Growing up, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Disney. I had a small selection of three or four of the movies (on then-cutting-edge VHS tapes) that I watched quite a lot, but those were the only ones I was really exposed to.
The trouble was, one of them was The Lion King, which then made me think that playing the Sega Genesis version of The Lion King would be a good idea. Fun, even.
Looking back at this 1994 release, which also hit the SNES and other systems in different forms, it’s mostly remembered only for the severe challenge. Not only can it kick you in the teeth as hard as an enraged Pumbaa (that’s Mister Pig to you), it seems to delight in finding every possible opportunity to do so.
There were lots of influential Sega Genesis games, but for me, this one was what licensed games were all about. Creative takes on the source material, with intelligent enough design to stand without relying on the name. There was certainly some devious design throughout this one.
Interestingly, I don’t remember the game being that difficult when I originally played. I struggled in places and lost countless lives,...
