A Day To Remember. – The Lion king

After recently writing a weekend retrospective on Aladdin, I figured it was only fitting to follow up with one on The Lion King—another Disney classic that arrived during the twilight years of the Amiga’s retail presence. By the time these games launched, the Amiga was already being quietly phased out of stores, and I suspect many out there don’t even realise that The Lion King made its way to the platform at all.

There’s 2 very special things to be said about when i bought Lion King, me and a close friend went on a “boozing” trip just for fun and we never planned anything about it what so ever, we just went there and had a crazy night and then we woke up next morning with a splitting headache and cash to burn.

Step 1 was food, step 2 was to figure out how to get home, and step 3 was getting ready for another party, i guess.

🦁 The Day The Lion King Changed Everything

The day I bought The Lion King for the Amiga was the same day my entire gaming life flipped upside down. My friend and I had heard whispers about this new “Sony console thing,” but after enduring a parade of underwhelming game systems in the early ’90s, we didn’t pay much attention. That is… until that day.

Luckily, I stopped by one of the local Amiga dealers first—before even thinking about checking out Sony’s so-called revolution. What happened next felt like fate: it was as if the shop was clearing out its golden-era stock in anticipation of something big. And I struck gold.

I walked out with a haul that would make any retro collector’s jaw drop. My friend even loaned me a wad of cash just so I could grab everything in sight. My treasure trove included:

• The Lion King (of course)

• Six Psygnosis big box classics (you know the ones—with t-shirts, posters, and glorious thick packaging): Agony, Shadow of the Beast (1 and 3), Awesome, Superfrog (CD32), Zool 1 & 2 (CD32), Brian the Lion (CD32), and Flink (CD32)

• Rare finds like Harley Davidson, Leviathan, Karate King, and two Trojan Phazer light guns

• A bunch of budget titles and jewel case oddities

All in all, I spent around $400 USD—Leviathan alone was nearly worth that at the time. Today? It’s easily doubled or tripled in value.

But that wasn’t the end of the day’s surprises.

Later, we finally checked out that “Sony thing” everyone was murmuring about: The PlayStation. With Tekken, Ridge Racer, and Wipeout blazing away in the store display, we were instantly hooked. We’d already spent every last dime on Amiga games, but my friend (armed with a dangerously tempting credit card) bought the PlayStation on the spot. I chipped in once my paycheck landed.

It felt like fate had led me there, just like the first time I laid eyes on an Amiga demo back in 1987. You know the one I’m talking about.

And here’s the twist: if we’d seen that PlayStation demo before visiting the Amiga store… I might not have bought those games at all. But we’ll never know for sure—and honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing.

The BOX…

Alright, let’s dive into the game itself—but before we do, here’s a little callback to something I mentioned in the Aladdin article:

“Both Aladdin and The Lion King came with a promotional voucher—an incredible deal at the time. It offered a £100 discount and free entry for kids to a theme park. Honestly, if a game with a deal like that launched today and sold millions, it’d probably bankrupt the place!”

A bold marketing move, and one more reason these Disney tie-ins left such a lasting impression.

The Inside…

Interestingly, The Lion King came with two manuals in the box. Whether this was a cost-cutting measure or the result of a mix-up during the multi-platform publishing process is anyone’s guess—but it definitely wasn’t the norm. One of them is more of a quick-start guide with just a few basic tips rather than a proper manual.

This kind of “manual” approach wasn’t unusual for Amiga and C64 titles back in the day—often you’d just find a loose flyer, a single-sheet insert, or a brief note rather than a full-blown booklet.

As for the game itself, the Amiga version of The Lion King is, unfortunately, a cut-down port when compared to other platforms. It’s missing at least three main levels and some bonus stages, and it doesn’t take advantage of any of the Amiga’s hardware strengths. At times it feels rushed or even sloppy, but despite these shortcomings, it’s still a solid and enjoyable title that manages to capture a bit of the magic from its 16-bit console siblings.

The First level in the game, you play as Simba, and it feels fresh from the get-go, a bit like Aladdin at first in terms of pinpoint jumping and such, but i like to think that this game is a far easier game than Aladdin.

Simba is gradually growing up to become The Lion King, the various levels and animations in the game are pretty good, and it’s not that hard to understand where and when in the film it represents.

The Actual Game…

So they cut several levels from the game… but this one made the cut? I haven’t played the other versions in detail, but I’d guess this is one of the more technically demanding stages—maybe even the most complex of the bunch?

According to information from Hall of Light, the missing levels and mini-games were dropped due to disk space limitations. Virgin and the developers apparently felt that four floppy disks were already pushing it, and didn’t want to go beyond that. A practical decision, perhaps—but one that definitely came at the expense of content.

Ian Lightbody/Codetapper informed me about the actual reason for the missing levels and minigames :

The information about the missing levels is incorrect. It wasn’t due to the number of disks or size, it was a lack of time for the programmer, Dave Semmens after he discovered the source he was given was in C and not ASM. Read the full story in the interview with Dave Semmens on my website here: http://www.codetapper.com/amiga/interviews/dave-semmens/

The End Of An Era…

I started drifting away from The Lion King—and Simba—right around the level shown above. By that point, the PlayStation had completely won me over. (Confession: I never actually finished The Lion King… but it’s still on my to-do list—maybe this week, this month, or sometime this year!)

It was during this period that I began to lose interest in new Amiga games. Fortunately, a few friends and online contacts pulled me back into the scene after about a year. What really brought me back was the opportunity to contribute, whether it was during the early days of WHDLoad, JST, or even just rekindling my passion for the demoscene.

Of course, I still used my Amiga daily—for browsing the early Internet, doing 3d work in LightWave, and… well, let’s just say backing up a lot of PlayStation games.

The years 1995–1996 marked a major turning point. So many Amiga users jumped ship—drawn in by the PlayStation, the rise of Quake on PC, and the sheer momentum of newer platforms. It was a tough time. The Amiga was quietly disappearing from store shelves, magazines, and mainstream visibility. By then, it was clear: the Amiga era was coming to an end.

PS: Thanks to Hall Of Light for screenshots!.

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