Disney's Aladdin

Review

by Kyle Knight

Disney's Aladdin has traditional side- scrolling platform levels mixed in with forced run-and-jump events, with the occasional swordfight scene or carpet ride. The gameplay types are all fairly easy to pick up and get used to, and they fall easily under the general category of side-scrolling action. Overall, Disney's Aladdin is an entertaining package, but it's also utterly lacking in difficulty, making the game a hard sell.

If you're an experienced gamer, Disney's Aladdin is fun for the first half hour. You may be able to beat the game on your first or second attempt, depending on how hard you try. You may want to play through the game once just to see what there is to see, but after that there's very little reason for you to play it again. The difficulty level is clearly aimed at novice gamers, as even a somewhat experienced kid can get quite far into the game. There is no difficulty setting, so what you play is what you get. On the plus side the controls are fast and responsive, so if you ever do die in the game it's completely your fault. And despite the total lack of difficulty, the different gameplay types are quite fun.

The graphics are excellent, befitting the game's Disney origins. The game's animation sequences are particularly good; when you watch Aladdin go through his running sequence it looks very smooth and fluid. Other characters are animated with a lot of care, but it's evident that most of the effort was put into Aladdin's movement. That's fine, since you're going to be staring at him most of the time anyway. There's a good amount of detail to both character and backgrounds, and colors are used appropriately to recreate Aladdin's world as originally seen in the movie.

The music tracks, while not up to the graphics in quality, are also quite good. You get to hear a decent variety of simple but somewhat catchy tunes. The game even contains a fairly accurate rendition of the movie's theme song. The sound effects, on the other hand, are pedestrian and could have come from any developer's stash of generic effects.

Sadly, despite all its good points, Disney's Aladdin is simply not worth the money. The game's lack of difficulty makes it a strictly one-shot affair for anyone besides the most novice of gamers.