Devs Play- The Lion King

[DGFone]

I found on YouTube a channel that started a "devs play" for various video games, and the very first episode is for The Lion King! (The Genesis version). For the dev, they brought in Louis Castle who was in charge of Westwood Studios back when they made the game and he talks about the game and how it was made as one of the channel's guys plays the game.

I really like it when Castle would describe how the production of the movie effected production of the game, and how because of the game, we apparently got to "play" two scenes that were cut from the movie. The entire video is over an hour long, but is very well worth seeing.

[Elton John]

Amusing, one of my friends who has a YouTube channel called 16 bit zen promised me he'd review the lion king game. It's taking him a while but he does have a wife two kids and a job. So I've just been patient about it.

[gothprincesskiara]

This was such a treat, so many memories when I played this game for hours I soooooo want to play the game again , I would grab it in a heart beat. I want to believe that somehow they would bring it back for us, well guess what?, they kinda did, but in a very cheesy way that I hope will improve over time and with more players, but its for apple iPad, here is what the game app looks like if played or haven't tried it yet, lets talk about it, and what are your thoughts on it and behind it. Talk about poorly done but if its the best they can do I have to give them credit for trying.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-kin ... 63441?mt=8

[Akril]

That was a very interesting video. I've worked on several computer games, and I like hearing about the development of these older games, especially the animation process. Somehow, I keep forgetting that the same studio that created this game also created the Legend of Kyrandia series, which isn't that surprising, since the art and animation in those games is just as stunning (the third game not so much, since it used 2D sprites mixed with pre-rendered 3D sprites and backgrounds -- and we're talking mid-90's 3D).

I also got a faint sense of pride when I heard The Lion King described as a "hard" game -- I haven't played very many platformers (I tend to prefer adventure games*), so I'd always considered myself a complete amateur at them.

Thanks for posting this, DGFone!


*Speaking of which, I've got to give Blade Runner a try one of these days.

[DGFone]

I also enjoyed how they described how work on The Lion King helped them with their future projects, such as Command and Conquer - which happens to be probably my favorite game series of all time. Am eagerly waiting for the Tiberian Sun release of OpenRA. Already got to nuke Adofo in the RA mod of the game, and he keeps claiming that he will one day complain to Moka about it, but he hasn't yet. Until then, he can continue to call me Nuka.

Not only was Westwood's Lion King a great game, I was delighted to learn that they basically created their own lossless compression for it which they used in their future games, which I think is especially noticeable in the C&C series with the full screen FMVs as well as high quality music for when the games came out.

[Elton John]

I think it's a shame that the lion king game barely gets any recognition by the hardcore crowd. When Disney games are brought up everybody mentions ducktales nes or aladdin on the 16 bit consoles, or castle of illusion, but rarely this game.

[FlipMode]

I think it's a shame that the lion king game barely gets any recognition by the hardcore crowd. When Disney games are brought up everybody mentions ducktales nes or aladdin on the 16 bit consoles, or castle of illusion, but rarely this game.

Nobody ever got past the JCWTBK level so they don't know if the rest of the game is good or not... That stupid double jump bit >.>

No but seriously I don't think this game has aged very well, it was pretty good when it came out but even then it wasn't that great IMO.

Interesting commentary though. Shows how difficult and in depth game development went back in the day. Nowadays not so much it seems.... lol Ubisoft.

[gothprincesskiara]

hey since I used to play the game for hours, I was able to beat it on Easy mode, and I beat anyone else could have too

[Elton John]

http://m.youtube.com/user/16BitZen

Here he is, he's very cool and down to earth. Ive known him for 10 years and i have rarely met another gamer who is just plain nice and respecting of others as him