ANIMATED STORYBOOK: THE LION KING

by

Disney Interactive

FORMAT: PC/CD-ROM
DATE: DECEMBER 1994
PRICE: N/A

Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King was designed just like a book. Each page is remarkable with backgrounds drawn by talented Disney's artists and cartoon-like animations. The story of Simba's journey unfolds along with each page and words are highlighted as they are pronounced. If the children do not understand some of the words, they can click on Rafiki, a wise mystic baboon, to learn what those words mean with the help of animations.

There are surprises hidden in most pages. When moving your mouse on the page, it will turn black when going over special areas. If you click on them, you can watch animations along with music. Each page contains several of them in addition to those provided normally when reading the text. Three games are included in the book and are available when you see Simba and his friend Nala on the side of the screen. If you click on them, a game will appear on the screen. The first game is the Pouncing game where Simba has to practice his pouncing skills to catch Zazu. In the second game, children must connect stars and discover the pictures revealing many animals of Africa. The third game, Bug Catching, is all about reflex. The goal is to catch bugs scooting along the bottom of the screen and to get a total of 8 to make Timon happier. There are 3 speed levels available to provide the kids with progressive challenges.

Conclusion:

Although Disney's Animated Storybook: The Lion King is aimed at children aged 3 to 9, it is not recommended to buy it for kids under the age of 5. It has many things to attract young children like animal characters and great artwork, but when it comes to explaining the words to children of age three, it takes just more than a small explanation accompanied by animations. Otherwise, it is well designed, but we would expect a greater number of pages than nearly 20. The original story size has been reduced to a minimum and therefore, some kids might complete the story in less than one hour.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

486 SX-25 MHz or better,
Min 4 MB memory (8Mb recommended),
MS-DOS 6.0 or later, Windows 3.1,
Hard drive required with 10Mb free disc space,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster,
SVGA 256 color graphic card and monitor,
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible,
8-bit or 16-bit sound card.

Ratings and Publisher

                                    Disney Interactive,
 GRAPHICS ------------------ 85%    500 South Buena Vista Street,
 SOUND    ------------------ 85%    Burbank, CA 91521-8464.
 MUSIC    ------------------ 85%    Tel: 818-841-3326
 GAMEPLAY ------------------ --%
 INTEREST ------------------ 86%

 OVERALL  ------------------ 85%