Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games
A hilariously awesome party/arcade game…if you bought the right version that is.
The year was 1994. Disney’s The Lion King was released to theaters and became a box office hit that garnered glowing reviews, memorable moments/songs, and… you guessed it, licensed video games (4 to be exact). All right fine, 7 if you count the ones that “feature” The Lion King in them (feature = characters are playable [Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure] or make an appearance [Kingdom Hearts]). However, the game I will be discussing here is not the one that is based off of the movie. No…the game I will be discussing is “Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games”, The arcade/party game that features Timon and Pumbaa’s unique spin on Pinball and Frogger as well as a few original games. I loved this game and spent countless hours playing it on my computer in my younger days (Note: remember this for later). Disney Interactive and 7th Level released this game on Windows and Mac in 1995.
Even though there isn’t really much of a story to the game (or a real ending as the games seem infinite), I should probably still describe the basics of this game, as there is an idea behind it besides “cram a bunch of games onto one CD and slap The Lion King license on it”. Essentially, the opening animation to the game states that Timon and Pumbaa invite you to check out their own “Jungle Arcade” which is filled with 5 fun games (after breaking the fourth wall that is). The five games are:
-Jungle Pinball: Self-Explanatory.
-Slingshot: Timon is making a movie (with Pumbaa’s prop help) and wants you to be the star of it by using the slingshot to shoot berries at cardboard cutouts or Lion King/Timon and Pumbaa enemies. Don’t hit Timon, Pumbaa or their friends as that results in point deductions. Game ends when you run out of berries.
-Bug Drop: Timon and Pumbaa are having a competition at who can clean out their “Bug Log” faster. Play as Timon or Pumbaa and match like-colored bugs together to clear them out and win the level. Wikipedia’s entry for the game claims that this resembles the puzzle game “Puyo Puyo”, however seeing as I’ve never played “Puyo Puyo” I wouldn’t be able to tell. Game ends when your logged gets filled up.
-Hippo Hop: In order to setup food for a picnic, Timon must make it across a river filled with alligators and fast-moving water to get food to Pumbaa on the other side by hopping on hippos in a “Frogger”-like game. However unlike Frogger, you also need to go back to the side you started on as well. Game ends when you run out of lives.
-Burper: Use Pumbaa’s “famous” burps to grab (or destroy) the things that Timon shakes out of the tree. Watch out for falling objects that could knock out Pumbaa though. Game ends when you run out of lives.
So those are the games, how do they look? Well…
Disney and 7th level did an excellent job with the graphics in the game, they are very colorful and made you feel more like you were living the “Timon and Pumbaa” cartoon series than other licensed games that made the “live the cartoon” claim back then. Heck, even the background in the “Burper” game looked realistic. I should also mention that the “bugs” that are used in the “Bug Drop” game (as well as the other games) looked very detailed as well. Of course, the animations that are used in the game and the game’s opening/closing are top notch as well (but that’s not surprising for a Disney game [LOL]). The only flaw that I can find in them is that in some games like “Jungle Pinball” or in games where there’s a lot on the screen at once, the characters and objects look a bit blurred or their outline stands out more than the colors do (which may have to do with distance and perspective issues). Other than that though the graphics on this game are near perfect, which is what one would expect on a Disney game.
What about the controls? They’re perfect! All movement is either mapped to your mouse or to your keyboard. The mouse is used to direct Timon and Pumbaa to the game you want to play on the main menu screen and the keyboard is used as your game controls. In all of the games except Pinball, the arrow keys move the character or object (or activate Pumbaa’s super belch) and the other keys [I can’t remember which ones] shoot berries, rotate bugs, whack bugs with Pumbaa’s tail, etc. In pinball, the controls consist of using the spacebar (or return key, whichever it was) to charge and launch the ball while the Z and “/[slash] “ key are your flippers. All controls are very responsive without any noticeable issues whatsoever (outside of the occasional hiccup that is, but nothing’s perfect). There is nothing more I can say here, the controls for this game are very simple and work excellently.
Lastly, I’ll go over the voice work and other misc. items for Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games. While the only voice that was carried over from the movie was Pumbaa’s (Timon’s was done by a different voice actor), Disney made the right choice by hiring an actor who could do a spot-on Nathan Lane voice (this voice actor also provided the same voice in the Timon and Pumbaa cartoons as well). The game also includes a script of hilarious “original” [read: not lifted from the movie or cartoons] lines that you will need to play the game to hear as they would sound out of context in this review. Even the smaller voice roles (such as a gopher and an appearance by Mickey Mouse) were very well done, kudos to Disney on that. It should also be noted that the funny burping, squishing and other sound effects all sound natural and never out of place in the game at all. I also found the tropical/reggae/jungle-like music was very fitting for the game too. I also feel that the game has a high replay value as each game seems to run on for an infinite amount of levels (if you don’t get a game over first that is). The game also has a few secrets in the main menu screen, which you can find by clicking around the parts that aren’t the game signs themselves (obviously).
So what is my final verdict on this game? What does MegaDaffy think of this game? As I mentioned earlier, I loved playing this game on my Mac PowerBook laptop and spent a lot of time just playing through the games and laughing at the hilarious lines that Timon And Pumbaa would spout out during the games, in idle animations, etc. I highly recommend this game to everyone. That’s right, everyone. There is something in here that everyone can enjoy whether they are gamers [young or older], Lion King fans, or both. In fact, my recommendation of this game is so strong that it makes me miss playing that game, part because today’s advanced technology isn’t able to run an older game like that [which stinks in this case] and part because I don’t know where the disc went either. However, I found a solution to both of those issues!
Flash forward to today when I am looking for games to get for a used Super Nintendo that I got from a local game store for $11 ($45-50 – 40% off Nintendo sale + $18 store credit = $11 SNES), I find out to my surprise (and joy) that this same game exists for the Super Nintendo (except this one was done by THQ and Tiertex [with help from Disney Interactive] and released two years later than the Windows/Mac version). This game that brought me so much joy back then is now available to play on a system that won’t advance to the point of not being able to play it (this is where I tie in that bit you needed to remember in the first paragraph). I was so happy about this that I immediately bought it and took it home to play.
Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a happy memory come back to life became a disappointing reality again. Sure the cartridge says “Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games” and has the same great graphics and responsive controls, but where was the “personality”? Where was the “life” that the Windows/Mac CD version had? WHERE WAS THE BUG DROP GAME?! You see while the SNES version retained the same game, a lot of what made it fun and unique to begin with was taken out of this version. The differences being that while the sound effects stayed in place, the voice work was removed. This meant that you had a completely silent game with only music and sound effects, no funny quips/puns/quotes from Timon and Pumbaa. Also all of the secrets that were hidden in the Windows/Mac CD version of the game were removed as well. Lastly, the “Bug Drop” game is also absent from the SNES version. Why did they take that out? Was there not enough room in a cartridge that could fit 16 megabits of game data and a SuperFX graphics chip? Basically, “Why?” is the only question I have for this unanswered decision. Also, because it’s a cartridge game they took out the ending sequence of the game as well. Which was an animation that played when you quit the game on the Windows/Mac CD version where Timon and Pumbaa throw a party for you for not only playing the game but for being a “super” player as well (which is then followed by the game credits).
You are probably asking yourself if this changes my final verdict, well…yes and no. No because the final verdict for the Windows and Mac CD game still stands and if you can find the game and the equipment to play it on, do so because it is a fun and awesome game to play. The SNES version is where my verdict on the game changes, as this version does feel more like a collection of games that have the Lion King license slapped on it rather than a completely unique game. Also, the SNES version only has 4 of the 5 original games as well. While I am aware that this means that the SNES version still has two original games (Slingshot and Burper) as well as the Pinball and “Frogger”-like game, I still can’t recommend this as strongly as the Windows/Mac one because it lacks the personality that the earlier version had. While I also understand that you can’t fit much onto a cartridge, I have to ask why they couldn’t do what the creators of the Looney Tunes, Bubsy, Star Fox, and WrestleMania: The Arcade Game did and just either add more room or add a small voice sample in. MegaDaffy gives the Windows and Mac version an astounding 10/10 and the SNES version an 7/10, as the SNES version is still playable and retains most of the game…but is missing what made the Windows/Mac game stand out from other games. ‘Til next time, Laters!
Win/Mac Recap:
+Unique spin on games like Pinball and Frogger
+Also has original games too
+Voice work, music, sfx are well-done
+Hilarious script
+Perfect control, graphics and animation
– Pinball could have had tighter graphics
SNES Recap:
+The game you loved on Win/Mac
+ Same great graphics/on-screen animation and controls
+ Same great sfx and music
– Voicework is removed
– So is the “Bug Drop” game
– Loses originality and uniqueness because of this
– Should have been released as 16MB game like the other licensed games (and StarFox) were
RT Gomer Productions 