Aladdin - SNES

Year: 1993
Producer: Capcom

From across the room:
Ah, so nice to hear a familiar splash screen of a decent company for a change, Capcom!  I've played Aladdin before, so this won't be completely new, but it's been a while, so it will be new enough.  The startup sequence is running through the story.  Aladdin and Jafar are trying to open the Cave of Secrets or whatever it was. The animations are nice and colorful, as they should be, being based on a Disney cartoon movie.  Running demo scene now.  Ah, yes, this does look familiar.  I think this is supposed to end up being pretty hard, like The Lion King.  Like they were thinking "hm, Disney movies are nice and accessible.. but let's make the games so even seasoned gamers can't handle this shit... also.. penises."  Sounds like the music should be catchy and referential to the movie as well.

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Played for:  8 minutes

Hit it or Quit it?
Don't let the playtime fool you.  Or maybe do let it fool you, I don't know.  Maybe I'm just having an impatient day, but I just wasn't into dying over and over.  I see that yes, it's difficult, but it's partly only because of the controls.. and level design.. Both of which should be expected I guess, and I guess you would be expected to get over it.  But they just weren't as fluid as they felt like they could have been.  Most of the levels just need to be memorized so you can avoid the awkwardly placed enemies.  It feels like there could be some pretty cool parkour type runs, but then all of a sudden you catch something and it stops you right in front of an arrow.  Also, the controls just feels really loose.  For a platformer with ahead-of-its-time parkour, and very precise jumping needed, the hit/grab boxes just don't feel right.  One time, it seems you'd be fine to grab this or jump on that, but the next time, it feels like the same place, and it just doesn't connect.  Also running is really loose and sloppy, being unsure of when you're going to start and stop speed-running or sliding.

I do feel impatient today, so I would probably come back and hit this again sometime to try to learn the levels a little more and see how much of the movie is involved in this game.  I do remember very similar issues with the Lion King game too though, as I mentioned.  I wonder if that was Capcom too.. hm..  Either way, games like these usually have codes, or you can at least look up the passwords and start wherever you want in the game, so there's some replay in just jumping around and seeing further into the game for the heck of it.  Not right now though!