The Lion King | GOG PC Review

The Lion King returns to PC with a re-release of the classic DOS version on GOG, originally released in 1994 on a variety of different platforms including the SNES and Genesis. The Lion King features 2D side-strolling and lets players control Simba, in both his younger and adult versions.

With many of the classic scenes from the movie playable, and featuring many well known tunes and characters, this game will bring back some memories of that awesome movie and for those of us who played the original version. And that nostalgia trick worked well on me as I loved replaying this classic game, though those memories of how tough this game is quickly returned.

It’s amazing to think this is aimed at kids, as the difficulty is really high and as an adult, it’s hard to imagine this happening today, but with the lack of save states and limited continues, players will get used to playing those early levels. Which is why so many games from that period have recognisable early levels because we would just play them over and over.  So while the main game could be completed within a couple of hours, that does take plenty of practice and I’m not sure if many will have the patience to do this nowadays, especially once the nostalgia feel rubs off.

There are some pretty tough platforming sections and takes plenty of practice to master each level, there are also some cool little bonus levels through in, to mix things up. It was a lot of fun playing the Lion King again and I’ll be honest, I’ve been humming the songs all weekend.

This port worked perfectly with my Xbox One controller and while it certainly doesn’t look as good as I remembered from those days, it’s interesting to think when this game first came to PC, it required a very high spec, that few had. My only major issue with the port was the lack of being able to resize the window, while it launches in full screen mode, I could never get it to return unless I relaunched the game.

I think it’s a great idea for Disney to bring many of their classic games into today’s platforms, though I’d have loved to have seen some more work go into this port to make it worth the price. For a simple port of a 20+ year old game, it’s overpriced for what it is. This isn’t a DuckTales or Castle Of Illusion style remaster which was completely redone, which would have been excellent.

I do hope we get to see some other classic games from this era re-released, though I think the pricing for this port should be a lot less and if you haven’t dabbled with emulators or a retro console like a Retron, this is a good legal option, though picking up a old console cartridge can be around the same price.

For those Lion King fans who want to go back and replay a classic game, this isn’t a bad experience, it’s not amazing but it’s 20+ years old and that’s a key thing to remember while playing, its fun to play it again, but replay value might not last once that nostalgia kick wears off as you try to master a section in the game.

Here is a video of my replaying some of the Lion King:

Did you love the Lion King game?