Beauty and the Beast: Belle’s Quest
Above: Both title screens were essentially the same
Few people remember Hudson Soft’s SNES version of BotB, but even fewer remember the Kill Bill move Sunsoft pulled by splitting the film into two games on the Genesis in 1993. The first starred Belle, who had no weapon to speak of, other than the gift of gab.
Above: A girl game boss battle
Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast
The rest of the story played out in the far more boy-friendly game, Roar of the Beast. Which is a shame, since the ladies love Lumiere and Co and all the animated furniture was pretty much confined to Beast’s Castle. Whereas Belle could only duck and jump to defend herself, Beast could fight in three stances and unleash a mighty roar!
Above: Hey, just like in the title!
Aladdin in Nasira’s Revenge
Above: Somebody should’ve wished for some 3D textures
While it’s possible our grandchildren will still be fighting the Aladdin Genesis/SNES war for superiority, no one’s coming to the table for the PlayStation sequel. In a plot so stupid it may as well get a direct-to-video sequel, Aladdin had to muster all his polygons and rise up against Jafar’s evil sister, Nasira.
Fantasia
We’re not sure who Sega was stroking at Disney, but Genesis received more than its fair share of animated exclusives. Of course, a vast majority of them were by-the-numbers platformers you wouldn’t play today even if Disney would let you buy them, but we’re trying to be thorough here.
Above: If you Disney nerds are going to bitch about continuity, we’re never going to get through this
Take this barrel-scraping title for example, which Infogrames based off of one of Disney’s biggest bombs. Apprentice Mickey had to find musical notes through a series of levels, loosely based on Walt’s animated precursor to Moonwalker, so you could restore classical music to the way it was meant to be heard: On Genesis.
Toy Story
Above: Big Buzz Boss Battle!
When Donkey Kong Country hit the SNES in 1994, it fooled the world into thinking it was playable Pixar cartoon. Wouldn’t you know it? Toy Story went and did the same thing a year later. Of course, now we realize both were mushy platformers that employed pre-rendered, faux-3D trickery, but Toy Story was pretty ambitious nonetheless thanks to the people behind today’s adorable LEGO series.
Interspersed between Toy Story’s admirable, yet rudimentary platformery were some incredibly divergent game types reminiscent of RC Pro-Am, Mario Kart and even Doom! Today we call those “minigames,” but back then it was referred to as “Gameplay Variety.”
Above: The SNES version (right) was technically superior, but only Genesis had an Outrun level
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Above: Careful not to overwork yourselves, Atari
Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of this one, Disney fans, because this is one we had to go diggin for. You’re looking at one of several Disney games Atari canceled in the wake of 1983’s industry collapse. Nearly two decades later, it was unearthed within a prototype dev kit and then packaged and sold, complete with box and manual, at 2002’s Classic Game Expo.
Above: As best we can tell, you played as a one-footed dwarf who must hug bats in order to prevent Snow White from ingesting poison
CD Projekt Red says its "ambition is high, crazily high" with The Witcher 4 as devs hope to "apply all the lessons learned" from Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3
One of the most iconic D&D RPGs ever made stood out among Baldur's Gate and Fallout as it was the "first" to make companions "feel like fully functional parts of the story"
