This year, Disney brought two of its animated classics to the big screen once more. The 2019 adaptations of the Aladdin and The Lion King raked in millions for Disney, $355 and $540 million, respectively. Riding off of this success, Disney is going a step further and blowing the dust off of the video game adaptations of these films that were originally developed in the '90s.
The games, which were released for former major-league consoles such as the SNES and Sega Genesis, were produced during an era when tie-in video games weren't necessarily poorly-produced merchandise and actually offered entertaining experiences. Now, fans can experience these games once more when they drop under the title of Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King on October 30 - though with a good amount of tweaks and updates.
The collection, which will be released for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC, will include the Genesis and Gameboy versions of both games. The SNES version of The Lion King will be included as well as a "final cut" version of Aladdin and a tradeshow version that hasn't been available since the game was originally released in 1993.
Publishers Nighthawk Interactive and Digital Eclipse made significant differences to the final cut version of Aladdin, which, according to Digital Eclipse's senior producer Stephen Frost, were made after consulting with the original team that created the game.
"There are some major adjustments that we know fans will be happy to discover, such as the improved camera system, new level sections, additional enemy variations, difficulty tweaks that include boss changes, and improved sword impact."
The Lion King didn't receive the same upgrades as Aladdin did because the developers couldn't talk as frequently with the game's original team as they could for Aladdin. To compensate, the collection will not include the SNES version of Aladdin, which drastically differs from its Genesis counterpart.
Alongside various iterations of the games, players can look forward to an array of new features including the ability to switch between higher-quality graphics to the games' original ones, visual filters, customizable control, a rewind feature, and Blu-ray style extras.
The release of this collection is fitting given the time frame and probably exciting news to individuals who grew up playing the original game - or maybe a bit disappointing, considering it won't be the same game they remember so fondly. But hey, at least fans won't have to fret about searching for or purchasing any retro consoles to enjoy these games anymore.
Source: CNet