It’s probably difficult to make licensed tie-in games. A lot of the development is while the film is being made, and the developers don’t always get much help from the film studio regarding characters or story. There’s also the nature of translating the story and set pieces into stuff that can be played. Add to this strict release dates and usually low budgets, and there’s only so much that can be done.

This game, based on Disney’s Tarzan, doesn’t even try to tell a story. There’s no text between levels, no cutscenes. So instead, it’s just a story about a young boy that murders every animal in the jungle, who then grows up, still kills every animal he encounters, kidnaps a woman, and then another man tries to put him down at the end.

Tarzan is a “2.5D” platformer from before the brief period where the term was popular. The level bends and moves into the camera at times, which gives it a bit of extra depth, but the levels all just blend into each other. You can throw fruit at enemies or find a knife to stab them (which, oddly, does no more damage than your infinite supply of fruit).

One big issue with Tarzan is jumping near edges. One trick good platformers do is have slight leeway when jumping close to an edge, you can run part way off before jumping. Tarzan lacks that, and is made even worse because the edge isn’t well defined – due to the 3D geometry, the edges aren’t straight, and it’s difficult to tell which part is the actual “edge”.

On top of countless animals to kill, there’s also a ton of collectibles. These only unlock extras, and searching for them is immensely dull, an issue with the entire game. The only semi-enjoyable level was Terk going through the campsite, with some nice music (the game has some good MIDI versions of tracks and songs from the film, including some Phil Collins stuff). Incidentally, there’s no enemies in the level.

There are a few different set-pieces for variety. You can grind along long branches (it’s all automatic, you just spin around the outside of the tube) and there are a few Crash-style “3D” sections: two are annoying “run towards the camera from danger” and the other is a badly made Crash Bandicoot level. It makes you very glad the entire game isn’t in 3D.

Tarzan is a very boring 2D platformer with a slight bit of flair, but no identity or personality. You could throw any license into the game and it would make as much sense.

Poor

It’s utterly lamentable. The only reason you might want to play it all the way through to the end is to admite the sceney, and to marvel at the way the fancy foreground detail obscures the action. In fact, it’s often impossible to tell where the sceney ends and the platforms begin. There are also ‘scenic’ animals which pass you by without incident, and near-identical ‘real’ animals which kill you. You can’t tell them apart unless you’ve played the game to death, and nobody in their right mind would want to do that.

Martin Kitts, N64 Magazine #40. Review Score: 35%

Remake or remaster?

Unless it’s part of a comprehensive Disney platformer collection, not really.

Official ways to get the game.

There’s no official way to get Tarzan on N64.