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Gaming Pathology

Gaming Pathology

Piles Of Games, Copious Free Time, No Standards

Tag: disney

Terk & Tantor Power Lunch

Posted on January 8, 2009 by Multimedia Mike

I’m not familiar with Disney’s 1999 animated feature film Tarzan. But that turns out not to be strictly necessary in order to follow Terk & Tantor Power Lunch, another in Disney’s Hot Shots series of casual games. Terk is a gorilla and Tantor is an elephant; they are your hosts for this game, only present to do their best to explain the gameplay and then crack jokes at the start of each level. I say “do their best” because the gameplay is just a tad baffling.


Terk & Tantor Power Lunch -- Level 7

What we have here is a block smashing game of a type that I have never seen before. It works like this:

  • A particular board has, at the very least, some number of animals along with food items that that particular animal eats
  • The player begins with 8 chameleons
  • A chameleon takes the field and rolls into a ball, initially white
  • The chameleon bounces up and down between the boundaries
  • The player presses left or right to alter the longitudinal path along which the chameleon is currently traveling
  • When the chameleon touches an animal, he turns the color of the food that the animal prefers (monkey turns the chameleon yellow)
  • When the chameleon turns a particular color (like yellow), he can then touch and collect blocks containing the same colored food (like banana)

Got that? It didn’t make much sense to me at first. But I kept at it, mostly because there is nothing really to stop you throughout the first 5 or so levels. Like any casual game, I eventually got the hang of it and even started to wonder how far I could possibly get. Hey, it takes some strategy after awhile. Turns out that 23 levels (out of 50 total) was my limit when Kerchak (a gorilla antagonist from the film) puts an end to my remaining chameleons:


Terk & Tantor Power Lunch -- level 23

The boards also have cheetah and sloth powerups (or powerdowns, depending on what you need at the time) that speed up or slow down the chameleon, respectively. The there is the butterfly block which, when used properly, can eliminate a lot of food on the board at once.

So that’s the game portion. Tech support time. Installing this game was a comedy of errors, which is especially strange since the Lion King Hot Shots games seemed to work quite well, and they were released before this game. First, it presented me with this dialog upon installation, demanding to know the region in which I purchased the game:


Terk & Tantor Power Lunch -- region select

Note that the default selection is blank. Thus, the game feels it only appropriate to respond with a blank dialog message:


Terk & Tantor Power Lunch -- non-informational information dialog

After I got past that, I encountered this minor incongruency between operating systems:


Terk & Tantor Power Lunch -- Windows 95 dialog

See Also:

  • Cub Chase and Swampberry Sling, 2 more games in the Hot Shots series

At MobyGames:

  • Disney’s Hot Shots: Terk & Tantor Power Lunch
  • Disney’s Hot Shots game group
Posted in Action Games Puzzle Games Windows Games | Tagged casual games disney hot shots | 5 Comments

Disney’s Lion King Hot Shots

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Multimedia Mike

My new favorite thrift shop had a whole bunch of games from a series called Disney’s Hot Shots. Figuring that MobyGames already has decent Disney game coverage, I conservatively picked up a pair that were only a dollar apiece. I should have snatched every one that they had since none are in the database yet (at least not with the “Disney’s Hot Shots” prefix). These games come from that most conducive of genres for getting easy MobyGames points: the casual game. These 2 casual games are based on The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride from 1998.

The first of the pair is Swampberry Sling. I guess you could classify this as a Disney-themed first person shooter. Defend your position with swampberries against snakes, crocodiles, fish, vultures, frogs, and other threats. But don’t hit the babysitters Timon and Pumbaa, who frequently wander through the warzone on bicycles and windsurf boards:


Disney’s Hot Shots — Swampberry Sling

Hey, it’s every bit as fun as the jewel case copy promises. The second game is Cub Chase and is an obvious Pac-Man homage. Instead of eating pellets, the cubs work to leave their paw prints all over the maze. Timon, Pumbaa, and Zazu stand in as the ghost metaphors (babysitters in this story arc), and there are ways to neutralize the babysisters such as a hyena mask or a log with tasty bugs. This is the hyena mask in action, paralyzing Timon with mortal terror:


Disney’s Hot Shots — Cub Chase

Here’s hoping that no one else bothered to pick up any of the other Hot Shots titles at the thrift shop so that they will still be there next week when I’m in the neighborhood.

See Also:

  • Disney’s Hot Shots: Terk & Tantor Power Lunch
  • Disney’s Hot Shots: Cub Chase Archived at Internet Archive

At MobyGames:

  • Disney’s Hot Shots: Swampberry Sling
  • Disney’s Hot Shots: Cub Chase
Posted in Action Games Licensed Schlock Windows Games | Tagged disney | Leave a comment

Disney’s Beauty And The Beast

Posted on May 25, 2008 by Multimedia Mike

So far, I have been jumping into these SNES games without knowing what to expect. For a change, I thought I would delve into one where I know precisely what to expect– an action side-scroller based on a Disney animated film, Disney’s Beauty And The Beast in this case. MobyGames already lists 2 unique B&TB titles for the Sega Genesis, but this appears to be a separate game entirely, and done by different companies.

This game follows the movie’s narrative technique known as exposition by stained glass:


Beauty And The Beast — Stained glass story

I used to enjoy renting Disney NES games because I was guaranteed an easy win. Not so with this game. I think I see where the discrepancy lies– those NES games were by Capcom; this is from Hudson. This game is tough. Well, tougher than those old NES titles. And maybe “tough” isn’t the correct adjective; just “tedious” in the traditional platformer sense.


Beauty And The Beast — Lumiere and giant spider

The game presents an abbreviated version of the story laid out in the 1991 animated film. Then it sets up the conflict by stating that the Beast needs to prevent Belle from finding the magic rose, or some such. The first scene shows Belle darting away from the Beast in a dungeon and Lumiere guides the Beast on where to go in order to pursue her. Except that she doesn’t have to contend with the plus-sized spiders, rats, and bats in the dungeon.


Beauty And The Beast — Roaring at the rogue candle

Eventually, I get through the dungeon only to get to the main hall where rogue Lumieres are tossing fire at me and gargoyle statues are coming for me. Seriously, how did the Beast let his castle get away from him like this? Isn’t he the master of this domain? How does this happen?


Beauty And The Beast — Game over

It’s hard to believe I ever used to have the patience to work through these things.

See Also:

  • Beauty or the Beast, a slightly different take on the tale

At MobyGames:

  • Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (SNES)
Posted in Action Games Licensed Schlock SNES Games | Tagged beauty and the best disney | 1 Comment

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