The Lion King: Activity Center is a PC game released in September 1995.
Gameplay[]
Activity center game based on Disney's 1994 film The Lion King. Play simple mini-games and put together simple puzzles, practice spelling or watch clips with popular songs from the movie and sing along.
Games[]
- Beginning Menu: Zazu serves as the guide here. He tells the player to either select his or her name if he or she has played it before, or if not, to type it in. He also has him or her select his or her type of difficulty level (a lion cub for "Easy," an adolescent one for "Medium," or an adult with a mane for "Hard." It can be changed at any time in any game. Later, Zazu will be the main helper if the player clicks on his picture, such as where to click for repetition of certain instructions.
- Main Menu: Young Simba serves a guide at the beginning. This part takes place on the peak of Pride Rock. When he introduces the jungle, he mentions that he has never been there, but heard that it is cool, except that its natives (namely Timon and Pumbaa) eat disgusting things, such as bugs, but he intends to see for himself. When he introduces the Shadowlands, he brags that he is brave, but notes that he may get Nala to come with him. Then he introduces Rafiki's tree and the latter's Magic Pool, and then he leaves the player to decide where he or she wants to go, leaving a note that he (Simba) and the player may bump into each other.
- Jungle - Timon and Pumbaa are the unseen hosts of this location.
- Matching Game - concerning the bugs, that is. If the player finds two bugs that look the same, Timon will take them away. Then once the player has done ten matches, he or she will get a matching-bug-catcher certificate that he or she can either print out or have a grownup helper (like a parent or guardian) do so. The player's name appears, and then the date varies, depending on when he or she plays the game.
- Find the Friends - The player has to help Pumbaa look for obscure drawings of certain animals. After every seven friends found, the location changes.
- Spelling - The player has to spell a certain selected word, and Pumbaa will fall into a mud hole; the minimum amount of letters required to spell a word will be three while the maximum amount of letters required to spell a word will be eight. For the easier two levels, Timon tells the player the word to spell, then he or she has spell the word in the correct order. For every correct letter added, a vine in Pumbaa's hammock bursts. For the hard level, Timon does not tell the word that the player has to spell. Instead, he or she just has to guess the letters. In any word that has more than one of a certain letter, after one use of that letter, it stays yellow on the list until all possible uses are done. For example, for the word "canyon" (which has two Ns) if the player uses the letter "N" once, it remains clickable for a second use. Even failed letters get turned brown on the list, such as if the player tries a G when the word is "antelope."
- Rafiki's Tree - There is no question who is the unseen host of this location.
- Puzzles - Those are screenshots from the movie.
- Coloring pages - The coloring pages' outlines match those in the movie. The player can either do his or her own coloring, or use some kind of brush to make it look exactly like it is in the movie. Also possible is connect-the-dots.
- Achi - He says it's like tic-tac-toe, but with a twist, also a little like checkers. The player can either play against Rafiki or a real-life friend. He or she can also decide whether to let Rafiki or his or her friend go first.
- Shadowlands - Simba and Nala act as unseen hosts to the player. In fact, upon the first visit, that is where Simba reminds the player that they would see each other again. He introduces the player to Nala.
- Xylo-bone: The player can either play his or her own tunes (he or she has to click the box with his or her name in it to do so), or like in a certain "Repeat the Pattern" game, try and repeat the pattern Ed plays (so as to keep him from eating Zazu).
- Memory Match: Using stone cards, the player can either play alone, with a real-life friend, Simba, Nala, or Ed (Simba mentioning himself as the opponent was the second mention as such, as Nala tells him she already told the player so). The cards are the only sighting of Nala in this game, not including any screenshots in the puzzle minigame, possible coloring book pages, clips from the movie at the Magic Pool, or the CD-ROM itself. Other than the solo method, if either player manages to make a match, he or she gets to go again until he or she finds two stone cards that don't match, in which case it is the other player's turn. When not playing against Nala or Simba, either of them will congratulate the player if he or she makes a match, whether he or she plays solo, against his or her real-life friend (of course, either cub will respond to that second player if he or she makes a match), or against Ed. Ed only responds with his wordless voice when he either makes a match, wins, or loses. There are four pairs on the "Easy" level, nine on the "Medium" level, and sixteen on the "Hard" level (respectively making the card totals eight, eighteen, and thirty-two, respectively).
- Maze game: Help Simba get through the maze before the hyenas get him (When Nala introduces this game, Simba denies needing any help, which Nala contradicts). Additionally, setting the game to the "Easy" level gets rid of the hyenas. Besides that, another possible option is that the player (or a grownup helper) can print out a picture of the maze, and then he or she can use a pencil or crayon to mark the way from one side of the maze to the other.
- Magic Pool - (Just clips from the movie, only rippled to show that it is on water). Like at his tree, Rafiki is the unseen host.
Aside from locations:
- An icon of Zazu is how to have Zazu explain the rules.
- A magnifying glass icon is a way of asking for a clue in a certain game, whether where the player is to move either of his or her pebbles in Achi, which two stone cards will match when flipped over, or which two bugs will match for Timon to eat, to name a few.
- An icon of either of the following depends on where the game takes place, and clicking there will return the player to that location menu:
- An elephant skull represents the Shadowlands.
- A forest-covered mountain represents the Jungle.
- A tree represents Rafiki's tree.
- Mufasa's face represents the Magic Pool.
- A picture of the lion figure changes the level to either level of difficulty (as mentioned above).
- An icon of Pride Rock returns the player to the main menu.
- An icon of Simba waving his front paw means that the player is quitting, but first, Simba will see if he or she is really ready to leave. If he or she clicks "Yes," after the closing words, Simba adds that the Pridelands are fun with him or her around; if he or she clicks, "No," he or she continues to play.
Trivia[]
- All of the original cast reprises their roles except Nathan Lane as Timon, Jonathan Taylor Thomas as Simba, and Rowan Atkinson as Zazu (aside from clips). Instead, they are voiced by Quinton Flynn (who voices Timon in Season One of The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa), Ryan O'Donohue (later voicing Young Kovu in the second movie), and Jim Piddock respectively. Thomas was busy filming Tom and Huck and therefore could not reprise his animated role of Young Simba.
- Contrary to this game, in the movie, neither Simba nor Nala had encountered Rafiki except during the former's infancy, because of which, he would not have remembered, and neither would have Nala. Additionally, this was released before The Lion King 1½, which explains how Timon and Pumbaa even knew Rafiki.
Voice Cast[]
- Rowan Atkinson - Zazu (Footage)
- Niketa Calame - Young Nala
- Jim Cummings - Ed
- Quinton Flynn - Timon
- Robert Guillaume - Rafiki
- James Earl Jones - Mufasa (Footage)
- Ryan O'Donohue - Young Simba
- Jim Piddock - Zazu
- Ernie Sabella - Pumbaa