This summer, The Lion King movie turns 30 years old and will likely go down in history as Disney’s most successful animated project of all time. Between the 1994 original and the 2019 remake, The Lion King has earned over $2 billion worldwide, making it a household name across the globe. While most Disney fans will have pleasant memories of this musical journey through the African safari, gamers might remember The Lion King for an entirely different reason. Out of all the Disney movie tie-in games in history, this unassuming SNES/Genesis title has a reputation for being the cruelest and most punishing of all. To make matters even worse, this childhood-crushing difficulty was all by design.
Simba's Path to Pride
The Lion King video game was released just in time for the holiday season on November 4, 1994, popping up on platforms like the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, NES, PC, and more. The SNES and Genesis versions were the most popular by far, and were developed by Westwood Studios, who would later go on to create the RTS franchise, Command & Conquer. Working under the publisher, Virgin Interactive, Westwood Studios were only given a brief six-month window to develop the entire game, pushing them to their creative limits in hopes of hitting a non-negotiable deadline.
In the game, players control the lion Simba, who must quickly grow from a naive cub into a fearsome predator in order to protect his home. Across 10 levels, you control both young and adult Simba, with a focus on platforming, solving light puzzles, and dodging enemies. Although it was similar to other Disney movie tie-in games like Aladdin and The Jungle Book, the colorful and adventure-filled platformer was a hit with both players and critics. Throughout the holiday of 1994, The Lion King game sold like it was coated in gold, but it was an even bigger hit at video rental stores.
30 Years of The Lion King Pain
Unfortunately, the reason for those high rental numbers wasn’t entirely due to the quality of The Lion King, but rather its brazen difficulty. While the game does indeed contain 10 levels, you might be hard-pressed to make it past the opening couple, even if you’re a relatively skilled gamer. After a reasonably challenging intro in “The Pridelands”, players are subjected to the infamous “Can’t Wait to Be King” stage, which is home to the most devilish difficulty this side of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts.
In this infinitely frustrating level, Simba must make his way through a parade of animals that, despite their upbeat demeanor, seemingly want him dead. Precarious platforming on hippo tails and evasive ostriches often lead to mistakes, where your precious time and patience are the cost for repeat attempts. Halfway through, there’s also a far-too-lengthy puzzle involving monkeys that toss you around, which requires nothing but trial and error to suss out. It would appear like the entire second stage was made with extremely high artificial challenge in mind instead of entertainment, and as it turns out, this painful difficulty was entirely intentional.
According to Westwood Studios’ co-founder and The Lion King game director, Louis Castle, the difficulty came straight at Disney’s request. According to Castle, the company had done some research and discovered that, if players made it too far into a game when they rented it, physical sales would suffer. Late into The Lion King‘s development, Disney firmly suggested that players should not be able to reach the halfway point of the game within 6 to 8 hours of play. With most of the work done and no time to overhaul the project with these extra gameplay hours in mind, Castle and the team at Westwood Studios appeased Disney’s demands. The “Can’t Wait to Be King” stage was the prime place to pad out the game length, so the monkey puzzle was shoehorned in along with other annoying aspects, and even fine-tuned for maximum time waste.
Even with its inflated difficulty, The Lion King is still regarded as one of the best retro Disney games of all, as most of the levels are better balanced once you manage to clear the second stage. Frustrating gameplay aside, it’s a faithful adaptation with vibrant visuals and quality sound, thanks in part to Disney’s own animators, who helped Westwood Studios with the overall art design. A longstanding debate still rages on over which version is superior, Super Nintendo or Genesis, but both are comparable and provide equal amounts of retro fun. However, as other arguments continue, gamers will always agree that the monkey puzzle in The Lion King was the stuff of nightmares.
