Captain of the Guards, Iago, Jafar) all have different strengths and weaknesses and are also well-drawn (although Iago merely runs on that wheel thing to create ghosts so you don’t see much of him). There is also the regular guard who swings his scimitar and you and a snake crawling around with his fez and sunglasses. They also come in various shapes and abilities the knife thrower will cut your apples while the fat guy will see his pants drop if you throw an apple. First, when you kill them they die quicker. The Sultan’s Palace is a colorful and luxurious level, while the final level where you fight Jafar has a fiery red background of evil that reflects the vizier’s character.įinally, the foes you face are also well-drawn and better so than their SNES version. While in the streets of Agrabah (levels 1 and 3), you can see the houses around you, the desert level has a lot of sand and landing from high up creates some dust, the dungeon and Cave of Wonders levels are dark enough to reflect the “undergroundness” of the level and the Genie’s Lamp level is as colorful as the character. Although the colors show the Genesis pallet limitations, they are nonetheless well-adapted to the level. The graphics have logical perspective by letting you sometimes go down stairs and behind a wall and sometimes even go beyond the regular path (like in the second level). The levels are also nice and colorful, albeit smaller in size than the SNES version and with less details in the background – you don’t see the Sultan’s Palace. And his “suffering” doesn’t make him jump back as in the SNES version, which can be practical when close to bottomless pits. You actually see the realistic movement of the arms and legs, something not done until Final Fantasy VIII for RPGs. Finally, all his movements are fluid and life-like – he can throw apples at an amazing speed – from running to jumping to climbing ropes. Also, his swing varies depending where he stands (if he hangs on a rope, for example) or where he looks – pressing the up arrow and swinging makes him look like he tries to chop off ivy blocking his way. This makes progressing in the game much easier to my taste. He is less Prince of Persia-like by lacking the SNES acrobatic abilities, but he carries a scimitar and the swing is perfect.
For starters, Aladdin himself his closer to his movie alter ego by being tall and nicely drawn – the SNES one was rather short, although Abu was always close to him. They are nice and colorful and are far superior to their SNES version. The graphics in this game are really astounding for Sega Genesis. Despite the attributed limitations to the Sega Genesis, Disney’s Aladdin was technically superior to its Super Nintendo version, although that latter version was more faithful to the movie. Aladdin Review by: janus - 9.3/10 Disney’s Aladdin: Nice and Colorfulīack when the movie was released in the 1990s, Aladdin was also released on the two main 16-bit consoles.