3.5/5 ★ – MegaBlastoise's review of The Lion King.

Platform Played: Genesis Date Reviewed: May 25, 2023 Rating: 7/10 If you were to ask me in terms of movies, Disney was at its most consistent during the 90's with the Renaissance period. And if I'm being honest, you could say the same thing about the video games based on these movies. The Lion King video game was released mere weeks after its first theatrical run in 1994 and while reviews were mostly positive, the game was criticized for its difficulty. Were these criticisms overblown, or is this truly the Darks Souls of 2D platformers? Let's talk about the positives first. The graphics are really good for the time and the music, although stripped from the original movie, has been done justice. I actually prefer the Genesis version over the SNES version for this reason (although it might also be rose-tinted glasses). The controls are also pretty good and the levels follow the movie pretty well, though I do have to question the gorilla boss at the end of waterfall level since that wasn't in the movie. And now onto my main problem with this game: the difficulty. Almost every level has its own fair share of bullshit sprinkled throughout the game. Pride Rock starts off easy, but it's only a tease of what's to come. Then there's the 2nd level where you have to constantly roar at monkeys in order to get through the level. There's also the ostrich riding section which also sucks. The Elephant Graveyard level is also a pain in the ass to go through thanks to the vultures and hyenas. But that pales in comparison to the level that gave me shit as a kid: the Stampede level. The depth perception in this level sucks as it's hard to tell where a wildebeest is coming from. Thankfully, the waterfall level is a breather level, but after this, the game transitions into Adult Simba, which means there's a whole new control scheme. And yes, the final levels are also balls to the walls hard. I would love to meet the sick fuck who decided this level progression was a good idea and give them the angriest thousand yard stare known to man. So with that being said, is this game good? You might be shocked to read this but: yes. Granted, if I wanted to play a "hard, but fun" video game, I'd rather play Contra or Ninja Gaiden, but once you get used to the bullshit, the positives outweigh the negatives. While I do think that Lion King is the Darks Souls of 2D platformers, it's still a fun game. But don't make the same mistake my parents did and give this game to smaller kids, because this game WILL make them rip their hair out of their scalp.