Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games US SNES Manual. Addeddate 2020-08-09 10:19:17 Identifier timon-pumbaas-jungle-games-usa Identifier-ark. Timon and Pumba offer a lot, in a sweet little package, to keep you entertained for hours! Hakuna Matata indeed. What's better than an old school arcade game? How about 5 classic arcade games in 1. Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games offers 5 well made jungle games, some of which have a direct inspiration from other classic games, which I will tell.
Back in 1994, when Lion King mania was running wild and every self-respecting kid wanted to be Simba, Disney Interactive sought to make a few extra bucks through the release of various Lion King-related digital titles. In a practice that would become common in subsequent years and movies, the PC and the most popular platforms of the time received a wealth of interactive titles centered around everyone’s favourite characters du jour. Apart from the games themselves (often dubbed “Action Games”) there were print studios, educational tools, and mini-game collections.
Now, on the PC, all of this worked fine. Back then, computers were still seen as a semi-educational tool, and print studios and spelling titles for the kiddies were perfectly acceptable. Plus, the mouse support made for a smoother, friendlier interface. But the consoles? They were out-and-out gaming equipment. They had d-pads and buttons! They couldn’t possibly harbour this type of title.
…Or could they?
That’s what THQ and Disney Interactive set out to find in 1997, with Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games. Released to capitalize on the Lion King game which became, itself, a huge hit, this title got a puzzling SNES release along with the expected and logical PC release. And I say puzzling because this is one of those titles that just screams “computer.”
T&P’s JG is made up of four mini-games (five on the PC), all accessible from a very interactive main menu (try pressing any button on any part of the screen to see what happens). The fifth game, Bug Drop, was lost in the translation from PC to console. There are also the usual difficulty and sound options, as well as a scoreboard. However, the games are the heart of it all. And while some of them may be fun for a while, none of them justifies a full-blown investment in this cart.
The games available are Jungle Pinball, Hippo Hop, Burper and Sling Shooter. They are all very simple, but their success levels vary quite a bit. They all do, however, boast very nice graphics, with smooth animations and great background detail. Nothing you wouldn’t expect on an SNES, true, but T&P’s JG succeeds in making you feel like you’re actually inside a Saturday-morning Timon and Pumbaa cartoon. Stuff pops up everywhere – particularly in the Sling Shooter game – and our heroes boast slick movements. All in all, pretty neat, and probably the high point of this game.
Unfortunately, the other sections are not as distinguished. But since each mini-game has its own qualities and problems, I will break the remainder of this review into sections describing each portion of Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games. Then I’ll sum it up and do an overall appreciation of the game as a whole. Ready? You better be, ’cause here we goooooooooooooooooooooooooo…!
Okay, the first game available is Burper, and it is also arguably the best. It’s a sort of Space Invaders clone, except you’re Pumbaa and stuff falls from the sky to bonk you on the head. In order to avoid this, you spit loogies at the falling things – no, really, loogies! You can also whack ground-crawling bugs with your tail, or you can unleash the mightiest weapon of all – the almighty burp, which is represented by a cloud of toxic green gas. When you burp, all the incoming things are destroyed. But be careful – there’s a limited amount of burping power, so don’t waste it all in vain!
To be honest, this is a pretty fun game, and a good figurehead for this cart. You use the B button to shoot loogies at falling pieces of fruit, bugs, or even stranger things, like a wooden sink (!) or a gorilla with a shower cap on its head. A lets you slap your tail against the floor, effectively squashing any pestering bugs that happen to be passing nearby, while X and Y unleash Burpeus Supremus. All the while, appropriately Timon and Pumbaa-ish music is playing in the background. Sounds pretty neat, doesn’t it? Well, it is…almost.
The thing is, the controls can get pretty chaotic, particularly in later levels. It gets to the point where stuff is falling on your head faster than you can shoot it, and bugs are biting your ass because you can’t whack ’em fast enough because you’re too busy trying to keep that damn sink from hitting you on the…aw, fuck, I died. See what I mean? This deters from what is essentially a really fun, if short-lived, game, that easily rates as the best of the bunch.
Next up on the screen (but not the pecking order) is Jungle Pinball. The title doesn’t leave much room for imagination – it’s pinball. With a Timon and Pumbaa theme. Who’d’a thunk!? Anyway, this game had potential – after all, pinball is always a bucketload of fun. Well, make that almost always. Once again, programming ruins what could have been a great mini-gaming experience. The flippers are set to L and R, which makes sense on the SNES pad, but can become cumbersome if, like me, you set the keys next to each other.
However, that’s not the main point. The point is the screen is so littered with obstacles and bumpers that the ball inevitably ends up falling through the pit…without giving you any points. Yup. This is not like other pinball games, where the mere act of launching the ball gives you a gazillion score. Here, if you get 1.000 points after three balls, you’re one lucky bastard. Now, I understand this game is for kids, but even little kids – hell, especially little kids – like to get high-scores. Unfortunately, in my book, Jungle Pinball gets a low score.
Moving on throughout the screen, we come to Sling Shooter, number two in this game’s hierarchy of sections. For once, controls are good – you use the d-pad to aim the crosshair at stuff and then use A to shoot it. The targets are pretty hilarious, too – from papier-mâché masks of Timon or the hyenas to a skateboarding Pumbaa caught in the middle of a game of musical statues. However, the best target of all is the one hiding in the waterfall – it’s nearly impossible to actually hit the waterfall, but once you manage to….dear God, it’s too good to ruin by telling.
My main beef here, then, is with the music. Rather than the tinkly jungle tunes of the other three games, here we get a sort of jazzy lounge-bar music, more likely to please the kids’ parents than the actual kids. It’s relaxing, sure, but incongruous – you’re standing there shooting those cutesy targets while the backing score to Bugsy Malone plays in the background. However, that is not enough to stop Sling Shooter from lining up alongside Burper in the Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games parade.
Bringing up the rear is the sorry-ass, unlicensed rip-off float nobody ever notices. Its name? Hippo Hop. At first glance, it’s kind of all right. “Hey look! It’s Frogger with Timon instead of that frog!” However, once you try crossing the stream, something weird happens. “WTF!? Wasn’t I supposed to have passed the level now!?” Then you start wondering. “Maybe I have to cross the stream back again”. So you do that – still no result. It is at that moment that you get it – this one’s going to be L-A-M-E.
Basically, your goal is to collect the bugs that ride atop the hippos, logs, stones and back-stroking turtles (!!) populating the river. On the PC, Timon supposedly yells out what kind of bug he wants, giving you a clue. On the SNES…no such luck. You’re left to hop and skip about aimlessly, until the slippery controls make you fall into the water and die. Repeatedly. I mean, I consider myself an accomplished gamer, and I never even made it past level one. This just sucks.
But the main problem with all four mini-games is just that – they’re mini-games. Their longevity is as reduced as their goal is simplistic. Even in the best two games, I got up to level six, and then got bored and switched to something more exciting. On the PC, the format worked fine – the game represented a decent way for a kid to waste the ten minutes between finishing their homework and being called by their mums for dinner.
But on the SNES, it falls flat. This is NOT a good way to spend a lazy holiday afternoon. I mean, you can’t even share it with your friends – there’s no two-player mode. Therefore, the title is doomed to a ten-minute lifespan on the console or emulator before kids switch over to the Disney Channel for the latest episode of Hakuna Matata with Timon and Pumbaa; one that is sure to be much more fun than this tepid game.
The Good
Nice graphics. Unobtrusive music. Burper and Sling Shooter.
The Bad
Timon And Pumbaa's Jungle Games Snes
Hippo Hop. Controls. Really just a slapped-together collection of mediocre mini-games, with the shortest of lifespans.
Timon And Pumbaa Jungle Games Windows 10
Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is a rather interesting game to talk about. This was released on PC and Super Nintendo. What is strange is that the Super Nintendo version came out in 1997 in the USA and in 1998 in Europe! This was during the time of the Nintendo 64 so this was a very late release so the game could be one of the rarer titles on the system, but no one really cares about it.
The Jungle Games
There is no plot here at all, absolutely zero! They could have tried; the back of the box and instructions are all you have to go on as to why Timon and Pumba have decided to host their very own version of the Olympics as the game has no cut scenes or anything telling you what the heck is going on.
.png "Timon And Pumbaas Jungle Games")
Everything The Light Touches…. Looks Good
I have to say that Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is a fine-looking game. It captures the style of The Lion King very well and both versions have a ton of color and bring the characters to life in a fun way. Disney games always looked like a million bucks on the Super Nintendo and this one here is no different. The animation is pretty good too and there is some amusing stuff going on with the way the animals act and react to things.
Disney Chip Tune Goodness
As well as looking good, Disney games on the SNES sound fantastic. The original Lion King game on SNES sounded amazing with great music and impressive voice samples. Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is the same in that the soundtrack is very upbeat and fitting to the Lion King movie and the voices that are here are of a high quality too.
Four Or Five?
There are five games on the PC version and only four on the Super Nintendo. I have no idea why one was cut from the SNES, at a guess I would say it was so they could use a cheaper size of cartridge. Anyway, let's take a look at the games. Jungle Pinball is a Pinball game that is jungle-themed. Hippo Hop is like Frogger where you have to get from one side of the screen to the next. Burper is a shooter where you play as Pumba and shoot gas. Slingshooter is a game where you control a slingshot. The final game is called Bug Drop and that is a Puzzle game, but this one was cut from the SNES. It would have been better if they cut Slingshooter, to be honest.
There are different Lion King characters that you can play as, but the whole point of the game is to get a high score. There is no story mode or anything like that, you just play the four (or five) events over and over again.
I think that Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is a better mini-game compilation than you would think. The mini-games that are here may be basic, but at least they all feel different and they play decently enough. The problem is, you will play this for about 30 minutes and you have seen everything that the game has to offer.
Timon And Pumbaa Jungle Games Bug Drop
Back in 1994, when Lion King mania was running wild and every self-respecting kid wanted to be Simba, Disney Interactive sought to make a few extra bucks through the release of various Lion King-related digital titles. In a practice that would become common in subsequent years and movies, the PC and the most popular platforms of the time received a wealth of interactive titles centered around everyone’s favourite characters du jour. Apart from the games themselves (often dubbed “Action Games”) there were print studios, educational tools, and mini-game collections.
Now, on the PC, all of this worked fine. Back then, computers were still seen as a semi-educational tool, and print studios and spelling titles for the kiddies were perfectly acceptable. Plus, the mouse support made for a smoother, friendlier interface. But the consoles? They were out-and-out gaming equipment. They had d-pads and buttons! They couldn’t possibly harbour this type of title.
…Or could they?
That’s what THQ and Disney Interactive set out to find in 1997, with Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games. Released to capitalize on the Lion King game which became, itself, a huge hit, this title got a puzzling SNES release along with the expected and logical PC release. And I say puzzling because this is one of those titles that just screams “computer.”
T&P’s JG is made up of four mini-games (five on the PC), all accessible from a very interactive main menu (try pressing any button on any part of the screen to see what happens). The fifth game, Bug Drop, was lost in the translation from PC to console. There are also the usual difficulty and sound options, as well as a scoreboard. However, the games are the heart of it all. And while some of them may be fun for a while, none of them justifies a full-blown investment in this cart.
The games available are Jungle Pinball, Hippo Hop, Burper and Sling Shooter. They are all very simple, but their success levels vary quite a bit. They all do, however, boast very nice graphics, with smooth animations and great background detail. Nothing you wouldn’t expect on an SNES, true, but T&P’s JG succeeds in making you feel like you’re actually inside a Saturday-morning Timon and Pumbaa cartoon. Stuff pops up everywhere – particularly in the Sling Shooter game – and our heroes boast slick movements. All in all, pretty neat, and probably the high point of this game.
Unfortunately, the other sections are not as distinguished. But since each mini-game has its own qualities and problems, I will break the remainder of this review into sections describing each portion of Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games. Then I’ll sum it up and do an overall appreciation of the game as a whole. Ready? You better be, ’cause here we goooooooooooooooooooooooooo…!
Okay, the first game available is Burper, and it is also arguably the best. It’s a sort of Space Invaders clone, except you’re Pumbaa and stuff falls from the sky to bonk you on the head. In order to avoid this, you spit loogies at the falling things – no, really, loogies! You can also whack ground-crawling bugs with your tail, or you can unleash the mightiest weapon of all – the almighty burp, which is represented by a cloud of toxic green gas. When you burp, all the incoming things are destroyed. But be careful – there’s a limited amount of burping power, so don’t waste it all in vain!
To be honest, this is a pretty fun game, and a good figurehead for this cart. You use the B button to shoot loogies at falling pieces of fruit, bugs, or even stranger things, like a wooden sink (!) or a gorilla with a shower cap on its head. A lets you slap your tail against the floor, effectively squashing any pestering bugs that happen to be passing nearby, while X and Y unleash Burpeus Supremus. All the while, appropriately Timon and Pumbaa-ish music is playing in the background. Sounds pretty neat, doesn’t it? Well, it is…almost.
The thing is, the controls can get pretty chaotic, particularly in later levels. It gets to the point where stuff is falling on your head faster than you can shoot it, and bugs are biting your ass because you can’t whack ’em fast enough because you’re too busy trying to keep that damn sink from hitting you on the…aw, fuck, I died. See what I mean? This deters from what is essentially a really fun, if short-lived, game, that easily rates as the best of the bunch.
Next up on the screen (but not the pecking order) is Jungle Pinball. The title doesn’t leave much room for imagination – it’s pinball. With a Timon and Pumbaa theme. Who’d’a thunk!? Anyway, this game had potential – after all, pinball is always a bucketload of fun. Well, make that almost always. Once again, programming ruins what could have been a great mini-gaming experience. The flippers are set to L and R, which makes sense on the SNES pad, but can become cumbersome if, like me, you set the keys next to each other.
However, that’s not the main point. The point is the screen is so littered with obstacles and bumpers that the ball inevitably ends up falling through the pit…without giving you any points. Yup. This is not like other pinball games, where the mere act of launching the ball gives you a gazillion score. Here, if you get 1.000 points after three balls, you’re one lucky bastard. Now, I understand this game is for kids, but even little kids – hell, especially little kids – like to get high-scores. Unfortunately, in my book, Jungle Pinball gets a low score.
Moving on throughout the screen, we come to Sling Shooter, number two in this game’s hierarchy of sections. For once, controls are good – you use the d-pad to aim the crosshair at stuff and then use A to shoot it. The targets are pretty hilarious, too – from papier-mâché masks of Timon or the hyenas to a skateboarding Pumbaa caught in the middle of a game of musical statues. However, the best target of all is the one hiding in the waterfall – it’s nearly impossible to actually hit the waterfall, but once you manage to….dear God, it’s too good to ruin by telling.
My main beef here, then, is with the music. Rather than the tinkly jungle tunes of the other three games, here we get a sort of jazzy lounge-bar music, more likely to please the kids’ parents than the actual kids. It’s relaxing, sure, but incongruous – you’re standing there shooting those cutesy targets while the backing score to Bugsy Malone plays in the background. However, that is not enough to stop Sling Shooter from lining up alongside Burper in the Timon and Pumbaa’s Jungle Games parade.
Bringing up the rear is the sorry-ass, unlicensed rip-off float nobody ever notices. Its name? Hippo Hop. At first glance, it’s kind of all right. “Hey look! It’s Frogger with Timon instead of that frog!” However, once you try crossing the stream, something weird happens. “WTF!? Wasn’t I supposed to have passed the level now!?” Then you start wondering. “Maybe I have to cross the stream back again”. So you do that – still no result. It is at that moment that you get it – this one’s going to be L-A-M-E.
Basically, your goal is to collect the bugs that ride atop the hippos, logs, stones and back-stroking turtles (!!) populating the river. On the PC, Timon supposedly yells out what kind of bug he wants, giving you a clue. On the SNES…no such luck. You’re left to hop and skip about aimlessly, until the slippery controls make you fall into the water and die. Repeatedly. I mean, I consider myself an accomplished gamer, and I never even made it past level one. This just sucks.
But the main problem with all four mini-games is just that – they’re mini-games. Their longevity is as reduced as their goal is simplistic. Even in the best two games, I got up to level six, and then got bored and switched to something more exciting. On the PC, the format worked fine – the game represented a decent way for a kid to waste the ten minutes between finishing their homework and being called by their mums for dinner.
But on the SNES, it falls flat. This is NOT a good way to spend a lazy holiday afternoon. I mean, you can’t even share it with your friends – there’s no two-player mode. Therefore, the title is doomed to a ten-minute lifespan on the console or emulator before kids switch over to the Disney Channel for the latest episode of Hakuna Matata with Timon and Pumbaa; one that is sure to be much more fun than this tepid game.
The Good
Nice graphics. Unobtrusive music. Burper and Sling Shooter.
The Bad
Timon And Pumbaa's Jungle Games Snes
Hippo Hop. Controls. Really just a slapped-together collection of mediocre mini-games, with the shortest of lifespans.
Timon And Pumbaa Jungle Games Windows 10
Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is a rather interesting game to talk about. This was released on PC and Super Nintendo. What is strange is that the Super Nintendo version came out in 1997 in the USA and in 1998 in Europe! This was during the time of the Nintendo 64 so this was a very late release so the game could be one of the rarer titles on the system, but no one really cares about it.
The Jungle Games
There is no plot here at all, absolutely zero! They could have tried; the back of the box and instructions are all you have to go on as to why Timon and Pumba have decided to host their very own version of the Olympics as the game has no cut scenes or anything telling you what the heck is going on.
Everything The Light Touches…. Looks Good
I have to say that Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is a fine-looking game. It captures the style of The Lion King very well and both versions have a ton of color and bring the characters to life in a fun way. Disney games always looked like a million bucks on the Super Nintendo and this one here is no different. The animation is pretty good too and there is some amusing stuff going on with the way the animals act and react to things.
Disney Chip Tune Goodness
As well as looking good, Disney games on the SNES sound fantastic. The original Lion King game on SNES sounded amazing with great music and impressive voice samples. Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is the same in that the soundtrack is very upbeat and fitting to the Lion King movie and the voices that are here are of a high quality too.
Four Or Five?
There are five games on the PC version and only four on the Super Nintendo. I have no idea why one was cut from the SNES, at a guess I would say it was so they could use a cheaper size of cartridge. Anyway, let's take a look at the games. Jungle Pinball is a Pinball game that is jungle-themed. Hippo Hop is like Frogger where you have to get from one side of the screen to the next. Burper is a shooter where you play as Pumba and shoot gas. Slingshooter is a game where you control a slingshot. The final game is called Bug Drop and that is a Puzzle game, but this one was cut from the SNES. It would have been better if they cut Slingshooter, to be honest.
There are different Lion King characters that you can play as, but the whole point of the game is to get a high score. There is no story mode or anything like that, you just play the four (or five) events over and over again.
I think that Timon & Pumbaa's Jungle Games is a better mini-game compilation than you would think. The mini-games that are here may be basic, but at least they all feel different and they play decently enough. The problem is, you will play this for about 30 minutes and you have seen everything that the game has to offer.
Timon And Pumbaa Jungle Games Bug Drop
Pros:
- The game looks fantastic
- It features characters from The Lion King
- The soundtrack is great and very high-quality
- I liked how all of the games were very different from each other
Timon And Pumbaa's Jungle Games Sling Shooter
Cons:
Timon And Pumbaa Jungle Games Snes
- There is very little to this game
- The SNES version is missing one of the games
