A game based on a very popular movie needs to meet expectations beyond those of a normal game. It needs to truly reflect the atmosphere and storyline of the film itself, especially true for Disney movies and The Lion King in particular, which is often regarded as one of the best Disney films of them all.

The Lion King story lends itself very well to gaming because it has a clear good guy (Simba), a clear overall bad guy (Scar), and lots of adventures to go on in between settling a score (Scar causes Simba's father Mufassa to be killed).
You begin the game as the lion cub Simba, who progresses in age and strength throughout the game. You can use your roar power to stun enemies as you make your way across the platform-style levels. You can also find different bugs dotted about throughout each level. Some of these bugs restore your health meter, others restore your roar meter, while a special bug will open up a bonus round at the end of the level should you manage to find it.

Graphics: 9
This is one of the most beautiful games ever produced for the Sega Master System. The colours are vibrant and the levels are wonderfully detailed. Animation is smooth.

Sound: 10
The soundtrack for this game is one of the best out there. It creates a great atmosphere and changes appropriately for each situation. You feel proud as little Simba's yelp becomes a mighty roar as the game progresses.

Addictiveness: 7
This is more of a fun game to play, rather than the sort of addictiveness you get from RPG games. That being said, once you start on your journey you feel you really want to do well and complete the game.

Story: 10
The story is based on one of the most successful Disney movies of all time, so benefits from having clear characters with defined goals and objectives, all set within a world that is familiar to people who have seen the film. Even if you havn't seen the film, due to popular culture the chances are that you do already generally know what this game is all about.

Depth: 6
There are 10 levels in total, which don't actually take very long to complete. There is not a large degree of replayability for this game. It does incorporate all aspects of the story from the movie, from start to finish, so you do get a sense of satisfaction by seeing it through to the end.

Difficulty: 6
This game is not very difficult. Perhaps because The Lion King was children's film, then it may have marketed the game to this age group too. It has the usual pitfalls and intricacies associated with other platform games, but once you get the timing right and get a feel for how your character moves then the game itself becomes quite easy. Even the bosses are easy to defeat once you know the timing for their attack moves.

Overall: 8.5
One of the most fun platform games for the Sega Master System.

Your review was well-structured, and you gave enough details to show your appreciation. However, you could have gone into more details: how does the game compare to 16-bit versions? How does it stand compared to other SMS games? Is the soundtrack based on the movie like the other games?