Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) Review

We move on to SuperPhillip Central's next review with a pair of animated classics with some video game classic adaptations put into one stellar-produced package. It's Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King. Here's my review.

You ain't never seen a Disney collection like this!

Back in the nineties, seemingly every animated Disney movie saw some kind of video game adaptation. With live remakes of Aladdin and The Lion King now released, the trio of licensor Disney, publisher Nighthawk Interactive, and developer Digital Eclipse found a great opportunity to bring back both video game adaptations of those movies animated originals from 1993 and 1994 respectively and place them into one collection. While the collection of Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King itself is of a high quality, the actual games themselves aren't.

With the Disney Classic Games collection, you get multiple versions of Aladdin and The Lion King, with the former getting the most TLC. Aladdin has the original Genesis version (the Super Nintendo version is not included due to being developed by Capcom while every other game was created by Virgin Games), a special never-before-commercially-released and incomplete trade demo that's cool to see what was changed from the final release, and a final cut version. The final cut version of Aladdin is described by an in-collection prompt that states that this is the version of the game the developers would have released had they received more dev time. It fixes various bugs and also corrects the camera to display more real estate in front of Aladdin, so less accidental run-ins with enemies and hazards you couldn't see coming occur.

Aladdin gets the drop on this palace guard foe.

Meanwhile, The Lion King comes roaring into this collection with the original Super Nintendo and Genesis versions. Unlike Aladdin, there are no final cut versions or demos to be found, which stinks because The Lion King needs all the improvements it can get. That's despite being an audio and visual charmer and delight.

Young Simba is ready to pounce on this unfriendly beetle baddie.

Not mentioned yet, but both Aladdin and The Lion King also have Japanese versions available, as well as classic handheld versions in both original grey-scale Game Boy and 8-bit-colored Game Boy Color versions. They're worthwhile as things to satiate one's curiosity, but the feat of playing them is an entirely different thing altogether. Though I must say it's rather awesome to see how well The Lion King's stampede scene transitioned to the small screen, taking on an overhead perspective as opposed to a faux-three-dimensional one.

Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King features more than just the obvious, which woul be the various versions of Aladdin and The Lion King games. The collection features a whole host of behind-the-scenes content, including a brand-new Aladdin retrospective made specifically for this collection with interviews from various key staff, as well as character sketches and art for both games. Meanwhile, The Lion King brings with it its version of behind-the-scenes footage, though taken through video from 1994. A true blast from the past!

For me, Aladdin is the star of the collection, and not just because it's had the most content and care attached to it. It's just a better game overall, though both it and The Lion King suffer from hit detection issues. It's Aladdin, however, that fares better in that department, even if attacking with our "thief turned prince" hero's dagger isn't all it's cracked up to be. Between leaping through Agrabah's streets and rooftops to the wonderful chiptune rendition of "Prince Ali" to speeding through a fast-scrolling, breakneck-paced, hesitate-and-you're-toast ride on a magic carpet, Aladdin does not disappoint.

Attacking foes head-on like this with Aladdin's dagger is a bit clumsy, so when I could
 I opted to chuck apples at enemies to dispatch them.

Now, The Lion King? That's a totally different story. The game's just not good, regardless of whether it's the Super Nintendo version or the Genesis one. Whether you have to navigate a maze of monkeys that toss you about in Can't Wait to Be King, scale a waterfall by leaping on small, ever-descending logs in Hakuna Matata, or rush to escape from pursuing one-hit-kill boulders in Simba's Exile with no checkpoints in sight, it seems like The Lion King was developed to annoy the player as much as possible with its design. Now, I can very much appreciate the gorgeous 16-bit visuals on display with colorful vistas, immaculately detailed and animated characters, and the impressive voice clips, but the rest I can put in my own form of exile.

I can badmouth The Lion King's gameplay execution all I want,
but there's no questioning the game's quality when it concerns its amazing presentation.

Thankfully, taking a cue from The Disney Afternoon Collection, also a Digital Eclipse developed compilation, both games include an immensely helpful rewind feature, where you can hold down the left shoulder button to backtrack in your current run and redo jumps or entire sections of level. That made getting through The Lion King slightly less of an aggravation. Just slightly, mind you. Despite being able to use a rewind feature, achievements--both in-game and platform-based for PS4, Xbox One, and Steam users--do not become unavailable, so feel free to use this feature as much as you'd like. Yes, you may get less of a feeling of accomplishment when beating these games on their multiple difficulties, but remember that games of this era were notorious for being difficult to make players rent them repeatedly from places like Blockbuster so feel free to stick it to the man!

There's also the awesome ability to watch a full play-through of either game, and jump in and start playing right from any point. Level selects (though these do disable achievements), sound tests for both games, and a multitude of screen-resizing options round out this satisfying collection.

Various image scaling and visual rendering options are available to get exactly the kind of experience you want.

As a collection, Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King is top shelf material with a lot of love poured into the bonus materials and added features, and is more than worthy of representing the beloved animated classics they're adapting in video game form. As games themselves? Well, it's a compilation of games that's half good and half not. I'll just say that The Lion King isn't the "mane" attraction here. At its current price of $20 for a physical release and cheaper for digital, if you have any semblance of love for either movie or fond memories or nostalgia of either game, you'll find something to appreciate with this well put-together package.

[SPC Says: C+]

Mega Man Legacy Collection (NSW) Review

Mega Man returns to a Nintendo home console with a collection of his six NES action-platforming adventures. Mega Man Legacy Collection on the Nintendo Switch gets the SuperPhillip Central review treatment!

Classic Mega Man has returned home to a Nintendo console in one killer collection.

For a long period of time, being a Mega Man fan was incredibly difficult. Between promising games like Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe being cancelled and Capcom's apparent hiatus on the franchise, lovers of Mega Man felt left out in the cold. Fortunately, much to my and other fans' delight, Capcom's Blue Bomber sees quite the resurgence in recent years, and 2018 looks absolutely stellar for him. With a new entry in the classic series hitting all major platforms this October with Mega Man 11 and now a duo of classic collections for the Nintendo Switch, Mega Man is back, baby! Released on a multitude of consoles a couple of years ago, Mega Man Legacy Collection finds its way onto the Nintendo Switch with some added features making it the definitive version of Digital Eclipse's collection.

If you've never played a Mega Man game before, allow me to elaborate on the series and each game in the collection. For starters, Mega Man as a series is a 2D side-scroller, and every game in the collection originated on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Famicom. You can easily see through playing the game chronologically (those you can play the games in any order, of course) the technical and graphical upgrades each game added to the series. By Mega Man 6, the developers really had a significant handle on the NES/Famicom hardware to create some truly amazing and detailed levels and environments.

Six games make up the Mega Man Legacy Collection, and there's not a dud in the bunch.

At any rate, what made Mega Man great was its combination of action-platforming, running and shooting, and the ability to play through the initial levels of the game in any order you wanted. The bosses in each level, the Robot Masters, would give Mega Man their special weapon upon their defeat, and each Robot Master was weak against a particular special weapon. For instance, in the original Mega Man, Cut Man's special weapon could take down Elec Man in less than ten seconds, otherwise it'd be a tough, but not impossible fight to engage in. After the initial eight Robot Master levels (six in the original Mega Man) were complete, a new series of final linear levels opened up for the Blue Bomber to right the villain of the series, Dr. Wily's wrongs. 

The original Mega Man is my least favorite of the six featured in the Legacy Collection. Mega Man's movement is a bit slippery, and things like falling on spikes, no matter if you had invincibility frames or not, meant instant death. The game used a one-time point system that was superfluous at best, and as stated already, instead of your standard eight Robot Masters, only six were featured in the first Mega Man game. I can't say I hate Mega Man, as it's actually a pretty good game, and you have to hand it to Capcom for creating a solid foundation for the franchise to grow, and as we've seen, prosper.

Mega Man 2 is one of the most loved entries in the entire franchise, and it really brought some well thought out improvements to the series. For one, a lifesaver at the time of its release, Mega Man 2 has a password system that reveals a password at the end of each level that you can copy down, quit the game, and when you turn it back on, you can insert the code to start back where you left off. Obviously with the collection's save states, this is no longer relevant or necessary, but it was a godsend at the time. Mega Man 2 also introduced Energy Tanks that could refill Mega Man's health when selected from the pause menu, great for giving Mega some extra health in particular tough boss battles or stages. 

Meanwhile, Mega Man 3 is probably my actual favorite of the games in this collection. Two of the reasons for this are the introductions of Mega Man's slide maneuver and the character that was brought into this game, Rush, the Blue Bomber's canine companion. The slide meant Mega Man could cover more distance at a faster clip, also allowing him to evade enemy attacks more easily, and Rush was ultra helpful because Mega Man could collect different adapters to use with him. The Rush Coil could Mega Man extra height to reach high places, whereas the Rush Jet could bring Mega Man across long stretches of level by way of the air. Also, Mega Man 3 was a lengthier game that I feel gets a right mixture of both quantity and quality.

Mega Man 4 gave the Blue Bomber a charge shot in addition to his slide, performed by holding down the shot button and then letting go when the shot is fully charged. The game was made with this new mechanic in mind, making for a re-balanced experience that really shines. Although nothing else major was added to the game, Mega Man 4 still shines as a bright title in this collection that was more about evolution rather than revolution.

Mega Man 5 started to show that the series was merely going through the motions. While the quality of 5 is still high, the gameplay pretty much was standard quo, save for interesting level gimmicks such as the changing gravity as seen in Gravity Man's stage, where Mega Man and enemies would shift from walking on the floor to moving along on the ceiling, and Wave Man's stage, where Mega Man could ride a hover cycle across the ocean waves. Some replay value was also added, featuring eight letters, one found in each level, that spelled out MEGAMANV, and would unlock a supportive bird helper character named Beat. 

Finally, as you'd expect, Mega Man 6 is the most graphically impressive game in the collection. Instead of using Rush as a means to ride, Mega Man in 6 would actually fuse with Rush with a pair of "adaptors", one providing flight and one providing power. Four of the Robot Master levels featured a second entrance to the boss, and getting to this and beating the boss gave a circuit board to the player. When all four were collected, once again, bird buddy Beat  becomes available to help out Mega Man in the game. 

The Nintendo Switch version of Mega Man Legacy Collection comes fully stocked and supplied with all of the main features from the original releases. There are art galleries packed with rarely or never-before-seen concept art, advertisements, and box arts for Japan, North America, and Europe, character and enemy databases that reveal enemy and Robot Master weaknesses, and a music player to listen to all of the marvelous melodies and chiptune delights from Mega Man 1-6. The actual games can be played in full screen or surrounded by borders of character artwork, and you can even change the screen filter to get the genuine look and feel of playing on an old school CRT TV. 

The Museum has all sorts of goodies inside: promotional art, a music player, and an enemy database.

Mega Man Legacy Collection on the Nintendo Switch also comes with an optional exclusive feature, the ability to hold the L button to rewind gameplay. This is perfect for times where you misjudge a jump, collide into spikes, or fall into a bottomless pit, allowing you to rewind time and get to a point prior to that unfortunate occurrence. Of course, save states are still present and accounted for. These combined with the rewind feature make for a collection of Mega Man games that all skill levels can complete and enjoy. If you don't wish to use these, you don't have to. It's just a nice option to have. 

In addition to the six games in the collection, there are also the challenges that were added to the previous versions, taking players through remixed levels and things like boss rushes. As you complete challenges, more unlock for you to flex your Mega Man skills with. Unlike the main games, challenges do not allow you the ability to rewind or use save states. Gotta keep things fair, after all. Furthermore, like the Nintendo 3DS version of Mega Man Legacy Collection, the Switch edition also has amiibo capabilities to use the Mega Man amiibo to unlock exclusive challenges. However, seeing as the actual amiibo is a bit tricky to find nowadays, most might not be able to access this particular bit of content. 

Mega Man Legacy Collection on the Nintendo Switch provides a pleasant compendium of Mega Man's NES action-platforming adventures that come with enough features to make them worth playing through all over again. Heck, just the games themselves make themselves worth playing through all over again. Added features like the ability to rewind during gameplay makes this the most accessible version of the collection for players, and it's just a quick and lovely convenience for those particularly troublesome sections of the six games. Whether you're a longtime fan of the Blue Bomber or just wanting to get into the series, Mega Man Legacy Collection is a good a collection as any to jump into and experience Mega Mania either for the first time or all over again.

[SPC Says: B+]

Mega Man Legacy Collection (3DS) Review

Fresh of the heels of my look at my favorite Mega Man game turned iOS title with my review on Mega Man X, I set SuperPhillip Central's sights on the recently released Mega Man Legacy Collection. Is this compendium of the Blue Bomber's worthy of his legacy? Find out with my review.

Fight, Mega Man! For Everlasting Peace!

The original six Mega Man games are no strangers to the porting and collection treatment. The original games released on the NES/Famicom. Then, we saw Complete Works versions on the PlayStation, which eliminated things like sprite flickering and slowdown that the original NES versions contained. These six re-releases also added an updated soundtrack for most of the titles, remixing many of the themes from the games.

Then, came the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for all sixth generation consoles, including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox. From there, we've seen all six NES Mega Man games hit Nintendo's Virtual Console service on three platforms: the Wii, the Wii U, and the 3DS. Now, these Mega Man games are seeing a re-release once again, and on this occasion it's at a time where fans like myself are eager for anything Mega Man since the franchise is very much on a hiatus at this time. The end result is Capcom and Digital Eclipse's Mega Man Legacy Collection.

See the beginnings of the Mega Man series with the original game.

For those not in the know on Mega Man, the classic series has you going through an assortment of stages where you choose which of the eight (or in the first Mega Man game's situation, six) Robot Master stages you'd like to tackle in any order. In each level you run, jump, and shoot your way through the horizontal and vertical scrolling levels filled with enemies, death traps, and obstacles. At the end of each Robot Master level, you face a boss. Defeating that boss rewards you with that Robot Master's weapon. Not only does this weapon work well in defeating another Robot Master (which one it is is for you to figure out), but it also works great on certain enemies as well.

Or just jump into whatever Mega Man game you want to!

The original Mega Man introduced the nonlinear level structure, as well as a one-time for the series point system. Mega Man 2 gave us the standard eight Robot Master formula the series would use for each succeeding game, as well as deliver health-restoring E tanks, and helpful parts. Mega Man 3 brought Rush, the introduction of Mega Man's brother, Proto Man, and the slide ability in the fray. Following up on Mega Man 3, Mega Man 4 brought to the table the helper robot Eddie, as well as a new charge shot for Mega Man's Mega Buster. Finally, Mega Man 5 introduced Beat that could be unlocked through finding all eight letters spelling out MEGAMANV, and Mega Man 6 was the most graphically capable of the Mega Man series.

Mega Man 3 introduced the ultra helpful slide move. It works just as well in Mega Man 5, too.

The Mega Man Legacy Collection presents all six of these aforementioned games into one package, and it's as simple as choosing a game from the startup menu and hitting the play button. However, as a collection, each game has a museum that shows all of the characters (mostly enemies) in the game, a short description of each, and what weapon they're weak against, if applicable. There are also a nice portfolio of the game boxes, manuals, packaging, and cartridges for each Mega Man game in each major region: NTSC, PAL, and JP.

Playing the classic Mega Man titles in Mega Man Legacy Collection feels good enough. If you're looking for improved features like a solid frame-rate or a lack of sprite flickering, you best avoid this package and look into the PS1 re-releases. Instead, the Mega Man Legacy Collection brings you the emulated versions of all six NES games with no major alterations. Though confusingly enough, Mega Man 5 is at a much lower frame-rate and features some issues that aren't present in the original release. The majorly confusing part is that switching over to the Japanese version of the game, Rockman 5, makes it so the game runs as it should.

Other than that, the games are without much to gripe about. You can turn on and off the border that each game comes with. These generally show one character from the Mega Man game you're playing on either side of the game screen. Additionally, the ability to save and load your game data at any point, much like an emulator is also included, making so you can play each game with as much or as little help from restore points as you'd like. Don't worry; I won't tell.

Outside of just playing the six classic Mega Man games, Digital Eclipse has included a set of over 50 challenges that have you trying to complete boss rushes, runs through remixed levels, runs through multiple level portions, and much more in a specific amount of time. You can save and watch your replays, as you try to get a gold medal on each challenge. Just playing these challenges and completing them will add some longevity to the collection, so going for the gold adds even more, and this is certainly welcomed. Unfortunately, you have to play early challenges to unlock later challenges, so you can't just jump to any challenge you like. You gotta work for it.

How fast can you beat this Mecha Dragon?

Mega Man Legacy Collection isn't a perfect compilation of all things classic NES Mega Man, but it also isn't a poor compilation either. The games play as my aging mind remembers-- glitches, sprite flickering, slowdown, and all. For a compendium of some of the best 2D action platformers around on the go, Mega Man Legacy Collection for the Nintendo 3DS is a highly capable course for fans of the Blue Bomber and new players to gobble up.

[SPC Says: B+]