Aladdin

-2-

The game took me to the Desert Level, but something was different about it. The first thing I had noticed was the music. Instead of the upbeat "Desert" background music, it was instead a 16-bit version of "Jafar's Hour," the score from the movie's climax. The sky had also caught my attention. The sky was dark blue instead of the bright baby blue it was supposed to be. The clouds were also grey. Now my theories of everything being a glitch were thwarted. Something was definitely up with this game, but I had no idea what. It couldn't be a hack because the game was on a cartridge and I had this game since I was a child. I knew now from this point to stop guessing and to just go with it.

The whole level looked like a night version of the desert. Even the trees and obstacles were colored darker. I went through the level, not encountering a single enemy at all. The only real harmful things faced during the level were the stupid bones that stuck out from the ground. Without any guards, snakes, or Iago trying to stop me, I found the first half of the scarab without a scratch. I also picked up a Genie bonus as well. When I had reached the end of the level, Abu and the guard he was supposed to jump on top of weren't there. It was something minor, but it made me a little unsettled because by the time I got the first half of the scarab, the screen faded to black and at the "Level Complete" screen, it was completely silent, except for Aladdin and Abu running across. It was all taboo to me, and I knew this game from top to bottom. Like I said before, I'm just going to go with it.

And things just got weirder from here.

I got a Genie bonus, but I wasn't taken to the bonus screen at all. Instead, I was taken right to the Agrabah Rooftops level. Agrabah Rooftops was more of an advanced version of The Streets of Agrabah level, except there were flute players and ropes that took you to a higher level, rather than beds of burning coal and you had to collect every flute to complete the level. There were a couple minibosses here: Gazeem, a thief, and Rahoul, the captain of the guards. The first half of the level ran fine, until I encountered Gazeem.

Gazeem was an easy boss to kill, but he was one of the most annoying. He usually threw apples at you, and he retreated to a corner if he got hit. I went to slash at him endlessly to avoid getting hit by his "apples," but he did something I didn't expect at all.

He counterattacked with his dagger! He never used that thing, except for show. I was taken back by surprise. I had a fun sword/dagger fight with him, but it was something completely out of the ordinary. After I had defeated the apple thief that was not supposed to use his dagger, I advanced further into the level to face the second miniboss, Rahoul.

Rahoul was the second miniboss, and this level was probably inspired by the original NES Donkey Kong, because all he did was throw barrels at you and the only effective way was to throw apples at him until he died, which took about ten hits or so. This miniboss was supposed to end the level, but the level music continued after the boss theme. What was I supposed to do? The top platform was impossible to reach, and the only other way was either to go left or fall down. I tried going left first, assuming that I was going back to the place before the miniboss, but the game wouldn't let me back to that area, so down I went.

I landed with an "Oof!" which took some points off my health (the health meter was smoke coming out of a genie lamp) and landed in complete pitch black darkness, with only Aladdin's sprite visible. Aladdin never took fall damage, which I found pretty weird. The point meter was back at 0 (I think I had about 1200 at this point, but points didn't really matter to me) and all I did was spastically swing my sword around and threw some apples, trying to see if anything would appear. Nothing happened. It was all black.

About a few seconds later, I could see something fading into view. It was the dungeon level that was supposed to come after the Agrabah Rooftops level. Strange transition to the level, but it will do. And besides, there was supposed to be a cutscene where Jasmine tries to persuade Rahoul to not take Aladdin to jail.

There were a few things wrong here with the level. First, the color scheme of the level was a darker grey rather than its original indigo/purple scheme, as if someone had put a filter on it. This level was mostly a platformer, with bricks coming in and out of walls, skeletons with bombs everywhere, and platforms of all kinds you had to jump on, including avoiding obstacles like swinging ball-and-chains and spikes protruding from the wall. It was one of the hardest and creepiest levels in the game, because of all the skeletons and just the fact that it's a dungeon. However, the platformer portion was taken away from this level, and I was running straight through instead, fighting enemies on the ground instead of higher up. It felt like I was playing an action-scrolling game. I also saw some letters of the alphabet scattered about the dungeon walls, which was kind of cool, but uncanny.

I felt so bombarded by enemies, that my health was almost gone by the time I reached the end of the level. It was as if all of the platforms disappeared and the enemies dropped to the floor. The music wasn't also any help, with it being the Cave of Wonders level music, except it was slowed down and lower-pitched, which gave this level a very foreboding atmosphere, despite the chaos. Once I had defeated all of the enemies, the level ended. The level usually ended by reaching a door that had an "Exit" sign over it. The "Level Complete" screen appeared with a new pattern. Aladdin and Abu didn't run across the screen, but the "Drama" music played instead, which was supposed to be the music for the next cutscene with the old man (Jafar) telling Aladdin to retrieve the lamp from the Cave of Wonders, except it was 8-bit. All of the music in this game was 16-bit, but nothing 8-bit. Why was it 8-bit?

Suddenly, without warning, the music picked up tempo, and the screen began to spawn little blocks of green all over the place. They then formed the words, "Hello!" and the screen flashed to white. It was very bright, and it hurt my eyes a little. I then realized right then and there that something was messing with my game. I dared not to estimate its power and continued to go along with everything it had to offer.