The Lion King
Description official descriptions
Young Simba just can't wait to be king. His father is the current King of the Savannah and the young prince is able to frolic the lands at will; jumping on and around other subjects of this animal kingdom. When Simba's father, King Mufasa, is killed and his evil brother Scar takes over the kingdom, Simba is banished from the lands of his birthright and has to grow up fast, honing his skills, for the day of his return.
The Lion King, based on the famous Disney movie, is a platform game where you control Simba - initially as a young cub, and later as an adult lion. The plot of the game follows the plot of the movie. Each of the levels represents a part of the movie.
As young Simba, you can fight various beasts, such as lizards, by jumping on them. You can also roar to scare some creatures into submission, though every time you roar, you have to wait for your "roar meter" to charge.
As an adult lion, you can still roar and jump, but now you fight enemies by slashing at them with your claws (if you're skillful enough, you can also grab them and toss them off the screen).
The game features no in-game save function, and it needs to be replayed from the beginning every time.
Spellings
- ライオンキング - Japanese spelling
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Credits (DOS version)
152 People (131 developers, 21 thanks) · View all
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Reviews
Discussion
| Subject | User | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Shouldn't there be a "Disney's" in the title? | Cavalary (11378) | 2016-10-04 17:14:06 |
| Some cheats not working | Nowhere Girl (8605) | 2013-07-16 22:33:22 |
Trivia
DirectX
The Windows version of The Lion King was the inspiration for DirectX. It was released with a large line of Compaq computers, but then the system specs were changed at the last minute. The game ceased to work on the computers after the change. To prevent this from happening in the future, Microsoft created DirectX so that applications could run on any computer.
Missing levels in the Amiga version
The Amiga version has only 7 levels compared to 10 levels in the DOS, Genesis and SNES version. The missing levels are "Level 2 (Can't Wait to be King)", "Level 6 (Hakuna Matata)", "Level 9 (Simba's Return)" and both bonus stages ("Bug Toss" with Pumbaa and "Bug Hunt" with Timon).
There are 2 different explanations:
1) Programmer of the Amiga version - Dave Semmens - said in an interview that he had only around 2 months to convert the game from Genesis because it had to be released on Christmas. He received all the source code from the Genesis version which he expected to be in 68000 assembler (the Amiga and Genesis shared the same 68000 processor) so a lot of parts could be used from the existing code. Unfortunately it turned out that the source code was in "C" - a language he had never seen before. Converting the game was a crunch job right from the start and at one point he worked 40 hours straight. In the end he only used one table from the provided code. Because of this fact and a limited time he wasn't able to fully complete the game for a Christmas release. He had 2 of the other levels almost complete but there wasn't enough time to fully test them before release. As a result he lost out about 25% of the money for not delivering the missing levels.
2) The Amiga manual contains following information: "Due to size limitation this version of Disney's The Lion King does not contain the bonus stages, "Can't Wait to be King", "Hakuna Matata" or "Simba's Return".
Awards
- Amiga Joker
- Issue 02/1996 – #2 Best Dexterity Game in 1995 (Readers' Vote)
- GameFan
- Vol 3, Iss. 1 - Movie to Game Translation of the Year 1994
- Game Players
- January 1995 - Best Genesis Game in 1994
- January 1995 - Best Genesis Action Game in 1994
Information also contributed by Big John WV, B.L. Stryker and Picard
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Related Sites +
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"Devs Play" S01E01 · The Lion King
<moby company="Double Fine">Double Fine’s</moby> <moby developer="Greg Rice">Greg Rice</moby> is joined by <moby developer="Louis Castle">Louis Castle</moby>, co-founder of <moby company="Westwood Studios">Westwood Studios</moby>, for a full play-through of the Genesis version of <i>The Lion King</i>.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 2077
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Luiz Pacheco.
Windows added by POMAH. SNES added by Corn Popper. Macintosh added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. Linux added by chirinea. Amiga added by Martin Smith. Genesis added by Syed GJ.
Additional contributors: Terok Nor, Zack Green, Ramcard, B.L. Stryker, Shoddyan, chirinea, Sciere, Kohler 86, Freeman, Patrick Bregger.
Game added July 31st, 2000. Last modified May 30th, 2023.