Alright folks, here comes the Sega Genesis Aladdin Defence Force… I finally got time to play through this gem yesterday! Some observations:
There is some great easter eggs hidden in the background graphics. The Sultan’s Dungeon stage features a Pirates of the Caribbean dog complete with key, and Sebastian from the Little Mermaid shackled to the wall. The “Inside the Lamp” (aka Never had a Friend Like Me) stage has a model 1 Genesis and CRT in the background!
The controls are pretty floaty, I’ll agree with that criticism. But there’s never any part where I felt Aladdin wasn’t out of control. The first few levels are pretty easy, so there’s plenty of time to get a feel for the movement. However, things start to get a little tricky once you get to the Cave of Wonders. And then you get to “The Escape”…
(Note the junk tiles at the bottom of the screen that would’ve been hidden by overscan back in the day!)
This level is the hardest part of the game. Tons of tough platforming where any fall results in instant death. Indiana Jones-esque sections where you have to outrun balls of magma, which will also kill you instantly. And right at the end, you have a bunch of small platforms which sink into lava when you step on them, plus lava spurts between them that you have to time just right. I think I died about 2 times in total before and after this stage, and about 10 times during this stage.
When you finally get to the end to fight Jafar, he’s pretty simple. His second form, showing you “just how sssssssnake like he can be” is also easy once you find the pattern: I was able to beat him on my first go around taking only a few hits.
David Perry gets first billing.
The game looks and sounds gorgeous, and the level variety is pretty impressive. There’s a number of stages, and only one shares a tileset with a previous stage, everything else is new. Haters gonna hate, but I find this game way more engaging than the SNES version, just because it stands out as being something unique, whereas I find the Capcom game a good, but generic platformer. Come at me, RGB-Bros.
@blastprocessed, your screenshot of the credits is pretty interesting, I love that there’s a credit for their showing at CES. I remember reading somewhere that the game blew people away when it was shown at CES… There certainly was a ton of hype when the game launched, I remember.
FINALLY: Our APRIL GAME THREAD is now open! Nominations open until April 3, so get in there!