Game #1127: Disney Classic Games Collection - Aladdin, The Lion King and The Jungle Book

  Is this a re-run?

 It was only a few months ago, but I finally got around playing Disney's game collection.... only for an upgraded version to be announced later, which I know have in my hands, named Disney Classic Games Collection: Aladdin, The Lion King and The Jungle Book. It includes a new series of games, as well as one I thought should've been here from the start....

 Well, everything I said about the original still stands, so no need to cover old ground. That said, there's something about the new games that feels rushed.... maybe that there's no optional invulnerability on any of them, which is weird, as the returning game still feature that option. At least you can use Rewind on them.

 I'll never understand how people think that Aladdin on the Genesis was superior to Capcom's SNES take on it. I'll admit, I kinda grew up with it, kinda, as it was a NES bootleg copy, so it's not the same deal. Regardless, Capcom's take is much fairer as far as difficulty is concerned, the graphics, while not movie-accurate, are much more stylized and better looking, and while Aladdin doesn't have a sword... it still feels more accurate since he wasn't a sword fighter in the first place.

 I had a lot of fun going through Capcom's version. Not only is the difficulty much fairer, but levels feel more creative and fun. The platforming feels like Capcom's Mickey and Minnie games, it's not as fast as, say, Mario, but it's still very tight, any mistakes feel like your fault and your fault only. The one thing it has in common with the Genesis is an awful flying carpet section. Regardless, I feel like this game, and this game alone, makes this cart worth owning.

 We are still missing Aladdin's Gameboy Color release.

 Then there are the new Jungle Book games... I'll be straight with you, they aren't very good.

 The SNES version is a platformer so slippery it feels like an euro-jank platformer, but with none of the charm. Stuff you can stand on and background elements merge with each other, and sometimes it's hard just noticing the vines you can climb. The bosses are brutal and incredibly unfair, while some levels feel like annoying mazes. I hated this game.

 Since I usually tend to favor the SNES over Genesis games I feared the worst, but the Genesis take is actually tolerable. Stages are large both horizontally and vertically, and you have to find X amount of gems in each level and then get to the end before the time runs out. It's not as annoying as it sounds. The camera is more zoomed out than in the SNES version, so while it moves about as fast as it did, it doesn't feel so unfair or annoying. I still didn't like it very much, but it was passable.

 The GB game follows the Genesis formula, except that now you have to find EVERY SINGLE gem. But now in black and white and less screen real state, and sometimes even enemies might be hiding gems. It's annoying and boring, to the point I couldn't decide if it was as bad as the SNES version or worse.

 So.... while on the one hand most of the new games aren't very good, I think that this update adds the best game in the collection, one that hasn't aged one bit.... So, now you get a great game as well as a few mediocre and bad classic games... I'd say it's worth it, and there's no sarcasm in that statement.

 8.0