Main

What's New

Import Stores

Import Reviews

Import Cover Archive

Special Features

Games

The Top 100

Video Game Fiction

Wanted!

Acknowledgements

Forum

Links

Aladdin is one of my favourite stories, right up there with The Wizard of Oz and Wilhelm Hauff's tales. People who have read the real story, from the 1001 (Arabian) Nights book, know that it was drastically changed for the American movies and cartoons. (In the actual story, the princess isn't even called Jasmine!) The changes were made nicely, however, and the Disney cartoon, as well as the games which are based on it, are still very enjoyable.

The Sega Master System version is a great adaptation of Disney's animated movie, made in 1992. Even though the Genesis version was also made by Sega, do not think that the SMS game is a downgraded port of it. Obeying the tradition, the Master System Aladdin is vastly different from the Genesis Aladdin, as well as from the Nintendo ones (NES and SNES, which are different from each other, also).

Like in every Aladdin game, the graphics are very bright and colourful. I would even go as far as to say this is one of the best-looking 8-bit games I have seen, if not the best-looking one. Aladdin and Jasmine look almost like in the movie, the Genie is beautifully drawn and even the other characters, Jafar and the Sultan, for instance, are very recognizable. They are smaller than in the Genesis version, but you no longer feel that you're not seeing everything around you. In 4-5 scenes, the details are a little hard to notice but, in 3 or 4 of them, the game itself offers a little picture-in-picture enhancement. Overall, I liked the graphics very much, even though the backgrounds are simpler and the image is shown widescreen, as import SMS games are always shown.

The sound is very nice, too, in my opinion; for 8-bit, that is. There is an intro song and a few stage songs, from what I can remember, but no voices. A very nice, dramatic tune lets you know when Aladdin is dead. But sometimes, during the cutscenes, the music just stops. If you consider sound a very important part of a game, you could find a few nitpicks here.

I mentioned "cutscenes" in the paragraph above. They are a very important part of this game (probably more than one third of the game are the cutscenes). It reminds me of 'Astyanax' for the NES. But in this case, the dialogues are absolutely necessary for the plot development; a little mushy here and there, but it's all good.

The gameplay is diverse. You have to run away from the guards, or chase a sorcerer; you explore caves and the palace, fly on the magic carpet, and even fight hand-to-hand. The stages are not too hard, and you have infinite continues. One can also continue a game by using the password system. There are 9 passwords for the stages and 1 for invincibility. But you can die more times due to bottomless pits, or being caught by guards, than due to low hit points. Aladdin can be beaten in one sitting.

There are no mini-games and you can't gain extra lives, but there's no need for them, as this game is probably the most faithful version to the Disney film. I say "probably" because I never saw it, but the SMS Aladdin has made me willing to go out and rent it.

- Swordlord