I remember Disney's Tarzan being a pretty decent game, and it still holds up pretty well, it features decent graphics, music and solid gameplay.

...is what I would've liked to say if this were a PC or Home Console version. Unfortunately, this is a Game Boy Color version, a rather unimpressive licensed game for the handheld. It's the kind of game that makes me question my life. Where did I take a wrong turn? Why do I have a higher than average interest in trashy licensed games? We may never know.

The game opens with an insane cinematic that feels like a trailer for the movie in its 8-bit crunchy glory. Neat I suppose. Anyway, for the gameplay, it's a platformer and your objective is to collect x amount of bananas, and then find someone, be it Turk, Jane or Tarzan himself. This is an objective for the majority of the game, even when Tarzan grows up, he need to collect bananas, even if trapped in the hull of the ship, he can't help himself but want to collect those tasty treats. Of course, it's not all about bananas. Well, almost, early on there are a couple stampede levels that act as a bonus, collect all bananas to earn an extra life. As Jane, your objective is only to find Tarzan, she's the only character that has a sort of attack, she can push an enemy away with a parasol, she can also duck and crawl to get in tight spaces or get past enemies. Lastly, there are a couple boss fight, which I'll describe in a bit.

When platforming, Tarzan and Turk play identically, you can climb certain surfaces, like walls or ceilings, swing off vines and swim in the water. When grown up, Tarzan jumps higher, or I think he does, but I'm not entirely sure. The level design is fine, but the gameplay itself is not very good. The collison detection isn't always consistent, and I found myself falling off ledges by simply turning around, or clinging onto invisible ledges. Turning around requres an animation to play, but not always, and you can't jump when turning around which can be annoying. Speaking of annoying, certain enemies are, like baboons, they seem to react to player jump or rather when the player is even slightly higher than them, but that's not always consistent, they have fast momentum, and when they hit ceiling they plummet down quickly, making it tricky to not take damage. And why those birds want me dead? They home on the player. Also, what did Pumbaa forget in this game? Luckily, there are extra lives scattered around, they aren't too uncommon, and not only do they give an extra, they also replenish your health. You can also obtain an extra life if you find all the bananas in a level, though that doesn't refill HP, only finding one in the open does. As I menioned earlier, there are boss fights, the first is Tarzan vs. Sabor, and it's one of the most frustrating things I've experienced in a game. You need to time your spear attack when the cat jumps at you, but the timing is strict, and it's easy to take damage from that, and it has 9 lives, which makes sense, but c'mon. You can duck or jump to avoid taking hit, and I found jumping preferable, as it seems to give you a longer invulnerability period. The game doesn't have continues, only passwords that are given every few levels, and if I died on this boss, I'd have to replay 3 of the previous levels, collecting bananas all over. Puts Dark Souls boss runbacks to the shame. I actually considered using savestates or abandoning the game, because it was so annoying, and I thought I would be stuck here for a while. Thankfully, it wasn't actually as bad as I thought it was, only after a three or so game overs (and a few practice rounds with savestates), I managed to defeat this one African Leopard and progress. Luckily, there were no difficulty spikes after this encounter, the game actually felt easier and I had plenty of lives (though it only maxes at 9), maybe because I got used to the controls and quirks. The last boss encounter is against Clayton, and the game actually tells you how to defeat him in plain text. It's a platforming stage, kinda like a chase sequence, lure him to where the vines are, and he's toast, and the game is complete.

Aside from the main game, there's a neat Hide and Seek game. It's basically a multiplayer game for a single Game Boy Color. One player hides, and the other seeks them out. Another extra the game provides is Game Boy Printer support.

Graphically, the game looks rather mediocre. The animated intro is neat, but the still images are a mixed bag. The sprites are alright, and animations are smooth, but I don't think it's much of an achievement, many games had smooth animation on Game Boy Color. The backgrounds look average. There are occasional graphical artifacts, if many things are on screen, either because there are too many sprite tiles on screen or the game hits lag frames, creating some garbage. The audio is pretty poor. The game's "music" consists of generic jungle beats with animal noises, even on ship levels for some reason. And when it's not jungle beats, it's some compressed, low quality looping track, I would've liked some traditional chiptune music. The sound effects are fine though.

Overall, Tarzan for the Game Boy Color is not a very good game, the gameplay is pretty much the same thing over and over, the level design and exploration are fine on their own, but the janky mechanics and inconsistencies don't do it justice, as well as uneven difficulty.