The Lion King (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Westwood Studios

|

Release Date:

1994

|

Systems:

Genesis/Mega Drive, SNES, MS-DOS, Amiga

---

This week on Super Adventures, I'm voluntarily playing a movie tie-in game from the 16-bit era! Maybe this is one of the good ones though. I mean, there have to be some good ones, right?

I've actually played The Lion King before, so I already know what I'm getting into here... and I know I won't be getting very far in it. Games were generally more challenging in the 80s and 90s, so when you load up one that was notorious even back in its day for its extreme difficulty, you know that you're in for a bad time.

The game was re-released for modern platforms a few years back by Digital Eclipse, so I'm sure it has all kinds of new quality-of-life features now (or at least a gallery to look through when you're stuck). I'm not going to be playing that one though. I'm going back to the original games with all the original frustrations.

Disney's Aladdin famously got two different platformers, a Sega version by Virgin Games and a Nintendo version by Capcom, though it also had a third version for 8-bit systems. For The Lion King, all the 16-bit systems got the same game, by Command & Conquer devs Westwood Studios, and that's what I'll be playing. Though I'll also take a look at the 8-bit games as well, because I'm curious.

Alright, I'm going to see if I can finally get past the graveyard stage for the first time in my life.

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Sega

|

Release Date:

1991 (1990 NA)

|

Systems:

Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear

---

And the Super Adventures award for 'Ugliest Title Screen of 2019' goes to... that picture up there. Sorry Keio Flying Squadron 2, your title screen may be pretty ugly, but you've been outdone by this indistinct grey mess.

This week I’m playing Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, known in Japan as I Love Mickey Mouse: Fushigi no Oshiro Daibōken. Me, I’m indifferent to Mickey Mouse. I never watched his cartoons as a kid and I didn’t play his games, so he’s always been roughly on the level of Ronald McDonald in my mind. But as far as Disney logo symbols go, he’s second only to the Sleeping Beauty Castle!

Castle of Illusion is the first game in the Illusion series, which is pretty much four games and a remake, and I've never played any of them! Well okay, I've probably put a couple of them on for five minutes each, but I've got no nostalgia for them. On the other hand, I did play another Mickey Mouse Mega Drive platformer for the site a few years back called Fantasia, which was... not good. I can't blame Mickey for that though (plus it was by an entirely different developer), so I'm going to give him another chance to win me over here.

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (NES)

Developer:

Capcom

|

Release Date:

1991 (90 in Japan and NA)

|

Systems:

NES

---

This week on Super Adventures, I'm celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Super Nintendo by playing a NES game!

Nah, not really. The SNES didn't come out where I live until 1992 so I've got nothing to celebrate yet. A NES game showing up on Super Adventures is kind of an event in itself though, because for whatever reason I haven't played one since way back in April. Of last year.

In the West this came out a few months after Super Mario Bros. 3 and a few months before the Super Nintendo, so I expect the developers likely knew what they were doing by this point (especially as it's made by Capcom!) But it's one of those games that's managed to slip by me entirely, so I've no idea what it's like or even what people think of it.

In fact I'm fairly sure I've never seen an episode of the Chip 'n Dale cartoon either, though if you showed me a picture of the characters I'd recognise it instantly. I'll even be able tell you which of them's Chip and which is Dale in a minute as the game starts off by asking me who I want to play as.

Gargoyles (Genesis/Mega Drive)

Developer:

Disney Interactive

|

Release Date:

1995

|

Systems:

Genesis

---

Today on Super Adventures, I'm taking a look at Genesis/Mega Drive platformer Gargoyles, because everyone keeps asking me to. Apparently it's got some fans. Actually thinking about it, this is really just a Genesis game, as it was only released in the US and never made it to the Mega Drive regions.

It's based on the Disney cartoon of the same name that started in 1994, which ran for three seasons but somehow passed me by every time. I only caught the one episode and I don't remember it, so my knowledge of it is kind of limited. I do remember that it stars Keith David and half the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation... but that's entirely irrelevant as it's a 16-bit cartridge platformer so I'm likely to get 4 words of dialogue out of this at best.

Well I'm only assuming it's a platformer to be honest, I haven't actually checked, but it's an early-mid 90s cartoon tie-in so what else is it going to be? Look on my Game Series page, click 'Disney' and see how many of them aren't platformers. And that ain't because I've been deliberately avoiding all the 'Animaniacs' first person shooters.

Donald Duck: Quack Attack / Goin' Qu@ckers*! (PSX)

Alright, the last 'Q' game I'll be looking at this year is the Playstation version of Disney's Donald Duck "Qu@ck Att@ck"?*! (AKA. "Goin' Qu@ckers*!" in North America). Seriously, that's what it's called, you can see the title screen right there. I'm going to assume the bonus punctuation is standing in for unintelligible angry duck swearing, because it totally is.

Today's game is a request... uh, a suggestion... well okay someone basically just pointed out in a comment that the thing exists and begins with 'Q', but that's good enough for me. It turns out that Q isn't the most popular letter for video game titles, so I appreciate the help. R, S and T on the other hand I've got covered (and then some), so I wouldn't recommend recommending anything beginning with one of those letters for the next four months or so.

I've never even heard of this one before by the way, so I've no idea what kind of game it is or what the critical response to it was. Somehow though I don't expect to be impressed, but I'll give it an hour or two to surprise me.

Kingdom Hearts (PS2)

Today's 'K' game is... Kingdom Hearts, obviously. It's not exactly an obscure series, but it's pretty much slipped right by me so I'm coming into this one almost entirely clueless. I have absolutely zero nostalgia for the game.

I do know that it's an epic collaboration between Square and Disney, bringing characters from both their franchises together in an attempt to come up with a third person action game with enough star power to rival Super Mario 64. This would've been back when Square still had that feud with Nintendo going on, so Super Mario RPG 2 was way off the table.

Okay I admit that a few years back I did give Kingdom Hearts half an hour or so to win me over, but I didn't exactly come away from it with a deeper understand of what I'd been playing. All I remember of it now is running around a desert island looking for fish to eat. Forever.

Hang on, is that a dead fish sticking out of the protagonist's mouth right now? I just assumed that it must be a bit of plant, but now that I'm looking at it properly...

QuackShot (Genesis/Mega Drive) - Replay

Super Adventures in Gaming Replay 2013 - Game 1

I'm sure it can seem sometimes that as a writer and a gamer I'm basically flawless, but even I occasionally make mistakes. Like this one time I made a game blog and wrote a whole lot of terrible posts for it. And as Super Adventures reaches its second birthday, it just so happens that this is the time of year when the shame gets too much for me and I have to go back and do something about it.

So I'm going to take a look back at the site's past, at all my shitty posts that suck ass, and pick a few more of the really terrible ones to replay. It's second chance week again!

First up is Disney's QuackShot, a slightly Indiana Jones inspired platformer released on the Genesis/Mega Drive in 1991. I gave this about ten minutes to win me over first time around, then quit on the first level because... you know, I'm reading the post again now and I can't even tell why I stopped playing. Apparently I didn't even put in enough effort to figure out that pressing start opens up my inventory, or that I could press up on the d-pad to climb ladders. Bloody hell, man.

Sadly I can't go back in time and punch myself, but I can at least give the game another chance now. Consider this post my sincere apology.

Aladdin (Master System)

Don't worry, this is the last of the Disney's Aladdin games. Well except for things like Disney's Math Quest with Aladdin and Disney's Aladdin Chess Adventures...

Whatever, it's the last one based directly on the first movie, so it's the last one I'm playing.

Aladdin (SNES)

A.k.a. Disney's Aladdin (again). I hate it when companies give two entirely different games the same name.

I'm just hoping it's going to be easier than the Genesis/Mega Drive game, or at least more consistent about it. Hey I just noticed that this is by Capcom! Makers of games like... Super Ghouls'n Ghosts. Oh.

Aladdin (Genesis/Mega Drive)

A.k.a. Disney's Aladdin I suppose.

There's a few different Aladdin games, but this is the Genesis/Mega Drive variant, by the makers of Global Gladiators and Cool Spot and probably lots of other games I haven't played yet.

Sega's sound chip pulls off a half decent version of 'A Whole New World' here, but the Amiga and DOS versions surprised me by having actual vocals come in during the chorus. Though you only get the one line, and it's cut off at the end.

"A whole new world, a new fantastic point of view. No one to tell us no, or where to go, or say we're only..."

We're only...? Only what?

Beauty and the Beast (NES)

It's making an attempt at the theme song, but it's not quite there. For one thing I don't remember the original music having drums.

Mickey Mouse - Magic Wands! (GB)

Today, by request, I'm playing Mickey Mouse - Magic Wands! Or Magic Wand, if you're going to believe the title screen.

I've gotta admit I haven't got my hopes up. But someone asked me to play it, and they seem to like it, so I might as well give it a shot. Can't be any worse than Fantasia at least. I hope.

Darkwing Duck (NES)

I know next to nothing about this character, except that he's apparently a spoof on heroes like The Shadow and Batman. There's no way this isn't going to be a platformer though.

102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue (GBC)

I don't want to press start.

Beauty and the Beast: Be Our Guest (MS-DOS) - Guest Post

Squashed up digitised painting of the day!

Adventures in the Magic Kingdom (NES)

I'm not optimistic about this one. Wait, it's a Disney game? Does that mean we're going to THE Magic Kingdom, Disneyland?

Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games (SNES)

Ugh, why am I doing this to myself?

Pinocchio (SNES)

Well at least it'll probably be well animated.

Donald in Maui Mallard (SNES)

Also known as Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow in the US.

Oh crap, ANOTHER Donald Duck game? This time he's dressed up as Magnum PI it seems.

TaleSpin (Genesis/Mega Drive)

I've always loved that plane. The Sea Duck is the Millennium Falcon of cartoon planes.