Sega Genesis + Aladdin

I'm exhausted from a very long shopping trip and a night without sleep earlier this week, but I owe it to my loyal fans to post something new, so here it goes.  Today we discuss Sega Genesis and the greatest game created for it, Disney's Aladdin.

Alot of people might think that the Genesis deserves an entire week's worth of blogging, but seeing as I found this system to be sub-par to other systems of its time, I think I could fit this into one day's worth of commentary.  Debuting in the U.S. circa 1989, this system was actually rather sleek looking compared to its competition.  Unfortunately for Sega the look of the console was pretty much the only thing Genesis had going for it.  Apparently, in almost every other part of the world Sega Genesis was known as Mega Drive.  Both names build up alot of hype, and apparently Genesis was Sega's best selling game console ever, so I guess in part, it lives up to that hype.

Of course everyone who owned a Sega Genesis also owned Sonic the Hedgehog.  I believe it may have been bundled with the system, but correct me if I'm wrong.  Sega Genesis actually belonged to my brother and I simply mooched off of his system as much as possible. I distinctly remember playing hours of Sonic the Hedgehog, but I don't think I ever got past the 4th level.  My skill level had nothing to do with this utter failure.  Rather, there were parts of the game when there would be what seemed like hundreds of those gold rings you had to collect all over the screen.  Well, this at times was too much for the 16-bit console to handle.  Whenever there was too much going on in one frame, the game would lag as if in slow motion.  I'd either get mad and quit or I'd be surprised when it returned to regular speed and instantly run myself off a cliff or into a bad guy.  And don't get me started with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 when Miles "Tails" Prower showed up.  That freakazoid fox with two tails did nothing to help matters and was often the cause of many deaths in my ventures into the Sonic the Hedgehog world.  I'm complaining, but now I really wish I knew what we did with that game, because I have a strong urge to give it a go .  That is, of course, until the screen freezes up again.

And now onto the game that made this system worth owning:  Aladdin.  Sega was the first to release this game after the movie came out in '92 (game release 1993).  First let us analyze the box for this game.  Please note that the snake is breathing lightening bolts.  I can't for the life of me figure out why, because I cannot recall any point in the game when this happens, but its been a few years, so I could be wrong.  On the back of the box, Aladdin's sword is described as a "shining scimitar," which I think is a very fine choice of words.  Now, on to the game.  The background music was phenomenal.  It was taken directly from the movie, so there's no going wrong there.  The basic idea of the game was that a player would control Aladdin through the streets of Agrabah to the palace and ultimately defeat Jafar (ala movie script).  Though Aladdin was equipped with his scimitar, I found that at times the best form of defense was the trusty apple.  One could collect apples in each board and throw them at enemies.  Things got pretty amusing when you would strike a palace guard and his pants would fall down, revealing his heart-patterned boxers.  For me the hardest board was the escape from the Cave of Wonders.  Thanks to that damn monkey who followed you around, the cave caves in (no pun intended) and you're left to use a flying rug (some may refer to it as a magic carpet) to dodge waves of lava.  Honestly, it's not very clear where the lava comes from because there is no indication of a nearby volcano, but Virgin Games and Sega were just being true to the movie, so we'll let that one slide.  Many a time I'd fly through that board dodging rocks and molten lava, only to forget that I shouldn't try for that Abu face taunting me from the lower portion of the screen.  Inevitably, I'd slam into a rock and have to start all over again, or, if I was lucky to get far enough, I'd start from the halfway point.  The Abu face awarded you a bonus level where you could control Abu for prizes.  There were also Genie faces.  I know you could rack up extra apples and lives with the Genie faces, but I don't recall exactly how.  I just remember whenever you collect a face, the Genie would say "YEAH!"  To this day, I still remember the cheat to this game (ABBAABBA).  If you pressed those buttons, something cool would happen (maybe you skipped a board), but I can't quite remember.  I just now googled this cheat to see if I could find out what it did and discovered that you could use a cheat TO SKIP THE RUG RIDE!! ugh, oh well.  I don't really like to use cheats anyway.  That's all for now.  I'm tired.  I'll leave you with an image of Sega Genesis and Aladdin joined together, as they should be.