Disney's Aladdin and Lion King Classics Pack is out now and having given them a whirl after 25 years, we can confirm The Lion King really was that hard.
Developers have cottoned on to the fact that all gamers really want is for titles we loved as children to be re-released on today's consoles. Spyro, Final Fantasy VII, MediEvil: all of these are games that have been or are in the process of being remade, remastered, and re-released. The trouble is, in some cases, it feels as if the developers have made the games more difficult.
The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, for instance. Players were adamant the remastered games were more difficult, and developers eventually admitted to tweaking the game's jumping mechanic, making it harder than it was back in the 90s. That got us thinking about how hard The Lion King was. Now, the Disney classic has been re-released on today's consoles we can confirm it really was that difficult.
Moments after getting over the excitement surrounding the news that The Lion King was getting remastered, we were taken back to our childhoods. We began replaying what might have been the most difficult game we were ever faced with. The level in which players were tasked with guiding the little lion up a waterfall and, of course, the dreaded monkey level.
Simba grows as you progress through the game and we cannot recall seeing him fully grown all those years ago. There's even an urban myth that developers made the game as difficult as it is to ensure players couldn't complete it during Blockbuster's rental time, forcing some of them to buy the game outright. Thanks to the rewind function included in the remastered version, the game might still be as difficult, but we can have as many cracks as it takes to move past the more challenging areas parts.
Despite The Lion King being as difficult as we remember, the developers who have brought it up to date and re-released it insist that they want the game to be as accessible as possible. PlayStation.blog reports that developers have even said they want everyone who buys the games to not only enjoy them but be able to complete them. Makes sense since game rentals from Blockbuster aren't a thing anymore.