Aladdin

-4-

I was back to the Jafar's Palace boss again. It was silent as before Randy lunged across the screen, and I was prepared for him to do it again. I waited for a good two minutes, with absolutely nothing happening. There was no sound except me occasionally swinging my sword. What was going to happen?

Suddenly, the "Rug Ride" music that played during the Magic Carpet level where you had to escape the Cave of Wonders started playing, this time in 8-bit form, and much, much faster. Judging by the music, something bad was going to happen. I just didn't know what.

And then, it appeared before me. An abomination of all of the minibosses formed together to make a much more giant, powerful being, and it made its entrance by flashing the screen a lime green. It had the lower body of the snake, the head and arms of Rahoul, the extra arms of the Shiva Monkey, Gazeem's head right next to Rahoul's, and the wings of Iago. It also wielded Jafar's staff and used its vacuuming power. Thannks to the snake form, it also summoned flames every twenty seconds or so. In the original Jafar boss, he would use the staff in his first form to pull you in, so when you would touch him, you would get hurt. This was the case here, except with Rahoul's upper body, he also threw barrels and knives, so it made this very challenging. I had seen that my apple count has shot back up to about 50 and my lives were back to 3.

The strategy was to throw apples at Rahoul, which took about ten hits, like the original miniboss. His upper body sprite fell off, revealing Gazeem's upper body. I wouldn't say "fell off," I think it sort of actually, "melted" which I found slightly disturbing. It was Gazeem's turn now. The music had also changed after Rahoul's body...disappeared. It went from the Rug Ride music to the original Boss theme, but it was just as fast as the Rug Ride, and it was back to the original 16-bit it was supposed to be. Gazeem was just as fast as the music, shooting off apples like a machine gun, about every fifteen seconds. He took the place of Rahoul, wielding the staff, sucking me in. This was very annoying, but it was easily avoided by me jumping on the platforms, or ducking. I defeated him by a combo of apple-throwing and sword-swinging. Gazeem didn't melt off like Rahoul did. Instead, his sprite disintegrated and the Shiva Monkey soon took over. Gazeem also dropped apples and health points, which was convenient, but not predictable. Enemies don't drop loot after you defeat them. It was nice, but not something I liked a whole lot.

The Shiva Monkey was more relentless than his original form, and the music was the Boss theme, but in a higher pitch, and way faster than Gazeem's. In the regular boss, he would teleport and spit apples at you, and if you got too close, he'll slash you with his sword. Thanks to being part snake, and with the help of Iago's wings, he would fly around the stage, and teleport, followed by fire waves and projectile apples. He flew all over the stage, even flying offscreen. It was very hard to aim, since Aladdin only threw apples straight. When he got to the ground, I slashed as much as I could, and when he flew around in the line of fire, I threw a lot of apples. The fight was long and frustrating, and I finally got rid of the Shiva Monkey. The Shiva Monkey part poofed out like a normal defeated enemy in the game. I was waiting to fight Iago, but he fell offscreen as if you hit him with your sword, featherless. It was down to one last part. The snake himself, Randy.

Him and I stood at a dead standstill, facing each other. The music had also stopped, making my anxiety even tenser, to the point where my back started hurting. The screen faded to black, transitioning us to...

A cutscene?

The cutscenes were the characters in a frame, with the nightscape of the royal palace as a background, and the character's speech were text-based. The music for the cutscene was the "Drama" music, but it was played...backwards. Randy appeared in the frame, and here is what he had said to me. I wrote them down for documentation's sake.

"YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD AT THIS. I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR MORE.

"IT AIN'T GONNA BE EASY, JUST SAYING.

"ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS SAY GOODBYE.

Instilled with the knowledge that he can hear me, I said, "I said goodbye about three times already. Why wouldn't you leave me alone?" or words to that effect.

He replied:

"YOU HAVE TO SAY GOODBYE A DIFFERENT WAY."

"BY THE WAY, JAFAR'S ONE OF MY FAVORITE DISNEY VILLAINS IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED ALREADY."

I thought the last line was pointless, but I was going to find out why in a minute.

The cutscene ended, and then I was taken, not back to Jafar's Palace, but I was warped to the Inside Genie's Lamp level.