SNES: Aladdin

It's hard to believe that movie-tie-in games have been around for most of gaming history. Usually, these games are terrible, and the 1993 version of Aladdin is not much of an exception. It has scenes and music from the movie (and a rather great pixilated Abu), but also features lazy cut scenes and gamepay that more-or-less amounts to a floaty version of Super Mario.

The game follows the movie, naturally, but adds in two levels that have nothing to do with anything in the Disney Classic's plot (a sand temple in the desert and a Genie dream sequence). The object of each level is to make it to the far right side of the screen without dying. This is accomplished by avoiding enemies, killing enemies by jumping on their heads, and leaping, bouncing, and climbing over a variety of obstacles. Apples, which can be thrown to stun enemies, help you along your way. There are also gems to collect 100 of for extra lives or refilled heart meters.


Aladdin is slightly difficult to control. He feels a little loose in response to your controller commands, and it can be hard to predict how high you are going to jump. But once you become accustomed to it, it becomes easy to sprint through the levels, bouncing and leaping your way to the goal. Mostly this is made possible by the low difficulty of the game (few enemies and a small number of troublesome dangers) and by the excellently programmed ledge detection. Aladdin is like a monkey (probably because he hangs out with one), and any ledge you even get near he will latch onto with a desperate, life-saving grip. This ability will save you from your own mistimed jumps again and again.

Aladdin features some impressive backgrounds, easily placing you in well-known parts of the movie. The music is fantastic, and you'll often find yourself singing along to the MIDI version of your favorite songs. However, the cut scenes between stages are atrocious. A static, pixilated picture sits heavily in the center of the screen, and text slowly appears to narrate the plot. Blessedly, these sequences are easily skipped.

The game is a kid's game, with a kid's difficulty. I can't hold that against it. However, it is incredibly short, and easily beatible in less than an hour without using Game Genie codes to help you along. A drive to collect red gems may enhance re-playability, but only kids who can sit through the same movie again and again will really want to. Aladdin is a game for quick nostalgia and nothing more.

Review: World of Goo

Goo.

It is a word synonymous with yucky and mucus.

Eew.

But the team behind World of Goo managed to relate gloopy substances with entertainment.

A strange mix of a physics simulator and the childhood classic, The Incredible Machine, World of Goo requires you to build towers, bridges, and dangling ropes to get your goo balls into a pipe. Your building materials are balls of Goo, which through their sticky nature, connect with each other to make your goo-print a material edifice. It is a simple concept, but World of Goo makes sure to complicate
things every step of the way.

First, you must worry about gravity pulling your top-heavy goo tower to the ground. Next, wind and the hyperactive gooballs wandering over your construction project will alter your center of gravity in disastrous ways. Throw in grinding gears that destroy your goo balls, fire that burns them up, spikes, blocks, tilting terrain, and you have some seriously volatile project sites for your goo-chatecture.

Like your bodily secretions, World of Goo features many goo types. Some are plain, some are pretty, some can be moved, set on fire, exploded, etc. Each level is a challenge of using the available goo types to defeat the challenges of the terrain. This makes every level fresh, challenging, and captivating. Captivation is aided by a Alien Hominid art style and a haunting soundtrack. You will find yourself
mesmerized by the goo world, enraptured by the completion of your goo constructions, and amused by your failures.

However, the game is short, but that is understandable for the budget price and small size of the application. I managed to blaze through the game in about two hours of play time, but World of Goo does offer incentive for replaying. Each level has a target amount of goo balls that must reach the pipe to proceed, but any extra goo you manage to rescue will go to a special collection that you can use to build as large a tower as you can. The height of your tower is placed online, and as you build, you can see the heights of towers built by other players. Thus to make your tower the tallest, you will need to go back through the levels and rescue as many goo balls as possible. Or if you prefer, each level is timed and the amounts of goo moves you make are recorded and can be posted to online leaderboards.

World of Goo is a great little game. It has a unique feel, innovative gameplay, and appropriate value for the price you pay. Any gamer looking for a small distraction will find plenty to keep them occupied in World of Goo.