Written: November 9th-19th, 2019
(As played on Game Boy Player)
Year: 1999 | Developed by: Digital Eclipse
Year: 1999 | Developed by: Digital Eclipse
Published by: Activision
All right, video game adaptation time!
Image from Wikipedia
On October 1912 the pulp magazine The All-Timer published Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs' story of a young boy being raised by apes whom they name "Tarzan" in the African jungle and how when he gets older he encounters other humans and Western society. The first novel sold well and its titular character became popular since his debut especially since Tarzan of the Apes explored the subject of heredity, racial superiority, civilization, identity struggle, sexuality, and escapism. It has continuously been adapted to radio, play, television, and cinema for over a century and would be followed up by twenty-three more books up until 1966.
Image from Wikipedia; Happy 20th Anniversary, Disney's Tarzan!!! π₯³
One of the more popular adaptations of Tarzan of the Apes was Disney's Tarzan which came out in theatres on June of 1999. Directed by Kevin Lima (whose other credits include A Goofy Movie, 102 Dalmations, the two made-for-TV Eloise films, and Enchanted) and Chris Buck (who you may recognize as one of the directors of Frozen and its upcoming sequel as well as... uhh, Surf's Up? π), it was the first animated take to be given a theatrical release, it grossed $448 million against a $130 million budget (which for an animated movie was huge in 1999), and it was the tenth and last film to come out during the ten-year Disney Renaissance movement. And of all the movies to close the Disney Renaissance, this one wasn't a bad choice as I think it's a really good movie. π I remember liking it when I saw it in theatres two decades ago when I was eight, and I think I enjoyed it more upon watching it more on home video and DVD, and in 2019 it still holds up.
Image from Wikipedia
Disney's Tarzan did so well that there would be a series taking place after the film's conclusion in The Legend of Tarzan, an animated series that ran from September 2001 to February 2003 (July 2003 would emerge the made for TV movie Tarzan & Jane, a movie that told flashbacks through three self-contained episodes--while I haven't seen the movie in full I have seen all the episodes), which I remember liking fine back when it still aired and I liked Olivia d'Abo as Jane Porter a lot, and seeing the different adventures was fascinating, but the thing that's always bugged me about the show (even back then) was the quality of the animation compared to the movie: it lacked the smooth look and feel, some of the character models looked off or unpolished (Kala especially), Jane looked too pale for my liking even though she had more pigment on her in the movie, and in retrospect Renard Dumont's design reminded me of one of the mustachioed characters in Camillo Teti's Titanic, mille e una storia… yes, you read that right. πΆπΎ To say the limiting animation budget was more apparent here then it was in the animated Aladdin TV series from the '90s, that really speaks numbers.
Image from Wikipedia
On June 2005 there was a made for TV prequel called... Tarzan II (or Tarzan II: The Legend Begins)... π Never give a prequel or a midquel a successive number in the title, it never makes sense (I'm looking at you, Neverland's Estopolis Denki II/Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals/Lufia and Leigh Whannell's Insidious: Chapter 3)! This movie centers on a young Tarzan who feels very out of place and is uncertain of his identity and where he belongs and when he gets separated from his adopted family by the leopardess Sabor (who killed Tarzan's parents) he forms an unlikely friendship with an ape who helps him out, which saw Glenn Close and Lance Henriksen reprise their roles of Kala and Kerchak while the rest of the voices are new as it also includes the voices of guest stars Estelle Harris, Brad Garrett, Ron Perlman, and the late comedian George Carlin. I don't remember seeing it in full whenever it showed on TV, but from what I saw I remember enjoying it (I also fondly remember a parody video me and all my classmates saw on two separate instances in college that used clips from the Disney movies explaining copyright law and fair use, "A Fair(y) Use Tale" and it included one solitary portion from this movie despite the rest of the movies used being theatrically released π) and while the animation still isn't a patch on the 1999 film it was night and day compared to what was present in The Legend of Tarzan and is far more visually pleasing. Another thing that resulted from the success and popularity of Disney's Tarzan?
Image from GameFAQs
Video game adaptations. On one hand there was Disney's Tarzan done by good ol' Eurocom for the PlayStation One, Nintendo 64, and Windows PC, but on the other hand there was a version developed specifically for the Game Boy Color by Digital Eclipse which Activision released in American shores on June 24th, 1999 while it came out later that year in Europe until finally Japan would experience it on March 24th, 2000 thanks to Syscom--directed by Mike Mika; programmed by Jeremy and Mike Mika; game designed by the Mika brothers and Troy Sheets; tool programmed by the Mika brothers as well as Robert Baffy, Daniel Filner, and Jeff Vavasour; produced by Troy Sheets; associate produced by Martin Theyer and Brian Clarke; and executive produced by Andrew Ayre and Mugali Tegulapalle.
Image from Wikipedia
Founded by Andrew Ayre in Emeryville, California in 1992, Digital Eclipse initially started off as a technology startup company until Ayre sooner realized the company's services would benefit the video game industry which is when the company officially became a video game developer. Digital Eclipse's first few games mainly consisted of faithful home computer conversions of Williams Electronics' classic arcade games Defender, Joust, and Robotron: 2084 which was accomplished through an interpreter they made that could recreate the coin-ops' chipset with exact precision--ergo, emulation.
Image from Wikipedia
And because of this Digital Eclipse proved to be a gamechanger as they would go on to create compilations of classic arcade games that would be faithfully emulated for certain consoles and computers, and they would find even bigger success on the Game Boy Color as they reportedly created roughly sixty games for it. 1999 proved to be a busy year for them as they worked on many handheld conversions of arcade classics, but also among them were today's game (an original game and not one based on a game that was originally conceived in the '80s). So Digital Eclipse has certainly got credentials on the home arcade emulation front, but can they do an original property with as much success (licensed-based or no)?
Left: The game starts here | Right: Hanging on a ledge
In the Disney's Tarzan action platformer for the Game Boy Color you mostly take control of Tarzan (with the young Tarzan being voiced by Alex D. Linz while the adult Tarzan was voiced by Tony Goldwyn, the former of whom was best known for playing Max Keeble and the latter of whom you may recognize as the villain from Roger Spottiswoode's The 6th Day) but in certain stages in the first half of the game you'll end up taking control of his best friend Terk (voiced by Rosie O'Donnell) and in a few stages during the second half you'll get to play as Tarzan's British love interest Jane Porter (voiced by Minnie Driver).
Left: Tarzan swimming | Right: Pumbaa?
The controls for Tarzan and Terk are identical for you can move left and right, hold up to survey more happening above you, hold down to peer below you, jump with the A button, hold down the B button to dash, you can hold on to ledges, climb up or down certain walls at either a normal or faster pace, progress forward a la monkey bars by sticking to the ceiling (and on certain occasions jump above said ceiling spot), swing from vine to vine by holding down either direction button if not have one devoted to each hand, and in the body of water holding nothing will have Tarzan and Terk float, and you can swim in any of the eight directions at either a normal pace or a swift one.
Left: "Hey Terk!" | Right: Noodle-length Tarzan
When it comes time to take control of Jane her controls are dissimilar to those that Tarzan and Terk share because hers are pretty distinctive in her own right simple though they may be. You can still move left and right but you cannot run, you can duck down, she can jump with the A button but only up to a brief point as her jumps aren't as high as the other characters, and by holding down the B button she can extend and open up her parasol as a means to defend herself by keeping moving obstacles such as baboons and human henchmen led by Clayton (charmingly voiced by the great Brian Blessed) at bay.
Left: Everyone, do the chameleon! | Right: Terk's starting off point
The goal of each open-ended stage, should you take control of Tarzan and Terk, is to collect the requisite amount of bananas scattered around each stage (including groups of bananas which count as five) while contending with any obstacle you may encounter; once you got the required amount of bananas you must find Terk (when playing as young Tarzan), Tarzan (when playing as Terk), or Jane (when playing as adult Tarzan) in order to move on to the next stage. Jane's stages are very linear by comparison as she doesn't have to collect anything at all, only find Tarzan.
Left: Terk dropping down | Right: Floating below a pink hippo π¦
Each time you start the game and after you lose a life you begin with a health of three (as represented by Tarzan's spears), and if you lose all your health then you'll pick up from the beginning of the stage or from a checkpoint you stumble upon. One other item you come across is a life icon (as represented by the head of the character you're currently taking control of) and once you get it all your health will be replenished; one other way of replenishing all your health is if you collect every single banana in the stage. Losing all your lives will give you a game over and send you back to the title screen, but fortunately once you reach a certain a stage you'll be given a simple four-character password so you'll pick up from there, meaning you won't have to play it through in one sitting.
Left: Snapping crocodile π | Right: Terk hanging
The visuals are bright and colorful--making very good use of the Game Boy Color's big handheld color palette--which was led by the art direction of Boyd Burggrave who also worked on the backgrounds alongside Kevin James and Tom Lisowski with additional art by Angela Fourie with the levels designed by Martin Theyer, William S. Schmitt, and Troy Sheets. The backgrounds are decently designed, like different hues of blue and green in certain stages (the chartreuse water in the green stages is reminiscent of fluoride, though I like the detail of the leaves falling down when you hang on to and monkey bar across the ceiling), the waterfall stages constantly invert its colors to create a flowing effect, the interior of the cargo ship has got occasional light reflections from the deck, and the final stage has got Tarzan going against Clayton set in a vine-laden location during the sunset (as opposed to night like in the movie).The character designs and their animation by Boyd Burggrave, Kevin James, Tom Lisowski, Spartaco Margioni, Granted D. Savage, and John Weir are solid across the board and their colors are spot on with Tarzan's brown hair and loincloth, Terk's purple fur, and Jane's yellow dress.
Hey, those elephants aren't red like in the movie, 0/10! π
I also appreciated the bonus run towards the screen elephant chase sequences on a visual level, the scaling of the bananas and logs are done to a decent degree, I liked that the ground was constantly moving, and in a way it reminds me of the run towards the screen chase sequence from the wildebeests in Westwood Associates' video game adaptation of The Lion King (sans the occasional moments when the animals would attempt to jump ahead of you).
Left: Tarzan holding on to two vines | Right: Swimming, Terk's natural habitat
The soundtrack to the movie was done by Mark Mancina (who would return to compose for the series with Tarzan II and would also compose music for subsequent Disney animated films Brother Bear and Moana) while the songs were sung by pop singer Phil Collins (who would also sing songs from the aforementioned Brother Bear and Tarzan II) during narration, and who doesn't like Phil Collins (that is, except for that one annoyingly shrill and ego-inflated internet critic, but that's neither here nor there)? Directors Kevin Lima and Chris Buck couldn't envision Tarzan breaking into song, which is why rather than have it be a musical in the traditional sense the songs would instead be sung during narration to express Tarzan's feelings, which I feel was a very wise move on the movie's part which is all the better for it (honestly, Collins' songs complete the movie, especially "You'll Be in My Heart" and "Strangers Like Me")... π
Left: Wait for the pufferfish to become less puffy to swim past them | Right: Terk's narrow climb
☹ … The sound quality of the Game Boy Color adaptation (with the music done by Robert Baffy while the sound effects were done by both Baffy and Mike Mika), on the other hand, is absolutely horrid and there is a reason for this: there is full-blown static and it is purely and overwhelmingly insufferable to the point that it completely obfuscates whatever music is playing in the background (I could barely make out the reiterating iconic notes from "Strangers Like Me" during the title screen, stage title cards, and ending credits). It is constantly intrusive, extremely everlasting, and it is torture for the ears, and the fact that there's no option to turn the music and sound off (something I'm normally against) is unforgivable, and I hate it! π«The only time there's no static at all is during the two bonus elephant chase stages, the Game Over title card, and the Paint 'n' Print mode which is a huge sigh of relief for what it's worth. I'll give credit that it attempts to affect some ambient sound effects with the birds chirping and the sound of elephants sounding near authentic which for the Game Boy Color is neat but alas the static undoes the entire sound quality for me, which is a real shame because the Game Boy Color as a whole never had this issue and generally all the other Game Boy Color (exclusive) content generally had tolerable, passable, or even good sounds. Not here, though, I'm baffled that Digital Eclipse considered this a good idea. I suggest muting the game to salvage your ears, or lower the volume to the point that you barely hear it.
Left: Terk's turn to hold on to both vines | Right: Gazing at a snake
The Summer of 1999 was the year I began to play games exclusively (read: before the Game Boy Advance) for the Game Boy Color as opposed to Game Boy Color games that worked on both the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color, with the first one being Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. Deluxe while the handheld Disney's Tarzan was my second. I really liked the movie after I saw it in theatres, and so playing a video game conversion was an exciting prospect. I remember not getting very far, and at one point in my life I thought maybe it was because of lesser gaming skills than what I would gain after years of experience--obviously, in the certain years I tried revisiting it, that was not the case.
Left: Tarzan's narrow climb | Right: Adult Tarzan eager to start
This movie tie-in video game adaptation has got heavy emphasis on exploration rather than action, which for a licensed video game adaptation is unique and sounds good on paper, but I'm sorry to say that the execution left a lot to be desired as in my opinion it's not good. The gameplay is fine, wonky jumping controls notwithstanding, but the fact that you don't have anything to defend yourself with really renders you vulnerable when playing as Tarzan or Terk; at least with Jane she's got her parasol to keep enemies at bay, and honestly I'm glad there were some stages devoted to her since she's one of my favorite female Disney animated characters and is honestly the most enjoyable part of the main game.
Left: WOW, Tony Goldwynzan's life icon is huge | Right: Jane's turn for adventure
The characters' vulnerable state wouldn't be a big issue if the collision detection wasn't so iffy, as you'll wind up taking damage even if the enemy in question seemingly did not touch you which is poor design so as a result you'll wind up playing defensively and trying to keep your distance from your enemies as best you can manage. The baboons are the most annoying enemies in the journey because they will attempt to move towards you and/or jump which is a bit hard to predict, but the worst part is that even if they move ahead and you backtracked a bit and then came back to that spot where the baboon came from, then said baboon will reappear.
Left: Fending off against that pesky baboon | Right: Adult Tarzan underwater
The enemy respawning in HAL Laboratory's Kirby franchise made sense, the enemy respawning in Whoopee Camp's two Tomba/Tombi games made sense, but here? No. You can't even attack them, and the only reason I can think of for this happening is that (aside from the pufferfish underwater or the red birds and warthogs in certain stages) the baboons are the only non-boss enemies that don't remain stationary throughout the game. The baboon respawning is almost Tecmo's first two Ninja RyΕ«kenden/Ninja Gaiden levels of enemy respawning bad--oh, I'm sorry, did I say "almost bad"? I meant worse, because sometimes you barely have time to react and the poor collision detection doesn't help matters.
Left: Crashing waterfall | Right: Hanging on to a crate
I tried several times and after many failed attempts I just gave up and used the subsequent password when retrying the game this year. I have more patience Kemco-Seika's port of Zoom's Lagoon, I have more patience for Copya System's first Lennus RPG Paladin's Quest, I have more patience for Quintet's ActRaiser 2, and more pressingly, I have more patience for Software Creations' Equinox. I found it absolutely tedious and redundant to use the second password, put up with all the poor design choices again just to get to Sabor and lose all my lives there, I had zero patience for that noise. And the worst part is that all the stages before and after the Sabor fight are manageable once you work your way around the design flaws (at least with Eurocom's Atlantis: The Lost Empire on the Game Boy Color, as annoying as its overwhelming open-endedness and design flaws were, I could go through all its stages).
Left: Monkey barring below a wire | Right: Jane ducks down
One other thing that hampers Disney's Tarzan on the Game Boy Color is the lack of a clear direction; it's not as bad in the linear stages, but in the more open-ended stages it can prove overwhelming. Normally in games of this ilk there are placeholders signifying that you've reached a checkpoint, but in this game you don't even know you've reached it until a continue message with a down arrow suddenly appears out of thin air because until then there's no clear indicator; and sometimes when you got all the requisite bananas and have to find someone you have to look thoroughly or backtrack some in order to get to them which is mundane at best but trepidatious at worst. At least there is no timer here, otherwise the proceedings would've just been unbearable.
LOOK WHAT YOU BROUGHT ME TO, YOU STUPID PERPETUAL GAME BOY COLOR STATIC!!! π‘
Left: Jane runs | Right: Activating parasol
I don't think any of the Digital Eclipse people involved in this game are hacks, the developer's strengths are clearly in home arcade emulations with near exact precision like Atari: Anniversary Advance and Midway Arcade Treasures, but while original works like this game might suggest they're not up to the task there are Scooby-Doo!: Classic Creep Capers and Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs/Spyro: Adventure that say they can to a degree; but with Disney's Tarzan my impression is that Digital Eclipse was trying to find their footing outside of home arcade emulations (their forte) and couldn't quite grasp it at the time because they were out of their element.
Left: Chains | Right: Climbing up a mast
Sad to say that for all the technically impressive visuals during the cutscenes and the fact that you control Tarzan in most stages while Terk and Jane get their moment to shine on occasion it doesn't redeem the poor collision detection, unclear direction for the huge areas, lack of ways to defend yourself unless you play as Jane, and unbearably annoying static which is a colossal turn-off. I found Crawfish Interactive's 2000 port of Virgin Interactive's video game adaptation of Disney's Aladdin and Sandbox Studios' The Emperor's New Groove on the Game Boy Color more enjoyable than this handheld adaptation of Disney's Tarzan, flaws and all (and with no static).
Left: The finale | Right: "You won't escape from me, Tarzan!"
As it stands, I can't really recommend this take on Disney's Tarzan unless you were curious, it's not bad (just plain mediocre) but its poor collision detection especially in the Sabor stage which make the majority of stages manageable except that one is unforgivable; personally, I recommend watching the movie, listening to its music, and/or playing Eurocom's superior video game adaptation instead--you'll have a more entertaining time.
My Personal Score: 5.0/10
d(^-^)bTO EACH THEIR OWNd(^-^)b
● I recently found out in the past year about Ubi Soft Montreal's Disney's Tarzan Untamed/Freeride and Disney's Tarzan: Return to the Jungle based on The Legend of Tarzan which Digital Eclipse also worked on (I just hope it's an improvement over today's game).
Thank you for reading my review, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think (neither spam nor NSFW allowed); hope you have a great day, take care!
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You said in this review that you hope that Disney's Tarzan: Return to the Jungle for the Game Boy Advance is an improvement over its Game Boy Color predecessor, which you reviewed here. Well, I played Return to the Jungle myself, and it is an improvement. The levels now have their goal be to just get to the end of the stage, resetting the game will just have you at the level that you most recently made it to, the collision detection is much improved, health recovery items are more abundant, and best of all, you *can* attack enemies! So, I hope you review Return to the Jungle.
ReplyDeleteReally? I'll have to look into that game then, thanks~ π
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