It's time to take another look at where I think the meat and potatoes of the 16-bit console wars truly lie, and that's two completely different ports of Aladdin. The Sega Genesis version, developed by Virgin Games, is widely regarded as the superior version, and arguably one of the best video games on the console, with little mention of the merits of what the Super Nintendo counterpart has to offer. How do they stack up and who wins this battle?

GRAPHICS

While the original sprites Capcom engineered with look pretty impressive with some good animation, they just don't stack up to Virgin Interactive's work. The beautifully animated characters were done by Disney's animators with Virgin's supervision. Using an in-house process called "Digicel", Virgin was able to retain the delightful charm of the movie compressed on onto the Genesis' hardware.

It's still amazing to oogle even today, and that's why Virgin Games like Earthworm Jim boasts with such personality. The poor SNES version just looks garrish and grainy by comparison. I mean, it flows well and has a Capcom platform feel to it and has plenty of detailed sprites, but if you're acquainted with the Genesis version prior to, your brain is already telling you this is Brand X. - Sega Genesis WINS

GAMEPLAY

Both are platform games centered around some creative puzzle jumping and enemy placement. The Super Captendo version (designed by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami) does have some fascinating rhythm-based jumps, and Aladdin has a cloak/sheet that he can use to slow his decent on landings. It's a pretty useful tool. Perhaps the most notable difference, and the one that separates the attitude of the two versions the most, is Aladdin fights with apples instead of dispatching them with a sword. If you were a kid who stood by your SNES and its games, those mean 'ol Sega kids would make fun of your "family friendly Aladdin game". So bouncing on enemies' heads isn't as fun as using a blade, the combat in SegAladdin (patent pending) is faster, direct, and more satisfying. The guards in Agrabah prompt you towards them, only to greet your advances with a volley of sword swipes if you're careless, others will lose their pants with a slash of your own, so the cartoony mayhem is definitely intact.

Hurling apples may be rather lame, but I feel both games are equally satisfying in their respective right. SegAladdin is a slightly tougher game, but the Super Captendo version isn't a slouch, and HEY, the SNES gets the snake fight with Jafar, so take that, Sega! I think both are fairly fun to play, perhaps it's a column A/column B. I personally feel the Capcom's game gets a mild edge in gameplay, Aladdin on Genesis feels a little slippery. I've had so many accidental deaths because some of the platform jumps have some stingy accuracy or I just ran off the edge because you run faster than the screen can scroll. Super Nintendo WINS

PRESENTATION:

On top of Aladdin on Genesis having the superior visuals, they also have the music from the movie. A Whole New World, Prince Ali, one Jump Ahead, there's a strong chance you'll be harmonizing along with the music as you play, it's hard not to. I was singing along As I was revisiting it. And they sound great coming out of the Sega. The tunes in the SNES aren't terrible, just hard to record to memory because it's lacking the signature music. It winds up being like those many home ports of Terminator that didn't have any of the themes except for the Sega CD version. 

Even the cover art gives off how much more attitude SegAladdin has over Nintendo's safer approach. Al's on the SNES cart saying, C'mon Abu, let's go on an adventure and save Agrabah!". Meanwhile, on the Genesis art, Al's not messing around. Sword is out so the consumer can see it, highlighting the big immediate differences between the two, looking like he's going to lop Jafar's head off. Genie's just gonna Genie.

Overall, the Genesis Aladdin game may trounce the SNES version and provides the most complete experience, but the SNES game is good. This isn't as one-sided as my last Vs matchup, the Captain America brawlers. But this is a port war the Genesis wins. Which version do you prefer? Leave your comments below