Disney's Aladdin is a side-scrolling platform game in which the player controls Aladdin throughout settings and a storyline based on the namesake film.[1][2] Aladdin's primary forms of offense against enemy characters are a scimitar for short-range slashing attacks and apples that can be pelted as long-range ammunition. The apples are a finite resource, but can be collected in abundant amounts throughout the game. Aladdin's health is indicated by a trail of smoke emanating from the Genie's lamp on the top-left corner of the screen. The trail shortens whenever Aladdin is harmed by an enemy or environmental hazard. Health can be restored by collecting blue Genie Hearts scattered throughout the levels. If Aladdin runs out of health, a life will be lost.[3] Blue vases within the levels act as checkpoints from which Aladdin will be revived if he had passed one before losing a life.[4] Extra lives can be received by collecting golden icons in the shape of Aladdin's head hidden in the levels. If Aladdin's last life is lost, the game prematurely ends. The amount of lives and apples Aladdin is equipped with at the start of the game is determined by the difficulty setting, which can be adjusted in the main menu.[3] Aside from apples, Aladdin can collect gems, which can be traded with the Peddler in each level for extra lives and "wishes".[4][5] The latter allow the player to continue the game from the current level after losing their last life instead of having to start again from the beginning.[6] On occasion, "smart bombs" in the form of Jafar's lamp can be found and triggered, which will result in the elimination of all on-screen enemies.[4]
If the player collects one or more Genie Tokens and clears a level, the player will be taken to the "Genie's Bonus Machine", a luck-based minigame in which pressing a button rewards the player with a random prize consisting of a gem, five apples or an extra life. The amount of Genie Tokens collected in a level determines the amount of rounds that can be played in the minigame.[4] When the player runs out of Genie Tokens or if they land on a picture of Jafar, the minigame will end.[7] If the player picks up an Abu Token in two levels, a bonus level featuring Aladdin's pet monkey Abu as the player character will initiate following the Genie's Bonus Machine. In these levels, the player must maneuver Abu left and right to collect gems, apples and extra lives that fall to the ground while avoiding pots, rocks, fish, Iago's cousins, palace guards and other hazards. If Abu comes into contact with a hazard, the bonus level ends.[8]
Development
Disney's Aladdin, a collaboration among Walt Disney Feature Animation, Virgin Games, and Sega of America, marked Disney's first direct involvement in video game development.[9][10] The project emerged from Disney's desire to elevate the quality of its licensed games, spurred by dissatisfaction with prior adaptations like the poorly received Fantasia (1991).[11]Aladdin, Disney's 31st animated feature, was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $200 million and introducing a contemporary, cross-generational appeal with humor and references aimed at adults.[12][13] Disney sought to replicate this quality in its video game adaptation, necessitating a developer capable of matching the film's distinctive aesthetic and narrative depth.[11]
Sega and Capcom respectively licensed Aladdin for the Sega Genesis and SNES following the film's theatrical release. BlueSky Software, who had previously developed Ariel the Little Mermaid (1992), was tasked to develop the Sega version. BlueSky's team of approximately eight began work while the film was in theaters, aiming to capitalize on its popularity. However, their progress was hindered by a focus on Jurassic Park (1993), a higher-priority project with a larger team. Disney producer Patrick Gilmore, tasked with overseeing the license, found BlueSky's progress inadequate, particularly in capturing the film's curvilinear art style, inspired by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld and lead animator Eric Goldberg's work on the Genie. Only one semi-completed level was produced before Disney canceled the project, citing its failure to meet expectations; BlueSky's effort was considered competent but not exceptional. Jurassic Park contains an Easter egg referencing Aladdin within its in-game map; an upside-down Genie's lamp is disguised as a mountain range.[11]
Disney sought a partner with advanced technology and a commitment to quality animation. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Virgin Games impressed Gilmore with Global Gladiators (1992) and a demo for DynoBlaze, an unproduced concept by Bill Kroyer featuring rollerblading dinosaurs. Virgin's "Digicel" process, a marketing term for a suite of tools and techniques for digitizing hand-drawn animation, aligned with Disney's vision for a game that felt like an extension of the film. A historic three-way agreement was negotiated by Virgin President Martin Alper, leveraging his prior relationship with Sega from distributing Master System products in Europe. Disney would provide animation, Virgin would handle development and digitization, and Sega would manage marketing and distribution, with profits split equally after costs. This deal, finalized in early 1993, required Sega to reassign its license role, as the cancellation of BlueSky's Aladdin left Disney without a Genesis game.[11]
Development began in January 1993, with a team of nine people and a tight six-month timeline to coincide with the film's October 1993 VHS release.[10][11][14] Disney's animation team, based at Walt Disney Animation Florida in Orlando, produced 1,400 hand-drawn frames under the direction of Mike Dietz, who bridged the gap between film and game animation.[11][13] Disney animators, accustomed to the freedom of feature films, faced cartridge limitations such as restricted frame counts and sprite sizes. Dietz introduced techniques like holds, loops, X-flipping, and palette cycling to fit animations within the Genesis's constraints. Disney provided color copies of the film's backgrounds and character model sheets, though it withheld the film itself and its proprietary Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), which had debuted with The Little Mermaid (1989). CAPS influenced the game's vibrant color palette, but digital inking and painting were handled by Metrolight Studios in Los Angeles, with Virgin's Irvine, California team compressing and integrating the assets.[11]
Virgin's game engine was refined from Global Gladiators and The Jungle Book (1993), the latter having been in development before Aladdin. Programmer David Perry, supported by Andy Astor's image-handling tools, optimized the engine for complex animations and introduced a crisscrossing platform system, allowing non-linear level progression. This innovation enabled zigzagging paths and hidden spaces, enhancing gameplay depth. Level designer Bill Anderson created the first level draft in 24 hours, contributing to a design document crafted by Perry, David Bishop, Seth Mendelsohn, and Mark Yamada.[11] Disney's Jeffrey Katzenberg, known for micromanaging, contributed ideas like a humorous sight gag where a guard's pants fall to reveal polka-dotted boxer shorts.[9] Disney maintained strict oversight, receiving regular builds via modem for approval.[11]
Virgin Games composer Tommy Tallarico assigned Donald Griffin to arrange five of the film's musical themes, as well as create five original pieces. Griffin would reduce the film's songs to smaller MIDI files and return them to Tallarico, who converted each note by utilizing the sample channel to replicate the film's music as closely as possible, drawing inspiration from Yuzo Koshiro's work on Streets of Rage (1991). Tallarico also composed the game's incidental transition music.[11] Cut content included between-level clips from the film and a rock-paper-scissors mini-game, and a planned Sega CD version with additional levels and animations was cancelled in favor of completing production on The Jungle Book.[11][15]
Marketing and release
The marketing of Disney's Aladdin was a high-profile endeavor, spearheaded by Sega with a $4 million budget.[9] Unveiled at the 1993 Summer CES in Chicago, the game was presented by Katzenberg, Alper, and Sega's Tom Kalinske in a lavish ballroom event featuring costumed dancers, live music, and an Agrabah-themed marketplace.[11][16] The presentation emphasized the game's groundbreaking animation and Disney's new venture into interactive entertainment. Sega's marketing campaign included television commercials, media tours in New York and Los Angeles, and promotional pamphlets in Aladdin VHS tapes. A 30-second TV ad, part of Sega's "Sega Scream" campaign, used edgy humor, depicting a boy using Genie wishes to transform friends into a dog and a fire hydrant. Disney's strategy to broaden its audience, evident in the film's contemporary humor, extended to the game, with increased difficulty after initial levels to engage older players. Disney stipulated that Sega treat Aladdin as a top-tier title, committing to a million-copy U.S. distribution and ensuring it did not compete with Sonic Spinball (1993) during the holiday season. Katzenberg had final approval on all marketing materials.[11]
Disney's Aladdin was released for the Sega Genesis in North America on October 19, 1993,[17] in Europe on October 22, 1993,[18] and in Japan on November 12, 1993.[19] The Amiga and DOS versions were based on the Mega Drive/Genesis version, featuring enhanced music, sound effects and an updated HUD. The Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System ports, which are similar to each other, are significantly altered from the original version, with elements from the original version being missing in both versions, including the "Inside The Lamp" and Abu bonus levels. The Game Boy version is compatible with the Super Game Boy. These versions of the game were developed by NMS Software, a short-lived company in the mid-1990s that was founded by former Elite Systems staff.[citation needed] A Windows 95 port was developed by East Point Software and published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in 1996. The Game Boy Color port, developed by Crawfish Interactive and published by Ubi Soft in 2000,[20] is more faithful to the Genesis port, with more things being retained from the original while still missing some content.[21]
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.[22]
On release, Famicom Tsūshin scored the Mega Drive version of Aladdin a 35 out of 40.[29] The game was awarded Best Genesis Game of 1993 by Electronic Gaming Monthly. They also awarded it Best Animation.[38] 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.[26]
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".[33]
Sales
Upon its first week of release, Sega shipped 1.6 millionAladdin units worldwide, including 800,000 in the United States and another 800,000 in Europe; half of the European shipments were hardware bundles.[39] The same month, it topped Babbage's Sega Genesis sales chart in the United States.[40] The game went on to sell four million copies worldwide, making it the fourth best-selling Sega Genesis game of all-time, after Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Mortal Kombat.[41]
Accolades
GamePro named Aladdin as the best Genesis game of 1993.[42]Mega placed the game at #12 in their Top Mega Drive Games of All Time.[43] In 1995, Flux magazine rated the game 13th on their Top 100 Video Games. They praised the smooth animation, detail and the gameplay, saying that "Disney's Aladdin for the Genesis [is] one of the best action/platform games in history."[44] In the same year, MegaZone included the game in their Top 50 Games in History, summarizing: "The animation in this platformer is simply astounding and looks more like a cartoon than a video game. Some superb humorous touches too."[45] In 2009, GamesRadar ranked the game fourth on their list of the seven best Disney games, comparing it to the SNES game: "While the SNES Aladdin fell back upon faux 3D shading and single pixel button-eyes, the Genesis version looked infinitely more fluid and expressive."[46] In 2017, GamesRadar ranked the game 18th on its "Best Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games of all time" and praised the game's graphics and sound, saying that it captures the look and music from the film.[47]
Legacy
The graphics of Aladdin pushed Sega's rival Nintendo to commission a title that could compete with it visually.[48][49] The resulting game, Donkey Kong Country (1994), reestablished Donkey Kong as a popular video game franchise,[50] and is considered one of the best video games of all time.[a]
The Genesis, Game Boy, and Super Game Boy versions of the game were included alongside The Lion King as part of Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King, released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 29, 2019. These versions include instant save states, a "rewind" button, level select, and options for invulnerability and infinite lives. The collection also includes the trade show demo of the Genesis version,[55] as well as a "Final Cut" version that includes new areas, boss patterns, graphical effects, and other changes.[56] The compilation game was updated as Disney Classic Games Collection: Aladdin, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book, and includes the SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy versions of The Jungle Book as well as the SNES version of Aladdin. It was set to be released on November 23, 2021.
↑ "Movie-game links continue to get stronger". Screen Digest. Screen Digest Limited: 272. 1993. Major video game players Nintendo and Sega are both pushing hard to cash in on game spin-offs from Disney blockbuster animated feature Aladdin. In US, Sega (...) shipped 800,000 units of Virgin-developed Aladdin for Genesis/Mega Drive in same week as some 30m sell-through video units hit the street (10.8m selling through in three days). Another 800,000 units have been shipped in Europe, 50 per cent as hardware bundles.
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