(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Aladdin for Sega Genesis. Note: The clips that are all shown are from Doug's Twitch streams of himself playing the game)
Doug (vo): In the 90s, you either grew up a Nintendo kid or a Sega kid. I was definitely a Nintendo kid. But with that said, you do inevitably have those few games you're kind of mad you didn't get a chance to play. One was the Sonic games...that kind of goes without saying...and the other was Aladdin. This is one of the few games I was legit jealous the Sega Genesis had. Why? Because it's one of the only hand-drawn games I've ever seen for a system like this. Hell, it might even have been the first at the time. There was one for the Super Nintendo and even some of the levels are similar, but, yeah, the second one was clearly better. So it was pretty exciting to finally put this on and play it all the way through. My verdict? It's...pretty good. I can't quite say it's the literal game changer I thought it would be back then, but it is a pretty decent time.
Story and review[]
Doug (vo): I guess it's kind of pointless to go over the story. If you've seen Aladdin, you know the story. But the one thing I can comment on is, they don't visually incorporate the story much, at least in the cutscenes. They're not even really cutscenes, they're just a bunch of text. Every once in a while, you might get a picture of Jafar as an old man or Abu, but it's weird that you never see the characters there. Like, nobody's talking to someone else or acting out something, it's just a wall of text. My guess is they made this game and then somebody said, "Well, wait, we don't have anything connecting the levels, it just jumps from one thing to another, so just write out the story in between". I guess on that note, it's also a little weird that when you kill a boss, you don't usually see him get defeated, the level just kind of stops. Again, I know this is based on a movie that the game is assuming you've seen, but there could have been just a hint more narrative to this, even if it is a game this old.
(Footage focusing on the gameplay and animation is shown)
Doug (vo): With that said, the gameplay and animation does hold up pretty good, again, for the system it was on. It's got a good sense of humor and energy, and the levels are pretty good at being laid out in a way where there's secret passages or other ways you can get to the end. Sometimes, that can make the map layout a little confusing once in a while. When we regenerate back, we weren't sure if we were going backwards or forwards. I do remember getting confused in the Cave of Wonders, like, which rock platform can do what and how long can it stay there? Is it gonna sink, or if I jump off of it, will it just explode and is it gonna rise up? And these stupid bats are flying everywhere, I swear, these are the worst enemies in the game. But you figure it out pretty quick.
(Footage focusing on humorous aspects in the background is shown)
Doug (vo): It also does a good job incorporating the film's sense of humor. All throughout the backgrounds, we kept finding little touches that they didn't have to throw in there, but they did, and it's appreciated. It really feels like the comedy of the movie lives on through this.
(Footage focusing on the controls is shown)
Doug (vo): Sometimes, the controls can be a little wonky, like, it does do that thing where if you're going fast and you stop, there's a little bit of a slip, so you might fall off a platform. And, yeah, I swear it does have a little bit of that delay when you push a button to jump, it's like a frame or two off, which, in a game like this, is kind of vital. But again, there's that wonderful cheating button. If you make a mistake, you can just press one of the L buttons and it rewinds it to wherever you want. And, of course, being me, I abused it like mad. Because of this, I did beat the game in about an hour and a half, and I do know if I didn't have that rewind button, it would have taken a lot longer. Honestly, whenever I got done with one of the later levels, I was always shocked it was finished already. But I know if I didn't have that rewind button, I'd be playing these over and over, and maybe I would have wasted a continue or several lives, and this game would take much, much longer and I would see it as much more difficult. So I will say, even though I didn't play it this way, if you really do want the full experience, you should probably play it without using the rewind button. But, yes, it's gonna be a lot harder, and they throw some stuff at you that just straight up isn't fair.
(Various footage is shown, primarily focusing on the Genie's lamp level in the Sega and SNES versions)
Doug (vo): The end of this level where you're flying the carpet over the lava, you basically have to have these directions memorized. It starts off okay, but the faster it gets, the more you realize an average human being would not be able to keep up with it. As much as I was saying they could have incorporated more of a narrative into this, I will say, there is still a fair amount of creativity. Not just in the backgrounds, but in the level setups. I love the idea that you go inside the Genie's lamp at one point, and it's funny because, again, the Super Nintendo version does the same thing, but it looks almost totally different. There's all these clouds and it looks kind of pretty. In this one, it's just a totally black background, and at first, you think, "Well, that's not gonna work", but again, it really does match the movie where the background just kinda disappears. Maybe you'll get, like, a red or a blue, but that's about it, it's mostly black. And the focus is on all the cool things you're seeing the Genie do.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So, yeah, I guess there's not a ton else to say about the game except it is a good time. Is it difficult if you don't use the rewind button? Yeah, it's really, really rough. So I like that there is that option. You can or can't use it. For me, I'm way too impatient, but you, maybe you want more of a challenge. Either way, it is still a bright, colorful, and funny good time. If you want to see one of the earliest examples of hand-drawn animation in a 16-bit system, this is definitely an essential one to check out.
(The ending of the game with Aladdin and Jasmine flying the carpet into the night sky is shown)