Disney's The Jungle Book is a platform video game made for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and other consoles based on the 1967 Disney animated film of the same name. The game was developed by Virgin Interactive Entertainment and released in 1994.
Borrowed this one from a neighbor back then. I was pleasantly surprised that it was kind of fun in spite of the fact that it looked like it was made for kids.
The Story
Guide the jungle boy, Mowgli, through the jungle to the safety of the human village. Fight the hypnotic python snake, Kaa, and defeat Shere Khan the old, crafty and hungry tiger in this wild adventure based on the Disney animated classic!
The Graphics and Sound
The graphics are quite nice, very colorful with good detail and nice animations. The detailed scrolling backgrounds added a sense of depth behind the level, and it all played smoothly with no slowdown.
The sound was mostly good like in the movie. The music was diverse and matched the level themes well. It was not annoying at all which can be hard to say for a lot of games from this era. The sound effects were solid with just a couple having that grainy Genesis buzz sound.
The Gameplay
You play as Mowgli, the orphaned jungle boy raised by wolves, trying to cross the jungle on a journey to find the human village. Mowgli can run (press jump while moving either left or right), climb vines, jump on enemies or throw items at them.
The game mixes shooting elements with platforming. While not in the pure shooter style, you will throw items such as bananas, rocks, and seeds. In each stage, you will be required to collect a number of fruit and gems to proceed, with a 5-minute timer on each stage. You can shift the difficulty from normal to hard also to make it more challenging.
The replay value is okay: There really is not much replay after you beat this game on a higher difficulty. But you will certainly be going back to this game after some time for the fun of it.
My Verdict
Disney's The Jungle Book is a fun single-player game with good graphics, sounds, controls, fair difficulty, and it never seems to get old. It captures the laid-back, cheerful spirit of the animated movie really well. It may not be the best 16-bit 2D platform game out there, but it is a nice addition to your Sega fun gaming collection.
Have fun playing it on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console or play it on your favorite emulator.
I played this game on Atari years years ago. It was hard to end the game because, as I remember, there was no save option in the game.
Interesting. Not even a password feature?