A playthrough of Virgin's 1994 license-based platformer for the Nintendo Game Boy, The Lion King.

The Lion King video game really made its way around the different gaming platforms in the mid 90s. The computer and 16-bit console versions were critically acclaimed best sellers (rightfully so!), while the lesser ports got dragged through the mud but still managed to make money hand over fist.

The Game Boy "port" of the game is probably about what you would expect. It certainly tries hard - the graphics fare surprisingly well and the music is recognizable. Many of the original levels are here too, though they've been pared back significantly.

But it's a Game Boy game - the machine can only do so much, you might say. And I'd agree. The problem with The Lion King is that the gameplay is... well, the problem is the gameplay. The controls are abysmal - nasty lags, inconsistent collision detection, buttons that often just choose not to respond at all - just about everything that can go mechanically wrong in a platformer happens here. It makes you wonder how they screwed it up so badly - it's not even like it was an original work!

I'm still bitter that I paid 20 quid for this when it came out.

Things can always get worse, so that's something. The NES game was ported directly from the Gameboy. Imagine how well that turned out! ;) It's a whole lot better suited to the green screen for sure.

Recorded using Retroarch's DMG shader
_
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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