Disney’s The Lion King: Simba’s Mighty Adventure (Game Boy Color)

Simbas Mighty Adventure Press Start Screen

Disney’s The Lion King: Simba’s Mighty Adventure follows Simba’s journey from cub to king as told in the films The Lion King and The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride. The Game Boy Color game is mostly a side-scrolling platformer where players, as Simba, roar, claw and roll to defend themselves against dangerous creatures from spiders to hyenas against a backdrop of lush jungles and vibrant sunsets.

Some levels veer away from the platformer design, like the infamous stampede, which adopts a top-down perspective and tasks players to weave left and right to avoid being trampled. Several mini-games further experiment with the gameplay style, where players, as Timone and Pumba, take on several bug-related challenges, including Bug Drop, Catch the Worms, Bug Tennis, and Beetle Hunt. A two-player mode requiring a Game Link Cable between two Game Boy Colors also allows players to play tag as Simba and Nala.

Licensed tie-ins were often developed to hit the shelves near-parallel with a recent and trending film. Disney’s The Lion King, however, was released in 2000, six years after the original film, and two years after its sequel. Disney was indeed harnessing the Game Boy Color to breathe new life into its existing properties around this time, as seen with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: A Board Game Adventure released on Game Boy Color in 1999 and based on the 1991 film, the Alice in Wonderland Game Boy Color game, released in 2000 and based on the 1951 film, the Game Boy Color port of Disney’s Aladdin also in 2000 (originally a Sega Genesis game) based on the 1992 film, The Jungle Book: Mowgli’s Wild Adventure, released in 2000 and based on the 1967 film, as well as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, released in 2001 and based on the 1937 film.

In 1994 Disney formed its game development and publishing branch Disney Interactive, though by 1997 they outsourced all production to third-party studios. Companies like Torus Games then carried the bulk of the financial risk.

Version Information

Disney’s The Lion King: Simba’s Mighty Adventure on Game Boy Color was released alongside a Playstation version created by Paradox Development. The two versions share a similar design though the Playstation version includes more 3D action levels and 3D mini-games, enhanced graphics and audio, and voice acting. Simba‘s Mighty Adventure rather more closely resembles The Lion King game released on the SNES, Genesis, and Amiga in 1994 (also ported to Game Boy, NES, and MS-DOS), sharing levels and sprites with small changes made. Simba’s Mighty Adventure, however, extends its content to include levels based on the film The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride, the sequel to the original.

Game Meta

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Additional Creators

TORUS GAMES: Michael Abbott, Peter Suwara (Programmers), Paul Clarke, Ivan Kenny-Sumiga (Artists), Kim Garoni, Michael Solomons, Brad Lewis (Testers). ACTIVISION: Brian Clarke (Producer), Dan Atkins (Production Coordinator), Murali Tegulapalle (Executive Producer), Steve Crane (Senior VP Studios), Michael Pole (Exec. VP Worldwide Studios), Tricia Bertero (VP of Marketing), Melissa Chapman (Director of Marketing), Michelle Nino (Senior Manager Corporate Communications), Joe Favazza (QA Manager, Console Division), Benjamin-lee Deguzman (Senior Project Lead), Damien Fischer (Project Lead), Toby Vise, Blaine Christine, Phil Wagner, Matt Carpenter (Testers). DISNEY: Dan Winters (Director of Production, Consoles), Jared Brinkley (Associate Producer) IGNITED MINDS: Lori Ellison (Copywriter), Cindy Whitlock (Package Design), Belinda Van Sickle, Sylvia Orzel (Manual Writing & Layout).