Disney's Aladdin (Virgin Games video game)

This article is about the Sega Genesis game. For the SNES game, see Disney's Aladdin (Capcom video game).

Disney's Aladdin
Cover art for the North American version
Developer(s)	Virgin Games Disney Software
Publisher(s)	Sega
Director(s)	David Perry
Producer(s)	Robb Alvey Patrick Gilmore
Designer(s)	David Bishop Bill Anderson Tom Tanaka Seth Mendelsohn
Programmer(s)	David Perry
Composer(s)	Donald Griffin Tommy Tallarico
Platform(s)	Sega Genesis
Release	November 11, 1993

Disney's Aladdin is a platform game based on the 1992 film of the same name developed by Virgin Games and Disney Software. The game was released by Sega for the Sega Genesis on November 11, 1993 as one of several games based on the film, including another game that was released in the same month by Capcom for the Super NES.

The game is one of the best-selling Genesis games with four million copies sold. It also received a number of adapted ports for other platforms, such as the NES, Game Boy, Amiga, and DOS computers.

Gameplay

The player controls Aladdin, who must make his way through several levels based on locations from the movie: from the streets and rooftops of Agrabah, the Cave of Wonders and the Sultan's dungeon to the final confrontation in Grand Vizier Jafar's palace. The Sultan's guards and also animals of the desert want to hinder Aladdin in his way. He can attack either close range with a scimitar, which can deflect certain projectiles, or long range with a limited supply of apples. Next to apples, Aladdin can also collect gems which can be traded for lives and continues from a traveling peddler. Finding Genie or Abu icons enables bonus rounds. The Genie bonus round is a game of luck played for apples, gems or extra lives, and continues until the player runs out of Genie tokens or lands on Jafar. In Abu's bonus round, the player controls the little monkey who has to catch bonus items that fall from the sky, but without touching any of the unwanted objects like rocks and pots.

Development

Development for the game began in January 1993, with a team of ten animators working on the animation frames. The work was then shipped to Virgin's California facility to be digitized. The game used traditional animation, which was produced by Disney animators under the supervision of Virgin's animation staff, including animation producer Andy Luckey, technical director Paul Schmiedeke and animation director Mike Dietz, using an in-house "Digicel" process to compress the data onto the cartridge. Virgin was given the deadline of October 1993 to complete production as to coincide with the home video release of the film; this deadline left Virgin with about three-quarters the normal amount of time to build a game. The game features some musical arrangements from the film, along with original pieces composed by Donald Griffin and Tommy Tallarico.

Ports

The Amiga and DOS were based on the Mega Drive/Genesis version, featuring enhanced music and sound effects. The NES received a port as well, which was later adapted into a Game Boy version, which was compatible with the Super Game Boy. A Game Boy Color port was developed by Crawfish Interactive and published by Ubi Soft on November 30, 2000. A Sega CD version of Aladdin was planned but never started official development.

Sequel

In a "Devs Play" session with Double Fine in 2014, Louis Castle, co-founder of Westwood Studios who later worked on The Lion King, revealed that the studio had pitched a second Aladdin game that would have featured pre-rendered 3D sprites, around the same time as the Amiga game Stardust and a year prior to their use in Donkey Kong Country, but the project was scrapped by Disney.

Reception

Critical reception

Reception (Genesis)

Review scores

Publication	Score
AllGame
CVG	80%
Dragon
Edge	8 / 10
EGM	34 / 40
Famitsu	35 / 40
GamePro	18.5 / 20
GamesMaster	95%
IGN	8 / 10
Mean Machines Sega	82%
Mega	94%

On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Genesis version of Aladdin a 35 out of 40. The game was awarded Best Genesis Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. They also awarded it Best Animation. The game was reviewed in 1994 in Dragon #211 by Jay & Dee in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Both reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. Mega placed the game at #12 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time.

Levi Buchanan of IGN gave the game an 8/10, calling the game "a platformer that proved the Genesis, while aging, was still quite capable of great gameplay and delightful artwork."

The game sold 4 million copies worldwide at the time of its release, making it the third best-selling Sega Genesis game of all-time, after Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

External links

• Disney's Aladdin at MobyGames
• Aladdin (Sega Genesis) at the Internet Movie Database