Disney's GameBreak! The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (UK version)

Reviewed by Simon Robinson
Published by Disney Interactive

Age Group: Age 2 to 5, Age 4 to 8
Type: Arcade
Price: Unknown

Description:

This is a collection of four games tailored around the Simba's Pride theme. Nicely presented arcade games for all of the family, allowing play against the computer or against a friend.

The copy reviewed is a pre-release version. There was some documentation on the CD covering requirements, installation and basic controls, but no other doucmentation describing the games themselves. How to play them is explained vocally at the start of each game.

Features:

  • Paddle Bash - Breakout or TV tennis but very much improved with multi-ball etc Swamp Berry Sling - Fire fruit at a variety of targets. Stop the crocs from stealing your reserves
  • Cub Chase - Animal version of the old Pacman game
  • Conga Longa - Animals version of Centipede (??) game: BUild up as long a line of animals as possible without hitting objects in your path
  • Hall of Fame for each game

Technical Aspects:

Installation was straightforward, using the CD-ROM auto start feature for Windows 95/98. We found a full installation takes up around 47Mb as opposed to the 60Mb suggested. The graphics are good, even in 256 colour mode, and the speed is fine on our P133 with 32Mb RAM.

I had problems with the sound on my home computer - I have seen this before but only with one Microsoft badged game - it was very scrambled. This was a problem since I relied on the sound based instructions to determine the rules of each game and level! I later tried the title on my work laptop, which worked without problems. So, some more work may be needed with sound card compatability.

Report and Conclusions:

The title starts with a fun intro of Kovu and Kiara avoiding their baby sitters so they can have fun playing some games. The graphics as a whole are well done, as you would expect from a Disney title. The intro takes you to a graphical menu for the four games. Although the games are reworks of games we have all seen before, they are great fun to play and good innocent family fun for all ages. Each game has three levels of difficulty and you can choose to play against a friend or against the computer. The computer opponent was challenging, but, once you have mastered the simple tactics, getting through many levels was a breeze. There appears to be 50 levels for each game.

Overall, this is a fun arcade program for all, but aimed at children. A nice addition for Simba fans wanting some family fun - as long as it is not priced too high!





Warning: main(kidsdomain.inc) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /data/sites/network/public_html/omniture/omnitureTag.inc on line 20

Warning: main() [function.include]: Failed opening 'kidsdomain.inc' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php:/www/sites/kaboose/php:/www/sites/kaboose/php/include') in /data/sites/network/public_html/omniture/omnitureTag.inc on line 20