Summary

The Lion King is a brutal side-scrolling platformer that adapts the beloved Disney animated film. Players take on the role of Simba, beginning as a young cub, the gameplay evolves with the adult lion possessing stronger attacks and abilities. The game follows the movie's narrative, leading Simba through iconic locations like the elephant graveyard, the gorge where Mufasa falls, and the hyena-infested Outlands.

Hakuna Matata

• The game’s graphics are awesome for its time. The colors are vibrant, distinct and rarely repeat; the palette reminds me of the movie a lot despite some strange choices (Simba being fully dark brown). The highlights include the use of mode 7 for the stampede level.
• The soundtrack is perfectly recreated. The songs from the movie are here, absolutely all of them, and they sound great using the SNES’ chip, the amount of effort it must have taken to make it sound just as good as the movie must have been insane, they even added choirs.
• Child and adult Simba feel like totally different characters. Child Simba can’t fight properly, he can only jump on some enemies and roar to stunt them. Adult Simba can claw and throw his enemies away and has far more health. This shows perfectly how vulnerable was Simba and how much of a threat he became as an adult in the movie.
• The mini games are useful, they grant you extra lives that allow you to survive for longer; because this game will punish you severely for failing or taking damage.
• It has a cheat code that unlocks a level select, allowing you to continue where you left off, BARRY. B, A, R, R, Y.

Stampede

• The game is absolutely brutal. Level 2 has a section where you have to jump exactly in a certain way with the ostrich or one of you gets hit and you instantly lose a life, level 3 is a confusing labyrinth that will get you stuck unless you memorize the exact pattern, level 6 has a part where you have to use logs to jump to the top of a waterfall but they spawn randomly so you might get unlucky and the boss is an ape that can kill you in a combo, Be prepared swarms you with flying enemies you can barely hit and lava that instantly kills.
• The game doesn’t save your progress, the only way to go back to certain levels is to use the cheat described above.

Conclusion

Despite its stunning visuals and faithful audio recreation it unleashes an unforgiving challenge. The contrast between the vibrant presentation and the relentless difficulty, coupled with the lack of a proper save system is crazy. Be prepared for a brutal journey across the Pride Lands in the circle of pain.