The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure

Overview

Simba, that lovable lion cub from the Lion King movies, joins you in the Activision game where you help guide him through the dangerous African plains. You must aid young Simba through nine levels that will test his skill as the future ruler of the Pride Lands. Each step further towards your goal Simba will be forced to deal with hardships that he must overcome. Simba will also have to fight a variety of challenging enemies from mere bugs to ferocious hyenas--even his evil uncle Scar. On the way he will bump into a number of familiar faces like the wisecracking meerkat Timon, his warthog sidekick Pumbaa and even Simba's childhood companion Nala. If your levelheaded thinking pays off, you will finally learn what it takes to be king!

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

In Simba's Mighty Adventure you must guide Simba through each level attempting to collect a variety of different colored coins. At the beginning of Simba's adventure you may choose the difficulty of the game which will decide how many coins you must attain in order to unlock the next stage. As you wander through each stage you have the option to collect a variety of different items such as letters that spell Simba, gourds that help unlock mini-games and meat that replenishes Simba's health meter. As an added bonus, if you happen to spell Simba out of the letter fragments that you run across in each stage you will have the option to watch clips from the actual movie, though even if you happen to miss collecting all the letters you may be able to watch extra movie clips by finishing one of the stages.

If playing a ferocious lion isn't enough, if you collect the gourds during each stage you will be able to play one of Rafiki's mini-games: Meerkat Bash, Bug Catching, Rafiki Martial Arts and Matching Game. Each game has a time limit in which you have to either catch as many bugs you can, defend Rafiki from a pack of ravenous hyenas, have Pumbaa race to sit on Timon's head or help Kiara match the pictures on sixteen different stones.

Simba's Mighty Adventure is not a game for players looking for a good challenge. It took me around two hours to complete the entire game, including all the mini-games and collecting all the cut scenes from the original movies. As you play you will find that it is fairly easy to collect enough extra lives to experiment and have fun throughout the entire game. Since the enemies do not deviate from a general path, it usually is easy to avoid or pounce on them.

The only complaint I had throughout the game was that the character controls were sloppy at best. More than one of the stages in the game has a terrible angle view where your character is facing the bottom of the screen. This makes it difficult to pick up items and avoid oncoming attacks from enemies. On top of terrible camera angles, Simba's movement is poor since he has a terrible problem judging the distance it takes for him to stop or to pounce on an enemy.

Graphics

The graphics are pleasing to look at but not head-turning. The characters are animated and comical but they would be more entertaining for the younger generation of players, so don't expect too much out of the game in terms of graphics. On another note, the clips from the original Lion King movie were poorly scanned onto the disc which makes viewing them a less than enjoyable experience.

Audio

As Simba grows in the game he meets the characters from the movie who advise him on how to survive in the jungle. Throughout the game the things the characters say help you feel the mood of the scene and aid you in getting to know the characters better. It was humorous to hear the characters comment on the events going on in the game.

Bottom Line

As I played Simba's Mighty Adventure, it became apparent that this is one of those games you play once or twice and put on the shelf for the next time you want a good laugh. It isn't a terrible game to purchase, but you should probably buy it only if it is on sale. The game has its moments--they may be few and far between, but there are still things that players of a younger age category could really get into. In my opinion, if you want to watch talking cartoon animals you should just rent the movie instead of buying the game.

It is probably safe to say that one of Disney’s finest animated films of the last ten years was The Lion King. The franchise has already taken one bite out of the Game Boy and it looks like this sequel (of sorts) will be a great deal better!

Although classed as a whole new story, Simba’s Mighty Adventure incorporates both of the plots of the two Lion King movies (yes, even the less well-known straight-to-video sequel) to form a brand-spanking new quest. The levels are based on many of the main environments from the two movies and pit you against many of the enemies too. This means there is a very good chance you’ll bump into Scar, the Hyenas and Scar’s twisted sister Zira along with many others. It’s familiar platform fare – although there are some other styles throughout the game which involve you escaping from a stampede and avoiding deadly crocodiles (or alligators, we’re not quite sure). The game follows Simba through the stages of his life, as in the film, so at the beginning you play Simba as a cub and then later on as a fully-grown lion.

Throw in those lovable meerkats Timon and Pumba, who crop up in a series of mini-games between levels, and you’ve got what is shaping up to be a very promising title. Visually, the game looks rather grand and it even has a few animal sounds dropped into the mix for good measure. Expect to see a review next issue!

If you’ve seen any of the dozens of wildlife shows on the early-evening BBC2 schedule, you’ll no doubt be aware that the average male lion has three main concerns. These are: resisting the temptation to eat his kids, sleeping for long periods, and casually ripping the heads off the odd rickety-looking wildebeest at the back of a passing herd. Fortunately, Activision realised that The Lion King: Lie In The Sun Yawning A Lot would have made a really crap videogame. Instead they’ve focused on the animated antics of Simba, the little lion cub who eventually grows through a difficult period of pimply adolescence to rule the Pride Lands in Disney’s big-eyed classic, The Lion King. Good choice there lads!

Cub Scout

Simba’s Mighty Adventure is fairly standard platform-hopping stuff, and is extremely similar to the likes of Jungle Book and, well, every other platform game featuring cute Disneyfied characters. Our maned hero wanders through predictable environments, slapping some opponents and roaring unconvincingly at others, but the game design isn’t really that bad. It would be handy if Simba jumped like a lion, and not like a hedgehog with its legs tied together, as the game would be more enjoyable, but that’s just the way it is.

This game has some good things going for it: the mini-games are fun and a nice break from the usual slog, and the top-down-viewed sprint through a herd of wildebeest is a great laugh. However, most of the stages are far too short, the collision detection is fairly dodgy, and more often than not Simba finds himself attacked by sprites so small that they can only barely be seen with the naked eye.

Overall then, this is a derivative, dated title with a few decent moments of enjoyable gameplay chucked in. To be honest, if you want a really good platform game for the GBC, either of the games in the ‘Alternatives’ box are a great deal better than this.