Carpet Sucks.

Disney’s Aladdin

1993

Sega Genesis

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Pros: Fluid Graphics, Good Controls

Cons: A Little Too Straightfoward, Some Repetitive Levels, Stringent Gameplay in Some Areas

     When Disney’s Aladdin was adapted for gaming, the license ended up going to two companies who produced two completely different games.  Capcom produced a game for the Super Nintendo, while Virgin Interactive made this one for the Sega Genesis.  There seems to be some dispute over which is better, but I’ve never played the former.  Having owned the Genesis version from my childhood, I can tell you what I think of it.

     The gameplay is pretty straightforward, and the controls are well-executed and responsive.  The A, B, and C buttons make you throw apples (explosion is the natural reaction of the human body to having apples thrown at it), slash with a scimitar (a rather nice one for a homeless person, it also causes people to explode), and jump (forward or straight up).  Holding up while using the sword causes him to swing it upwards on both sides to fend off enemies, and he stabs it forward while ducking.

      Like most sidescrollers, Aladdin features many items.  You’ll need to make sure you collect plenty of apples, as you’ll need them in many areas of the game.  The maximum is 99, and it’s funny that a man who has to steal to eat has no problem hoarding apples to throw at people.  Unfortunately, your supply defaults to zero when you die.  This is very detrimental during the final two boss fights, in which they are essential.  A blue heart restores some of your health, which is measured as smoke coming from a lamp in the corner.  Extra lives are represented by Aladdin’s face.  Abu’s face will result in a bonus level in which you play as Abu and collect more items.  A Genie face (which makes a surprised shout when you collect it) gives you a slot machine bonus level, and more Genie faces means more tries.  A black lamp destroys all the onscreen enemies.  A Genie vase is the checkpoint.  Gems can be collected to buy extra lives (5 gems) or continues (10 gems, a much better deal) from The Peddler.

     The sound effects are crisp and enjoyable.  The soundtrack consists mostly of relatively crude 16-bit versions of the movie’s musical numbers, with a few original tracks thrown in.  It’s been said that the Genesis’ capacity for music mostly lent itself to cyberpunk/techno scores, and its cover of an Alan Menken soundtrack demonstrates this (“A Whole New World” sounds a bit goofy).  I do, however, like its somber version of “Arabian Nights,” which fits level 4’s dark atmosphere.  Overall, the soundtrack isn’t much to write home about. 

     The graphics are excellent.  While the occasional background has a pixelated gradient look, most of the scenery is good.  Virgin made this game with the assistance of Disney animation, and it shows.  They took advantage of the Genesis’ faster processing speed to produce fluid movement and cartoon expressiveness.  If you pause at the right moment, you’ll even see some amusing smears (Aladdin momentarily grows three extra arms when throwing an apple).  When you throw an apple at a knife juggler, you might be treated to a beautifully animated cutting of the apple complete with juice.  Another neat little thing I noticed is that the spikes in Level 4 slightly go back when they reach their apex.  I haven’t played the SNES version, but if I were making obnoxious Sega commercials, I would have definitely edited clips from the two games together to sell the Genesis’ “Blast Processing.”  The graphics are definitely the best part of this game, but that usually isn’t a promising thing to say about a video game. 

     The first level is Agrabah Street, a fairly straightforward level.  Just like in the movie, the entire town has declared war on one homeless guy.  You’ll encounter the two most common enemies in the game: the generic Agrabah guards and the fat knife-throwers.  The fat guys are amusing to watch.  When they don’t see you, they endlessly stuff their faces at an alarming rate.  When they do see you, the waddle pathetically toward you and throw swords.  Throwing an apple at them can loosen their pants, and they forget they’re in a fight to the death and freak out at their own underwear.  Also look out for people rhythmically dumping their chamber pots on you.  For some reason, this level is set to “Prince Ali” instead of “One Jump,” which is on the third board.  This makes no chronological sense.  After this, Jafar will accost you disguised as an old man and task you with finding the two halves of the scarab which will open the Cave of Wonders. 

     You will find the first half in the The Desert.  You will find the typical guards and some face fez-wearing snakes.  For some reason, Iago shows up as a minor adversary even though you’re currently working for Jafar now.  You need to touch collect the scarab half twice for some reason.  Because Aladdin has butterfingers.

     Next comes Agrabah Rooftops.  The level looks remarkably similar to Agrabah streets (which seems a bit repetitive), but has more rope-climbing and pole-sliding.  You will need to collect flutes that activate flying ropes to make progress in the level, but this is fairly straightforward.  Jafar has tasked you with getting the second half of the scarab from Gazeem.  The instruction manual states that you must “make him give up something you’re looking for.”  Okay.  This is rather easy since Gazeem is one of those bosses that you just get into the corner and stab repeatedly.  After having killed a midget, you face off against Razoul and you “defeat” him only to be rewarded by his capturing you in the story and putting you in the Dungeon.  On the plus side, there is never any shame in getting beaten by Jim Cummings.

     In Sultan’s Dungeon, you will face off against guards, spikes that come out the wall, wrecking balls (a must have in any prison), and relatively easy appearing blocks.  Reanimated skeletons who accidentally reassemble themselves with bombs will explode sending harmful, wall-piercing bones flying in every direction.  The level also introduces swarms of bats, which are never a good thing in video games.

Above: Case in point.

Still, this is one of the better boards.  The layout is decent, the graphics are atmospheric and detailed, and it’s well-scored.  A foreground graphic of chains surprisingly doesn’t block the gameplay too much, and there are many nicely macabre details.  I like its dark tone because I’m Goth garbage.

       In the Cave of Wonders, you’ll face more bats, some animated Shiva statues that do this and a Shiva Monkey miniboss.  You’ll then be picked up by Carpet and quickly find out why he’s awful.  When you’re flying on him, you have no control over where you go.  He just flies around in a chaotic, circuitous pattern and dumps you in some random spot to complete the level yourself.  Carpet sucks.  F--- Carpet.  You then collect the Lamp and proceed to the next level because Abu’s dumb ass had to try and take a cursed gem.

      During the Escape, you’ll jump over precarious platforms to avoid lava and run through tunnels from giant rolling boulders.  It’s a pretty stressful board and it’s by far the most difficult one in the game.  It doesn’t give you any time for enjoyment.  The scenery is well done, not that you can enjoy it.  There is one extra life midway through the level.  It makes you risk falling into lava, but it’s fairly easy to get to.  Even if you die right afterward, it’s no net loss.  As long as can make it to this 1-up, you effectively have unlimited tries on this board.  There’s no real strategy in this board, just timing.  The level ends with your being forced into a Leap of Faith by a giant boulder, and carpet catches you.

      Next comes Rug Ride (that’s the actual name of the level).  Because Carpet disappeared when you really needed him, you had to deal with the previous level.  When he finally remembered to pick you up, it got to the point where a giant high-speed tidal wave of lava had formed.  Good work, Carpet.  Here you have to avoid floating boulders which are indicated by Genie’s hands pointing you to safety.  It’s an on-rails board with no flexibility and it’s dependent solely on reflexes.  It’s like the Turbo Tunnel from Battletoads, although much easier.  I know everyone talks about how memorable challenging boards like this are, but does anyone actually like them?  I’m going to take the position that these boards are bad.  The Turbo Tunnel wasn’t fun; it was frustrating and it prevented you from getting the parts of the game that were fun.  At least this level is doable and allowed me to collect some much needed items.

      You finally get a rest Inside the Lamp.  Along with the Dungeon, it’s one of the better boards.  It has clever gimmicks and the graphics are amusingly surreal.  It’s a relatively fun board, and I remember my older brother saying years ago it was the only part of the game he liked.  While there are no enemies, there’s always the danger of falling.  Whose side are you on, Genie?

          The Sultan’ Palace features some delightfully decadent architecture, but it’s also Carpet at his most annoying.  He sends you careening into enemies throughout the whole board, and you need him to progress to certain areas.  He consistently flies you directly into Iago, who respawns/teleports at an absurd rate.  Iago is spread out on the board that he appears in almost every screen during the Carpet phase.  I’m pretty sure I saw two Iagos on one screen at one point.  You need to make sure you have plenty of apples, because you’re almost certainly screwed without them when you reach the boss, which is Iago operating the lightning machine.  His machine produces lightning bolts as well as Turban-clad ghosts that will follow you throughout the screen.  Climb a flight of stairs to a platform and pelt Iago with apples until he goes down.  If you make the platform with enough apples, this is fairly easy.  Just push Up/B to fend off ghosts and then throw apples when you can.  Unfortunately, the stairway is one of those that are hard to mount in video games.  I died the first time because of this and somehow miraculously got through the battle even though you don’t come back to life with any apples.  The boss level makes you go back and forth across the screen to collect four respawned apples bit by bit while everything tries to kill you.

      The final board is Jafar’s Palace.  I can’t help but notice that this game commits the same sin that the otherwise perfect Batman (NES) does by recycling an earlier music track for the final level.  The level itself isn’t too hard, and I would like to say I beat this game, but Jafar turned into a cobra and broke me.  This may be the hardest boss battle I’ve ever played.  In the first sequence, carpet carries you around a bit then dumps you into Jafar’s inner sanctum to fend for yourself.  Jafar will use his wand to suck you toward him and you take damage if you touch him.  It’s hard to avoid his staff long enough the throw apples at him, and if you die once, you have to rely on the four spare apples on each side of the room, which I find to be insufficient.  Once you defeat him in this phase, he turns into a cobra and things get really f---ed up.  The platforms in the room now erupt in flames when you land on them.  You have to run across them to avoid taking damage.  The floor has waves of fire emanating from Jafar himself.  There is literally no safe place to stand.  You know whom I could use right now?  MOTHERF---ING CARPET.  Anyway, I died and I didn’t have the heart to continue.  Whoever said turning into a snake “never helps?”

     Because I’m a garbage gamer, I’ll say that this is a relatively easy game (with two very disproportionately difficult final boss levels) simply because actually made it to its last leg.  The game is competently executed, but if anything it’s a little too straightforward, even during the hard parts.  Though I kinda liked two levels, the game’s layout lacks true creativity and flexibility.  There’s very little of that happy medium between levels being too difficult and too easy that’s commonly referred to as “fun.”  The hard parts are more stressful than challenging, relying more on reflexes than cleverness.  The easy parts, for all their visual cleverness and humor, are mostly bland.  Those two boss battles are just plain unfair.  This game does have some mild nostalgic value for me, but as an adult I found it a bit disappointing.  I’ve never played the Capcom version, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the better game.